The Soul Assassin recalls how he turned the world into a tribe of pothead pixies
Taken from the August issue of Dazed & Confused:
Selling over three million copies and probably even more bongs, Cypress Hill’s second album, Black Sunday, turned the LA stoner-rap trio into heroes of the counterculture, uniting metallers, grungers, junglists and hip hop heads with its smoked-out tales of the “skunky, funky, smelly green shit”. DJ Muggs, the red-eyed beatmaker behind it all, is now turning his attention to bottom-heavy electronica, after an unforgettable year co-creating Which Doobie U B? for Latino perv posse Funkdoobiest and the massive “Check Yo Self” single for Ice Cube.
It’s not going to make you lose your family, but you might fall asleep and eat some chips on the couch
“I don’t remember how much weed we smoked during the making of Black Sunday, but we got to the point where we used to buy pounds of it. Once we started making money we wouldn’t buy bags no more, we’d buy a pound and split it. We were the first rappers out there being pro-marijuana, because crack cocaine was a big thing in the street at that time. It was really bad – everybody was smoking crack and shit, so we decided to come out and say, ‘Smoke marijuana, it’s good for you! It’s not going to make you lose your family, but you might fall asleep and eat some chips on the couch.’ It was our way of saying, ‘Don’t smoke cocaine. Smoke weed, it’s way more creative.’
We started noticing more trends in America. People who thought they couldn’t be outspoken about weed started being more outspoken, then all the rappers started talking about it, and now it’s legal in California for medicinal reasons. We had a lot to do with that. We used to take these organisations with us on tour, like the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and help them do fundraisers and raise money to go to Congress and make marijuana legal. The best thing I got out of it all was friendships. They are the things that are going to last and still be relevant. The gold records are old now – they look dated, they’ve got dust on them and I’ve already spent the fucking money. The memories may have faded but the friendships are still here.”