Lowrider Insane In The Brain Rock Superstar Cypress Hill

Lowrider Album: Stoned Raiders (2001)
Insane In The Brain Album: Black Sunday (1993)
Rock Superstar Album: Skull & Bones (2000)
by Cypress Hill

1988-
B-Real Lead rapping
DJ Muggs Turntables
Sen Dog Rapping
Eric Bobo Drums 1994-

Cypress Hill started in Cypress Park, California in 1988. The group signed a deal with Columbia Records in 1989 after the label heard their first demo. Black Sunday, Cypress Hill's second album, came out in 1993 and went straight to #1 on Billboard's Top 200 chart. It spent 2 weeks at the top spot, displacing Zooropa by U2 and getting knocked off by the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack.

Cypress Hill was banned from playing Saturday Night Live in 1993 after they smoked marijuana onstage and trashed their instruments after performing the song "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That."

In 1995, Cypress Hill appeared on The Simpsons, performing at a fictional festival called Homerpalooza. The episode poked fun at Lollapalooza and Woodstock 1994, two festivals that the Hip-Hop group had recently headlined.

Cypress Hill attempted to gain a larger audience in 2000 by releasing a guitar-driven single called "Rock Superstar." The group also joined punk bands MxPx and The Offspring on tour the same year.

"Lowrider" is the second single from the album Stoned Raiders. The song is featured in the British TV series Soccer AM. The song was the second part of the double A-Side single it shared with "Trouble" in Europe. "Lowrider" was not released until February elsewhere.

On the album, there is a hidden track. The hidden track is rather ominous as it features a slow drum beat and a low pitched organ that only plays five notes. This lasts for around two minutes.

"Insane in the Brain" is a song released in June 1993 by Ruffhouse and Columbia as the first single from the group's second album, Black Sunday (1993). The song was written by group members Louis Freese, Lawrence Muggerud and Senen Reyes, and produced by Muggerud (DJ Muggs). In addition to hitting number one on the US rap chart, it also was a mainstream hit, reaching number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993. "Insane in the Brain" earned a 3× platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America and sold 3,000,000 copies domestically. The accompanying music video was directed by Josh Taft, featuring the group performing at a rave.

According to B-Real, the song was actually a diss song aimed at Chubb Rock. The group felt Chubb had ridiculed their style on his 1992 album, I Gotta Get Mine Yo. DJ Muggs credited "Jump Around" by House of Pain, also produced by himself, as a major influence.

According to a live interview aired on Double J during a feature of the Black Sunday album, "insane in the membrane" was a localised gang term used at the time by the Crips when doing something crazy. It was then appropriated into this song. A 2019 interview with The Guardian elaborated further that both Bloods and Crips used a similar phrase as an informal insanity plea upon arrest. The Double-J interview also notes that B-Real was a member of the Bloods.

The song is built around many samples:

A drum break from organist George Semper's cover version of Lee Dorsey's "Get Out of My Life, Woman"
A sample of James Brown grunting from the opening of his song "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud"
A vocal sample of the line "insane in the brain" from Cypress Hill's own song "Hole in the Head"
A vocal sample of the line "just another local" from their own song "How I Could Just Kill a Man" during the second and the third chorus
A vocal sample at the end of the second chorus from the beginning of the 'Prince Paul Mix' of their own song "Latin Lingo"
A sample of the opening keyboard riff from Sly and the Family Stone's "Life"
A vocal sample of the line "gunshot me head back" from Buju Banton's "Boom By By" before the start of the third verse
A sample of the line "I think I'm going crazy" from the Youngbloods' "All Over the World (La La)" which concludes the track

The origin of the most prominent sample, repeated throughout the song, has been a matter of dispute. DJ Muggs initially claimed the sample was a pitched blues guitar,[8] although shortly after, he claimed that the sound is a horn. Many sources claim that it is actually a sample of a horse from Mel and Tim's "Good Guys Only Win in the Movies", but during an interview with Sound on Sound in December 2018 on the production techniques used, DJ Muggs refuted the sample:

That's weird, everybody thinks that's a horse, but it isn't. I've seen that a bunch of times on these sample sites. That's a sound I made from a blues guitar pitched. At the time I used to run some sounds through guitar amps. When I heard that horse thing, I was like, 'Oh, that sounds just like it.' Honestly to God, those sample sites get a lot wrong. They have some shit right, but I'll go, 'I never used that.' I don't know where they gather their information. Sometimes, they're spot on, but sometimes, I'm like, 'Yo, you guys are off.'

However, less than two months later in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, Muggs then claimed the sound effect was made by a horn and not a guitar. In another interview with The Wire magazine, when asked: "You're well known for using unusual sample sources not just in terms of the music you sample from – from funk, soul and jazz to krautrock and metal – but also different kinds of sounds, like sirens, elephants, horses", Muggs' response was "Yes, you know I have a visual thought first of all and that excites me and on the conscious side of it, I'm always looking for things that are awkward".

This has since caused disbelief that Muggs is telling the truth and that the sample may well be the horse from Mel and Tim's "Good Guys Only Win in the Movies", as Muggs has claimed himself that he has "a foggy memory when it comes to the samples used on 'Insane in the Brain'" due to the fact that at the time of the song's production, "there was a lot of weed smoked" and that he confirmed he was "not musically trained, never went to music school and I don't play instruments".

Cypress Hill performed Insane In The Brain live on Saturday Night Live on October 2, 1993.

"(Rock) Superstar" is the second single from Cypress Hill's fifth studio album, Skull & Bones. It was originally released as a double A-side with its standard rap counterpart on February 29, 2000 in the UK. An individual release was available starting sometime in April.

Sony executive Donnie Ienner suggested adding guitars, which took the song "to a new level." Cypress Hill put Rock Superstar into both the hip-hop and alternative markets, because they had fans in both places.

Rock Superstar is featured in the 2001 film Training Day. It was also in the film Little Nicky.

Rock Superstar is featured in the 2000 video game MTV Sports: Skateboarding featuring Andy Macdonald, released on PC and various consoles.

The instrumental is used as an intro at the beginning of each hour on the nationally syndicated radio and television sports talk show The Dan Patrick Show, and is also used in a small game called Alien Battlecraft Arena.

Rock Superstar is featured twice in the American Dad! episode "The Boring Identity". The first is when Steve becomes a paperboy and is introduced to their best worker, Roger. The second time is during a montage of the two "hustling" to earn extra money.

Rock Superstar is featured in the intro to the first Twisted Metal episode WLUDRV. It is diegetic, as the protagonist is seen starting the song and singing along, an in-universe soundtrack to a car chase that he seems to be enjoying.