Cypress Hill - Temples Of Boom (October 27, 1995)

I'm not a fast review writer. You've probably gathered that by now, though.

Heading right back further into the Soul Assassins rabbit hole, I finally reached the period where cofounder/head producer Lorenzo Cavassi aka Larry Muggerud aka Grandmaster Muggs aka the ever-so-consistent DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill started kicking his production skills into high gear.

I gotta come clean on one thing: As revolutionary and dope as the first two Cypress Hill albums are, and as much as I preferred not to listen to the rest of their catalog due to said albums respective status, that outlook on Cypress Hill's overall quality immediately changed once I remembered how I got exposed to them.

The whole retrospective journey started when, you guessed it, I went for my first secondment in the cesspool known as Jeddah. (RIP to my uncle, the patriarch of my family, to whom Jeddah was home for over 6 decades. Love you and yours, Unc, but Jeddah's a shithole.) Living in a claustrophobic shitbox and having zero contact with anyone apart from work, that was by far the loneliest time I've ever spent. Suffering from nasty mental health issues, things went downhill fast and I entered into an ugly depression that lost me my appetite after a few days which eventually landed me in the hospital from malnutrition. That pales in comparison to the nightmares. What my head was putting me through almost put my life in danger. And that's where God sent his third gift to me.

In the midst of playing Batman Arkham Asylum, (one of the greatest video game experiences of all time, straight up) I would take breaks by browsing the internet every now & then. I would revisit my steadily-growing hip hop iPod list and see if it needed expanding. One day, I decided, after watching a gameplay video of Twisted Metal 4, to research the era where Cypress Hill lead MC Luis Freese aka the Phuncky Feel One aka Dr. Greenthumb aka the mighty B-Real delivered his guest feature for the Monstars Anthem, the very first hip hop song I was ever properly exposed to. I've already gone to lengths in previous reviews on how he & the mighty Method Man are the two MCs most responsible for my love for this artform, so it when I revisited the material B made from that era. I didn't take my usual approach of testing the waters with the singles, though, as I was too desperate for an immersion. I flung myself straight into this album. Was I ever in for a ride.

Temples Of Boom began formulating around a time when DJ Muggs started getting fed up with the blunted funk sound he pioneered as he felt that he exhausted every direction that sound was capable of, evolving in a way mirroring that of his many peers with his work on Brothas Doobie by Funkdoobiest. The new direction was exciting and put many of his peers on notice: The fusion of East Coast & West Coast tendencies just took a trippy new twist.

Unfortunately, this exciting development also came at a time when group leader and hypeman Senen Reyes aka the Perro aka Sen Dog was experiencing some serious burnout. This clearly concerned his fellow group members for his sake to the point of frustration, especially B-Real, whose gripes with the situation was clearly reflected with a sinister new twist that B adapted into his usual nasal cadence that somehow lost all the mirth present in their previous records. Another dominant sentiment back then was the fact that the Cypress Hill name started to get associated with the mainstream a little too much for the group's liking. I mean, they were getting called on by venues such as Woodstock, Lollapalooza & SNL (from which they were banned for life. Good. Fuck Lorne Michaels.), so people would almost be justified to assume that the Hill were selling out.

Almost. Sen & co pushed back hard with the direction they took here, with his inner turmoil influencing every dark turn B went with his typically-nihilistic subject matter. Hell, even the weed songs were influenced thereby. Muggs making it a mission to ensure that his name doesn't get lost in the shuffle of timeless producers booming at the time was simply the icing this album needed to come into fruition.

Speaking of weed songs, Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up, made in the Temples sessions but ultimately released on the Friday OST, has since combined with the lead single for our album for this post, Throw Your Set In The Air, to become the catalyst to a shortlived-but-nasty feud between Cypress Hill & close friend, the legendary Ice Cube. Elaboration will come in the review.

Astonishingly, Temples Of Boom remains the fastest Cypress Hill album to reach the milestone of one million units sold in the States. Here, I ask the routine question that I do with each review: Was it any good, though? (Wink wink)

Temples Of Boom, boy/girl (pick one):

SPARK ANOTHER OWL

Sen gives a short intro and outro that sets the mood. Mirroring Black Sunday, a dedication to weed opens the album. However, this DJ Muggs beast renders the darkness on both preceding Cypress albums combined a trip to Disneyland with its macabre mesh of jazz & funk bytes. B steps in the booth and lets off a quick shot one-verse weed tribute in which he points out that the Hill set the trend for hip hop music embracing weed culture. Since I've already mentioned here that I have no qualms with these tributes even though I refuse to touch the stuff, I definitely vibed with this song. You will enjoy it, too. Especially if you're stoned out of your mind, apparently.

