Cypress Hill life and biography

Cypress Hill were originally named DVX, but changed their name after member Mellow Man Ace left the group in 1988. A year after the name change, they were signed to Columbia Records and started working on an album. Their self-titled debut effort "Cypress Hill" was out in 1991 and gave them a meteoric fame as the album sold million copies in the U.S. alone and was certified a double Platinum.

Their second album "Black Sunday" surpassed the success of its predecessor. It debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 200, becoming the band's first chart topper. The selling number hit more than 3 millions mark, earning them a triple Platinum. While completing their next record, they performed in a number of shows, including Woodstock Festival, Lollapalooza and a college tour with Rage Against the Machine.

A year after Cypress Hill came out with another album titled "Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom" in 1995, one of their members Sen Dog took a timeout to form a side project called SX-10. The other personnel followed his footsteps later on by releasing their own solo albums.

The group made a reunion in 1998 when they released "IV" which features 19 songs. However, this album couldn't achieve the success of their previous albums, becoming their first effort to fail charting on the Top 10 of Hot 200. It only managed to climb to No. 11 on the list. They didn't slow down though. The next year, a greatest hits compilation in Spanish "Los Grandes Exitos en Espanol" arrived for purchase in stores.

The failure to crack the Top 10 of Hot 200 pushed this band to come out with something different in their sixth studio album with a two-disc "Skull & Bones". They came out of their comfort zone, crossing genre to rock. The first disc "Skull" features rap tracks, while the second one "Bones" explores rock songs. This led them return to the Top 10 of the U.S. albums chart, peaking at number three.

Cypress Hill released "Stoned Raiders" and "Till Death Do Us Part" in 2001 and 2004. Both efforts consist of more than 14 songs but failed to climb to the The Top 10 of Hot 200. The first could only peak at No. 16, and the latter made its highest position at number 21.

After six years in hiatus, they make a comeback in 2010 with "Rise Up" which is due for April 20 U.S. release. It features Pitbull, Marc Anthony, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, System of a Down's Daron Malakian , Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and The Alchemist's Evidence.

"We did the bulk of it [the album], but after we got halfway, we said, 'Let's try some different things'," the band's member B-Real said. "We thought we should try collaborating with Tom Morello, which was a natural fit. We reached out and he gave us two great tracks."

"After that, we thought, 'Well, shoot, Tom gave us great stuff, so let's reach out to more people to get something raw like that.' That's when we reached out to Daron from System of a Down," he continued. "We got our stuff out of the way and then went to the other guys to see what kind of vibe they could add to what we already had going on."

Discography

2010 : Rise Up
2006 : Stoned Raiders/Till Death Do Us Part
2005 : Greatest Hits from the Bong
2004 : Till Death Do Us Part
2002 : Stash: This Is the Remix
2001 : Stoned Raiders
2000 : Skull & Bones
2000 : Live at the Fillmore

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