Hits From the Bong With Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill is still insane in the brain.

For over three decades, the sweet leaf-loving West Coast hip-hop crew has made a career of doing whatever it wants, whenever it wants, whether it be rap, rock, nu-metal, reggae or even classical.

The group’s latest project, a thirty-year anniversary collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra, brought its iconic 1993 album Black Sunday to life in a previously unheard-of way, further proving that Cypress Hill can’t be contained by any musical boundary.

“It was a totally different experience for us, blending two genres and making it something incredible,” longtime drummer Eric “Bobo” Correa shares. “Much respect for the London Symphony Orchestra. They’re legends in their own right. We knew that we were in good hands, but also we had to be on our A game.”

And they were. Released earlier this year, Black Sunday Live at the Royal Albert Hall, along with an accompanying feature-length concert film, added to the already eclectic Cypress Hill discography and presented a unique new challenge, according to Correa.

“It was something did I ever think would happen? Not so much. But the fact that it did shows the cool versatility within us that we’re able to tackle different genres of music and still make it our own,” he says, adding his love for and background in classical, passed down from his musician father Willie Bobo, made the process more relatable.

“I was familiar with that kind of language,” Correa continues. “But to be able to do it on the scale like this with such a renowned orchestra that’s known all over the world was a big accomplishment for us. Just to hear our songs transformed into this bigger piece, it was incredible.”

But that’s what Cypress Hill is all about. From the early days in the 1990s, playing on such bills as Lollapalooza, Woodstock ’94 and Ozzfest, to the mass appeal of 2000 crossover hit “(Rock) Superstar”/“(Rap) Superstar” — featuring collabs with Chino Moreno, Everlast, Eminem and Noreaga — Correa, Louis “B-Real” Freese, Senen “Sen Dog” Reyes and Lawrence “DJ Muggs” Muggerud have built a rep across scenes.

“Music is the universal language,” Correa says.

And he should know, as he was a Beastie Boys touring member during the mid-1990s and formed current industrial-electronic metal side project Sol Invicto in 2008 with Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter.

“I think it’s very easy to just stay in your lane and not dabble into anything outside of that,” he continues. “In some ways, it can stifle your creativity, your creative flow. It’s also a form of challenge for us. Not just anybody can go and do this and transcend these genres and make it our own.”

A Cypress Hill show is an event in and of itself, too, as the members as well as the crowd toke up pretty much from start to finish. The band headlines Dillon Amphitheater on Tuesday, August 26, as part of its Dank Daze of Summer Tour with Atmosphere, Lupe Fiasco and the Pharcyde.

Correa & Co. have always been advocates of the recreational and medical use of marijuana, well before the idea of legalizing it anywhere became a serious consideration. In that sense, they’ve always felt connected with Colorado.

“Of course, we celebrated when Colorado was the first state to become legal. Colorado’s always been down. I’m glad that we have been able to see the legalization and more acceptance of the sweet leaf,” Correa says.

“Back in those early days, we were championing the topic, but it was taboo, it was illegal, it was against the system and everything like that,” he adds. “We had to battle just to get it to where it is now. I’m happy it is, but in that respect, we got a little more to do.”

The inner sleeve of Black Sunday, the group’s breakout sophomore release, included nineteen facts about cannabis, including its benefits. You've got to remember that in 1993, endorsing marijuana was a pretty bold and extreme statement, and stoners were still seen as slackers incapable of contributing to society, a stereotypical counterculture trope. Cypress Hill may have fallen into that category initially, too, but ended up defying such perceptions.

“Now we’re known as a group that really pushed that envelope when no one else was really doing it the way that we were doing it,” Correa recalls. “It’s one way to celebrate it, like partying, but when you ask serious questions about it, you have to sound like you know what you’re talking about. We were stating facts and realities, not just acting like a ‘normal stoner.’”

They never have, and that’s why Cypress Hill is still able to, as Correa concludes, “do it on our terms.”

Cypress Hill, with Atmosphere, Lupe Fiasco and the Pharcyde, 5 p.m. Tuesday, August 26, Dillon Amphitheater, 135 West Lodgepole Street; tickets are $92.