In August of 1991, the LA rap scene was transformed by a trio of Latino rappers from South Gate. Cypress Hill was riding hot off the success of How I Can Just Kill A Man and found a huge audience in LA. DJ Muggs' production fit in perfect with B-Real and Sen-Dog's flow and together they helped create the blueprint for a more laid-back and smoked-out style of gangsta rap, a full year before Dre's The Chronic dropped
Professor and author Felicia Angeja Viator sits down with us to discuss the LA rap scene, B-Reals unique singsong delivery, and Muggs' talent for finding the perfect loops.
More on Felicia
- Pick up her book "To Live and Defy in LA"
- The Show Must Go On: Felicia Angeja Viator on “To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America” and “The Batterram” (US History Scene)
- Website |Twitter
More on Cypress Hill
- 25 Years Later, Cypress Hill's Debut Album Remains an Ahead-of-its-Time Classic (LA Weekly)
- Oliver's breakdown of How I Can Just Kill A Man
Show Tracklisting (all songs from Cypress Hill unless otherwise indicated):
- Break It Up
- Latin Lingo
- The Phuncky Feel One
- Pigs
- Hand On The Pump
- Real Estate
- The Phuncky Feel One
- How I Can Just Kill A Man
- The Funky Cypress Hill Shit
- The Village Callers: Hector
- The Funky Cypress Hill Shit
- Hand on the Pump
- Gene Chandler: Duke of Earl
- Born to Get Busy
- Hand on the Pump
- Above the Law: Livin' Like Hustlers
- The Psycho Realm: The Big Payback
- Ice Cube: We Had To Tear This Mothafucka Up
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find there
If you’re not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!