Unreleased & Revamped [EP]

Performer: Cypress Hill
Artist: Fugees; Erick Sermon; Redman; MC Eiht; Call O Da Wild
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Cypress Hill: B. Real, Sen-Dog, Muggs. Additional personnel: Erick Sermon, Redman, MC Eiht, Call O Da Wild (vocals); Wyclef (guitar); Farel (keyboards); Jerry (bass); Andy "Funky Drummer" Kravitz (percussion); Lauryn Hill (background vocals). Producers include: Muggs, Wyclef, Diamond D. Engineers include: Jason Roberts. On this 9-track EP, Cypress Hill pack a party bowl and invite some friends over to sample the herb and tinker with tunes from all of their albums. Lauryn Hill of Fugees, Erick Sermon and Redman are among those who assist on the mic, lending a fresh sound to familiar tracks. The beats are sativa-heavy with haunted orchestrations: sweet strings, fuzzed jazz (trumpets, saxes) and droning keyboards. A stoner paranoia permeates the previously-unreleased "Whatta You Know" and the Tribe Called Quest remix of "Illusions." "Hits From The Bong" percolates through a slow, deliberate haze. "Latin Lingo" features a chorus of wailing, Sonic Youthful guitars. The rough-hewn vocals of B-Real and company, though, still loom as large and boomy as ever.

Entertainment Weekly (8/23-8/30/96, p.123) - "...The airy, stripped-down arrangements, which hint at the beautifully spacey grooves of trip-hop, soften the claustrophobic belligerence of the original recordings..." - Rating: B+ Alternative Press (2/97, pp.58-59) - 4 (out of 5) - "...every [Cypress Hill] release has its share of phat, juicy nuggets. UNRELEASED AND REVAMPED is no different..." NME (Magazine) (8/24/96, p.52) - 7 (out of 10) - "...Dripping with Lauryn Hill's honey-buttered vocals, the Fugees' mix could've been the stand out track...but it's not...that accolade goes to DJ Muggs with `Hand On The Pump'; he's back on the decks and it's quintessential Cypress Hill....cartoon crazy..."

Cross hardcore rap, alternative rock, and a defiantly pro-marijuana agenda, and you get groundbreaking hip-hoppers Cypress Hill. The band's genre-bending approach, as well as its English-Spanish bilingualism and rapper B-Real's distinctive nasal style, has earned them a wide and varied following. They debuted in 1991, but hit the big time two years later with the crossover hit "Insane in the Brain." Along the way, they've managed to work with the likes of Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth without ever losing their hip-hop credibility.

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