THROW YOUR SET IN THE AIR

First off, let me actually review this joint before I get to the juicy gossip y'all keep getting so fascinated with: Cypress Hill are apparently big on odes. Whether it be to cannabis as with the previous track, or to gang life. Or rather, B spins a tale about the harrowing life of gangbanging painting himself as a set leader and you as his soldier, all to the sinister tones of Muggs' evil mesh of funk & soul. Now on to the "good stuff"... B was invited to a session where Cube was in the midst of the Friday OST process. He suggested that the Hill contribute a song to the soundtrack, so B pulled a demo tape with Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up & this song on it. It was fated that B would make the mistake of playing Throw Your Set first, because Cube fell blindly in love with the track. So much so that he wanted it for his soundtrack. B explained that this was the lead single to rollout the upcoming album and suggested the ode to weed instead. Cube seemingly accepted that until the OST came out with its title track having a hook that was too similar to the one on this song for B's liking. That's where the problem sparked into a fire that almost went out of control and overshadowed the single's actual quality, which was pretty damn good since the Hill were pretty adjacent to that life and knew exactly what it entails. Shame.

STONED RAIDERS

Can we get back to the actual music on the album? Yes? Good. Because this track here houses a contender for the most haunting instrumental on the entire album, courtesy of Muggs beautifully freaking a mesh of jazz excerpts to sound like an audio horror sequence, complete with demonic female choirs and all. For his part, B places himself in the shoes of some locally known criminal whose out on the hunt for a rival. In his own way, B has always had a talent for giving voice to thoughts that go through one's head, as these rhymes legitimately sound as if someone out there's thinking them right now. Props to Sen Dog's terrifying adlibs in the background.

ILLUSIONS

The journey into darkness continues as we arrive at what many consider to be the highlight of the album. And you know what? I somewhat agree except I don't think it's the only highlight. Whoops. Spoiled the verdict, huh? Watch me not give a rodent’s anus. I'm guessing Muggs & B wanted to deliver their own ode to Scarface's Mind Playing Tricks On Me. #GiveScarfaceHisFlowersNow. And guess what? Muggs & B knock it out of the fucking county, scratch a park. B displays a unique & extremely competent knack for relaying paranoia through his writing as he transforms into a deranged gang member who's taken to a mental institution then let out. The rest becomes the canvas for B to paint, and boy does he over Muggs' demented beat which remains one of the nastiest flips of Gary Burton I can recall, straight up and down. The Carnatic prelude only adds to the trip you go through listening thereto. This will remain in your playlist for decades.

KILLA HILL N****S (FEATURING RZA & GOLDEN ARMS)

In a surprising ceding of control, Muggs pulls a fast one and calls on the help of one of the most prominent peers he's trying to gain advantage on in the form of the motherfucking RZA of the fabled Wu-Tang Clan. To show his appreciation, RZA not only jumps on the track but produces the song and brings another Wu General along, as Golden Arms gets his first significant feature. B, RZA & Uey take turns demolishing a grimy, wormy RZA instrumental that would've fit snugly on Tical by Method Man. Hold up, why the motherfuck isn't Method Man on this? In any case, RZA gets outclassed by Uey's negative capability and a single utterance by B: "Number one mission: Opposition gets thrown, sent home in deposition" which just sounds cool. Of course, Sen's ever-so-present as he screams in the background in Spanish how he'll bring the end of corruption in modern society or some other adjacent bullshit. Whatever, all I care about is that he sounds pumped as fuck doing so and that adds to the track's overall excitement. The album's hot streak continues, but I'm still pissed that Mef ain't here.

BOOM BIDDY BYE BYE

Sen Dog finally comes out to play! And it's only the sixth track on the album! His inner demons pretty apparent judging by how long it took him to do so. Anyway, truth be told: B-Real's venom is just spewing out as he shells out 3 verses, with Sen performing the 2nd, that might seem simple on paper, but once you hear them against the straight-up whimsical xylophone loop Muggs chefs up, you start to grasp the horrifying contrast. This must be Muggs' answer to RZA's challenging beat earlier. No joke, this song is what would play in my head if I ever regrettably beat down someone I had major beef with. I'd imagine them actually giving up tryna fight back, fully grasping of the fuckshit they pulled and accepting what was coming to them without resistance as I delivered. None of that shit I just wrote is remotely close to actually happening, of course. However, these are the emotions that this track will pull out of you. the third home-run in a row, one that might very well be my favorite. The Fugees remix featuring Wyclef Jean & vocals from a pre-mainstream Lauryn Hill gives a good attempt of Clef attempting to get his thug on, but his duet with B, while fairly competent, fails to reproduce the magic that B & Sen cultivated with Muggs on the original.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED

So, that issue B & them had with Cube? Resulted in this. Muggs, whose consistency really needs to be talked about by this point, provides a sinister jazz piano loop as the backdrop for B to dig into Cube proper. And dig into him, he did. B airs out a whole bunch of secrets and factoids as fuel and they find their mark properly. I'm not a fan of diss tracks as a whole, but I feel B's abilities as a battler on wax are heavily slept on, and this track proves it. Hell, I even got this as superior to Cube's eventual response, because Cube & co were simply name-calling while B was hitting Cube with painful accusations of theft, dishonesty & everything in between. The feud eventually died down in 97 because it reached a very dangerous level, with Cube actually getting assaulted by Kam's homie Franklin Solo. Moving on.

