"I'm a big Clash fan," says Muggs. "I thought the song came out well. I originally wanted it to be like 'Guns of L.A.,' but Real took it to another place. It's some other s***, though."
Other guests on the album include
Mobb Deep's Prodigy and
Twin on the classic Hill "bonger" "
Last Laugh" and L.A.-to-N.Y producer
The Alchemist (who twisted the dials on "Bang Out" and "Latin Thugs").
"This is one of the first albums where everything just fell into place," explains B-Real. "Songwise, it just really came together. It felt right."
"It's maturity and growth," agrees Muggs. "We didn't want to tread the same water or make the same record.
Cypress Hill has always been known as trend-setters and I just think it was time for the band to try something different. To create our own world within a world again. We don't jump on any bandwagons. We don't just make hit records. We make classic records that stand the test of time."
Indeed,
Till Death Do Us Part isn't just a collection of songs. It's meant to be experienced from the very beginning to the end, like a movie, a sensory experience that takes you from the mean streets of the band's birthplace around the world and back again.
Songs like the horrorcore "
Never Know" continue to walk the tightrope between street cred and mainstream success with an approach that draws on the band's gangsta history. "I just might die tonight/So let's get high tonight/Might try to fight?You hold tight to life/But you ain't afraid, man."
"That's the way we present everything," says B. "When Muggs gives me a beat, I let it come to me and whatever comes out, comes out. Usually, certain sounds touch off something that reminds me of what I did or saw back in the day.
"The production and how I write go hand-in-hand. We've been at it a long time, so we try to keep it interesting, try to find new sonic and lyrical directions. Because there's so much competition out there now, you have to come up with something better."
"I'm always listening to different kinds of music," says Muggs. "I'm still a student of the game. I read books, watch movies and study life. Then try to interpret what I'm going through and put it in my music. I've been trying to get more visual in my writing."
The sing-song dub reggae track "
Busted in the Hood" is a prime example. Muggs turns the Beastie Boys' old-school nursery rhyme refrain, "
Here's a little story?" into an anti-hard drug tune whose animated B-Real rap recalls the band's very first hit, "
How I Could Just Kill a Man."
"That was a song I used to sing in the neighborhood back in the day," says Muggs. "It's something I came up with and it meshed good."
While Till Death Do Us Part acknowledges mortality, it doesn't flinch from facing the future, either. Though the members of
Cypress Hill don't live the gangsta life anymore, that doesn't mean they don't still understand the mentality.
Hailing from the small suburb of South Gate, a small, rough and tumble community literally a stone's throw from Watts,
B-Real (Louis Freese) and
Sen Dog (Senen Reyes) grew up in the thick of the activities--hip-hop music and gang activity--that obsessed many a Los Angeles teenager. Sure, the house parties with break dancing were frequent, and rap music burst from the seams with shows like "Uncle Jam's Army" and the legendary all rap AM station KDAY on the airwaves. But when the smoke cleared, if you weren't part of a clica (gang), your ass was gonna get smoked. To hang out on the street, you had to have quick hands and a strong reputation. (
Sen Dog had known his share of gangstas growing up, but largely stayed clear. He was an All City Football player with music on his mind.)
