BY PAUL MEARA • NOVEMBER 1, 2018

It’s been nearly a decade since Cypress Hill released a group studio album, but that changed late last month with their new LP Elephants On Acid. That effort restores the production to DJ Muggs, a welcomed shift both for the group and its legions of fans. In honor of the project, the South Gate, California quartet has been making a press run, and most recently, they stopped by the Hot 97 studios for a conversation with Ebro In The Morning.

During the interview, an interesting topic sparked when B-Real was discussing Cypress’ come-up in the early 1990s. Dr. Greenthumb says that during the filming for the music video for their breakout single “How I Could Just Kill a Man,” things got antsy. The video was filmed in the middle of Manhattan, including some vintage footage of Times Square from nearly 30 years ago. At the time, the then-trio’s RuffHouse Records label-mate Tim Dog had just released his infamous video diss track “F*ck Compton,” which was a dig at a slew of West Coast rappers and groups, especially N.W.A. In the Ced Gee-produced track, the proud Bronx, New Yorker spit, “I’ll crush Ice Cube, I’m cool wit’ Ice-T / But N.W.A. ain’t sh*t to me / Dre, beating on Dee from ‘Pump it Up!’? / Step to the Dog and get f*cked up! / I’m simplistic, imperialistic, idealistic / And I’m kicking the ballistics / Having that gang war / We want to know what you’re fighting for / Fighting over colors? All that gang sh*t’s for dumb motherf*ckers!”

Ice Cube, ironically, was one of the cameo appearances, along with Q-Tip and others, that would end up in Cypress’ breakthrough 1991 visual, directed by Shady Perez. While Cube had recently split from N.W.A., he was still called out by name. Knowing Tim Dog was there, things went left when the video’s director wanted to take a group photo.

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