Ascending Great Heights

Listen to ‘Black Sunday’, Cypress Hill’s quintessential 1993 album and you will hear simple yet effective DJ Muggs loops built into stoner-friendly instrumentals coupled with narcotically-tinged verses from Sen Dog and B-Real.

Cypress Hill’s latest album ‘Rise Up’ is undoubtedly a far cry from its earlier counterpart. Cypress enlist the help of a sizable bunch of eclectic guests to concoct a more energised, frenetic offering this time round. For a group that bases a large portion of its lyrical inspiration on smoking endo, it’s easy to see why consistent innovation is a complete necessity.

‘Rise Up’ was released through Snoop Dogg’s Priority Records imprint. As Sen Dog explains, it’s given the boys a refreshed take on the whole process of recording and releasing an album.

“Well, it’s a new beginning now with ‘Rise Up’ and the whole Priority thing, we’re with a new label, a whole new management team, a whole new way of making an album that we used this time,” says Sen Dog. “Everything was fresh and exciting and everybody was eager to get it out. I’m very pleased with everything the label has down for the group and what that’s done for the album.”

The new album features a myriad of high profile guests including: Pitbull, Pete Rock, Marc Anthony, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, Daron Malakian of System Of A Down as well as Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Sen  gives an insight into what it’s like working with the legendary musician.

“Working with Tom is cool. We’ve been friends with him for a very long time, almost 18 years now. So the rapport had already been established throughout those years. Every day hanging with Tom is a good day and every day is a fun day, joking around, making music. His aura when he steps into the studio is such a positive thing. He makes you want to be even more creative than you already are.”

A couple of other notable guests on ‘Rise Up’ are Cheech and Chong who contribute with a couple of skits. Sen Dog describes the origins of the relationship.

“We met Chong first back in the 90s. He would MC some of our shows at our Smoke Out Festival. Eventually when him and Cheech started doing stuff together again, we all started working on some stuff. It all goes back to 1995 when we met Chong.”

Obviously more than a few smoked out recording sessions would have taken place with such individuals in the mix. However, as Sen Dog explains, composing lyrics and smoking weed is far from a co-dependent relationship.

“It doesn’t really matter. I can write lyrics completely sober or I can write them when I’m wasted. I think that when I go to record lyrics I usually get better results when I’m stoned than when I’m not. It’s always been something that inspires creativity in me and gets me to that next level.”

Sen Dog is consistently pursuing that ‘next level’ of creativity. He has long been known to write lyrics in Spanish as well. He articulates his thoughts on the matter.

“I prefer to write in English just because of the fact more people understand it. But when it comes time to flip things up and get bilingual, Spanish or even Spanglish, I can do that. In the future I’m going to start busting in Italian. I’m taking Italian classes right now so eventually I’m going to flip something in Italian.”

Australian fans will get the chance to witness this lyrical ingenuity in September when Cypress come over for a national tour. Sen Dog goes on to describes exactly what it is he’s looking forward to about the ‘Rise Up’ tour.

“Australia’s a beautiful country. There’s so much ocean scenery over there and we’ve always been received well over the years so that’s why we keep going back. We’ve never really had any problems with the law or unruly fans. That’s number one in terms of importance, that people like us where we visit. It’s always a good time to go play in Australia, it’s just a big old vacation that’s what’s so good about it.”

Cypress Hill perform at The Tivoli October 1. ‘Rise Up’ is out now.