MAKE A MOVE

I believe this is the first hip hop song to sample that scene from Pulp Fiction. Could be wrong, though. Anyway, Muggs sets shit off with a mean as fuck funk bass loop that's the most reminiscent of his earlier sound and minimalist enough to get the hell outta the way as B lets loose a flurry of verses tackling all wannabe rivals with his by-now patented descriptions of violent thoughts. Hearing Sen adlibbing most of B's rhymes with him also feels like Sen trying to remind himself of how much fun he was having in the Hill’s earlier albums. Maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed to be? Anyway, this album has yet to come with a skippable track.

KILLAFORNIA

B and Muggs combine to give you another claustrophobic description of what a gangbanger has to deal with on a daily basis, with B constantly asking himself "Who can you trust?" over another sinister piano loop from Muggs. Sen fleshes out the proceedings by contrasting B's paranoid thoughts with the surface-level pluses of gang life as he chats with one of their associates about what they're going through in the bridges mid-verses. This is another album cut that houses more hidden goodies if one looks closer.

FUNK FREAKERS

Another Carnatic interlude, followed by Muggs really showing off by introducing a demonic flip of a sax excerpt that can only be described as such. Believe me, the Hill were not in a healthy place while making this album as they took their aggression out in their music. B makes that abundantly clear as he promises death and destruction to all challengers. However, Sen swoops in and, with as little effort as he can muster, steals the show with his delivery of B’s bars. I promise you, you will feel the line: "Fucking up egos and anybody who oppose" because you hear his conviction in his voice. No need to raise hell or shout as B was doing, not that there was anything wrong with B's vocals as he returns for a last go at the track as it fades away. However, as far as Sen was concerned, a simple utterance was enough. Add this gem to the album's highlights.

LOCOTES

Did Sen’s inner conflict really affect the Hill’s dynamics that much? Because you would never be able to tell judging by how he & B do on this song, as B tells the story of a gangbanger fresh out of jail who resorts to robbing people on the street out of desperation. He kills a police officer and gets on a bus where he spots an old drunk who refused him a job in the past, thereby turning him to a life of crime. What dude wasn't counting on was the fact that the old geezer was packing and sober enough to see him coming. The old drunkard actually turns the tables on him in a shock twist that doesn't end well for our protagonist! Muggs gives another contender for the most terrifying beat on the album with a blood-pumping & menacing thumper for B as his bars provide him & Sen the path to weave their tale with disturbing detail. The icing on the cake is B writing Spanglish for Sen that resulted in iconic deliveries in the past. People forget that he, not his younger brother Mellow Man Ace, was the first to utilize said concept. Another song you'll have in your playlist for decades.

RED LIGHT VISIONS

The third Carnatic interlude of the evening. Muggs was really bent on tempting his listeners to smoke something while listening to this shit. Well, I refuse! Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, another minimalist piano loop paired with a swift pair of battle verses from B that contain a quick middle finger to racist cops with Sen adlibbing with his psychobeta Chuck D-esque voice. Nice!

STRICTLY HIP HOP

Hold up, when did this problem with House Of Pain arise? Oh and Muggs seems awfully comfortable throwing the N-word around. I know he's Italian but... Anyway, since the House Of Pain problem gets resolved in the very near future, the bigger problem seems to be with an editor by the name of James Bernard because Muggs goes fully in on him in between B's scathing takedowns of industry sellouts, in which he sneaks a line about Cube. The one problem I have with this track is that Muggs talks too damn much to the point that he distracted me from the experience. And when you compare that nag with his relentless beat, which actually meshes well with B's rhymes, it becomes nigh intolerable. I'm here to listen to B rhyming over your shit, Muggsy, not to hear you whine and moan about who you got problems with. B's criticisms are pretty valid, though, so I wouldn't call the track worthless. Oh, and James Bernard did say some truly foul shit about Sen’s Cuban origins, so he had it coming. Shoutouts to the PMD sample, as well.

LET IT RAIN

This is just a higher-energy version of the previous track, with B switching his aim to OG Latino rapper Kid Frost whom the Hill also eventually squash it with. They had been going at each other by this point ever since the previous Cypress album. Oh, and yay, no Muggs chitchat. I will say that Muggs' bass-heavy loop this time round is another dope reminder of his blunted funk innovations. Moving on.

EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED

The original closer of the album, it makes sense that Cypress Hill bookend an album of theirs with tributes to weed. And as far as those go, this one's pretty par the course with the exception of a slight last dig towards Ice Cube. Muggs always knew how to provide the right backing for these joints and this is no exception

SMUGGLER'S BLUES

A bonus track from the Japanese version, Muggs sets up a sinister, slow and plodding backdrop for B to give two verses spinning a tale of a weed smuggler who ends up getting caught. At some point, people are going to have to start talking about B's attention to detail, because his stories have been on fire so far and this belongs right up there with them.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I remember my misgivings regarding what Temples of Boom was going to end up sounding like because I was such a huge fan of its two predecessors. Oh, how wrong I was. Nothing that Cypress Hill has ever done in the past compares to the upgrades they've displayed here, as Muggs has uphauled the ever-living shit out of his production, while B has stepped his lyrical game something undeniable and Sen has mastered the menace in his delivery of B’s bars here. It always surprises me how much the Hill mastered the art of combining elevation and consistency. And never let it be said that they're one-trick ponies because they display a breadth of different subject matters here from a gangbanger's perspective ranging from dealing with new recruits, set-ups, paranoia, old grudges. All these topics rely on Muggs' grasp on sound and B's abilities as a writer and both rise to the occasion ever so majestically, churning out classics such as Stoned Raiders, Illusions, Killafornia, Locotes, etc. And the number of times Sen vocally inserts himself into the fray is noticeably less than any other Cypress Hill project so far, so I really understand the fact that his inner crisis may have caused real turbulence within the group, back then. Still, if he ain't rhyming B’s rhymes, he's either adlibbing them on damn near every song or providing further context to a song via a few utterances here and there, so his presence was always felt one way or another. Putting it bluntly: This will be an album you revisit for a long, long time.

WORTH IT? As if I'll suddenly tell you 'No, go buy Funeral by Lil Wayne.' If Temples of Boom ain't the type of album you'd like to listen to, what the motherfuck are you doing here?

TRACKS TO TRACK DOWN:

THE LAST ASSASSIN

From the OST of one of my favorite movies, The Cable Guy. Leave it to Muggs to remind you that, damn it, he still knows the hell outta his way around some funky drums as he meshes them with some jazzy excerpts to form a macabre instrumental fit for a trademark B-Real tale of coming up as a hood assassin in a local gang. Y'all definitely should search for this if you dug his stories in the proper album.

ROLL IT UP, LIGHT IT UP, SMOKE IT UP

Ah yes, the track Cube ultimately took instead of the one he actually wanted. I don't know why Cube didn't want this ode to weed because it sure beats the one they ended the US album with. Muggs gives a shivering mix of jazzy bytes over some hard blunted funk drums as B gives another ode to the herb, with Sen using B’s bars while bobbing and weaving in between the second verse alongside his partner. Dope!

WHATTA YOU KNOW

Again Muggs flexes his mastery over sound as he manipulates a soulful loop into a soulless result and lets it loose for B & Sen to tell a tale of a gangbanger robbed by his own homeboy, with B playing the role of the robbed and Sen playing the opposite character. If there were any differences between B & Sen, then this track must've been written by B as therapy for them both as their respective characters eventually clashed. This will surely worm its way into your collection.

THROW YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR (FEATURING ERICK SERMON, REDMAN & MC EIHT)

And there's Barron Ricks! Finally I get to talk about this motherfucker, as he remains one of my favorite MCs to spit over a DJ Muggs beat. He's only introducing the proceedings here, though. Speaking of DJ Muggs, he further flexes on his peers by reworking not one, but two of his beats (Spark Another Owl & Throw Your Set In The Air) into an all-new third masterpiece. Bruh! Story time: This was actually my very first introduction to Erick Sermon as an MC after being introduced to him for the first time outright on Def Jam Fight For NY. You just have to give it up to the MCs of that generation who just knew how to convey conviction in their cadence, and Erick is no slouch in that department. B then steps into the cipher and does his group proud, before DJ Kut Killa aka The Funkadelic Devil aka Funk Doctor Spock aka Reggie motherfucking Noble aka the mighty Redman swoops in and pulls the rug from under everybody. This is what I wanted to hear Method Man doing on that earlier Killa Hill N****s song on the album. CMW's MC Eiht closes out the proceedings with the first of many tracks that, in my humble opinion, prove without a shadow of a doubt that the man simply finds his footing better on production that leans more towards East Coast tendencies. You can argue the opposite till you're all blue in the face and you'll still be wrong. Bottom line, one of the most underrated posse cuts ever. And we're done.

For another dose of that Soul Assassins funk, here. And for further posts about the group that won against Ice Cube, here.