30 Years Of Cypress Hill: Sen Dog Talks DJ Muggs, Young Alchemist, & Making A Classic Debut

Thirty years ago, B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs -- collectively known as Cypress Hill -- delivered their eponymous debut album. Boasting sixteen tracks and timeless classic hits like "How I Could Just Kill A Man," "Pigs," and "Hand On The Pump," Cypress Hill went on to play a role in shaping the west-coast hip-hop sound as we know it.

In honor of the project's milestone anniversary, an expanded version of the project has arrived in celebration, featuring a pair of new remixes from Alchemist and DJ Muggs as well as three additional bonus tracks. In addition, the Expanded Anniversary Edition includes the launch of an interactive site experience highlighting a timeline of their storied career, created in partnership with Modern English Digital. An animated video for "Pigs" is also on the horizon, so look for that to premiere shortly.

Ahead of the Cypress Hill re-release, we caught up with Sen Dog, who has been representing the group since they first linked up in the late eighties. Humbled by the longevity of Cypress Hill, Sen reflected on the group's early days -- "we didn't have a lot of guys that wanted to work with us or give us beats" -- as well as the significance of a thirty-year milestone. He also opens up about his favorite Cypress Hill song, the visionary prowess of DJ Muggs, and his long history with Alchemist -- which includes a fun fact that might surprise you. 

Check out our full interview with Sen Dog below, edited for length and clarity. 

HNHH: Hey, Sen Dog, how you doing?

Sen Dog: I'm doing great, brother. 

I wanted to congratulate you on thirty years of Cypress Hill. That's an incredible milestone, and a lot of artists haven't even come close to achieving that. A classic album that people still cherish to this day. 

Thanks a lot, man, I appreciate it. You never know when you start something where it's gonna end up. It's all for the future to decide. But I never saw thirty years. I don't think I ever saw twenty years. I thought maybe ten years, or even less than that. But this is definitely a gift from the gods and we intend to honor it in a special way. Not many artists or bands stay active and get to this stage of their careers. We recognize the specialness of it, the grandeur of the moment. 

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of 90s rap in general. During that time, how feasible was it in your mind that a rap career was something that you guys could achieve?

Achieving a rap career was not out of our reach. When we went into it, I thought that we would do a five, six, seven-year run or something like that. An album or two, and we'd get to see some of the world and whatnot. And I also thought that girls wouldn't be into us, because we were an underground hip-hop band talking about "How I Could Just Kill A Man" and "Hand On The Pump." [Laughs] But I was wrong about all that stuff. Girls liked it and, and we passed our ten-year mark and our fifteen-year mark, and I was blown away.

Every time you get to those milestones, you're like, oh, wow, you know, we're still at it. So it's definitely a blessing, and it couldn't be done without the love and support of our fans around the world. They've been incredible these whole thirty years. There have been times when we've had no music out and gone on tour and sold-out venues. We don't even have a record out and people are coming for us. So that just goes to show the love that people have for our band.

You guys have a challenge that a lot of artists don't have: you have to outdo yourself on the ten-year anniversary, the twenty-year anniversary now the thirty-year anniversary. How did you decide what you wanted to do for this particular milestone?

We've always been able to put together good shows. When we get down to serious planning, we've always been able to put together an hour and a half of entertainment for people. And it'll be the same this time. No matter what song we play, we've always been able to just jam. We're music fans and we've seen a lot of music shows. We know what kind of energy to draw from to make the whole performance seem like one big act. And that's one of the gifts that you have to learn to go from where you've been to where you want to go. To come back in a bigger way, I guess. We've always had that thing about us when we could just get on stage and throw down.

I know you guys got a remix with The Alchemist behind the boards. How does it feel to have Alchemist remixing "How I Could Just Kill A Man" after all these years?

Anytime that we can work with one of our brothers is always a good thing. We've known Alchemist since he was like fourteen or fifteen years old. He was on tour with us with his band, The Whooliganz. I watched him progress into this little rapper guy, this hell-of-a producer guy. I watched his whole career unfold in front of me, and I'm so proud of him. To be able to get him on something, to do something with him -- not only does he deserve it, but he's one of the best at what he does. I'm really happy that we were able to use some of the brothers on certain things for this 30th anniversary. It's a special time. We have to show who we're down with after all these years, who we brought up, and who came up behind us. Alchemist is one of those guys. 

Definitely. He's on quite the tear right now. He's been behind some of the best current-day hip-hop albums, in my opinion.

That whole little Whooliganz crew turned out to be something special. Not only was Alchemist in it, but so was Scott Caan, the actor. Seth from Crazy Town was in that crew too. So the three of them, somebody put something in their water, because they all went and did their own thing were successful at it.

I didn't know that. That's crazy. As an emcee, what is it about DJ Muggs' production that really speaks to you? Is there any of his Cypress Hill instrumentals that really stand out as your favorite?

Wow, that's a hard question. [Laughs] I've always liked everything that Muggs did, but when he did that "Rock Superstar" track for us, I was like, Ah, you've outdone yourself here. You know, "Insane In The Brain" and all that stuff was banging, but when he did that "Rock Superstar" song...me being a metalhead, I was like, he killed it on this one. He's always had the ability to reach down deep and find the next place for us to go to. I fed off his ability to know where to go next. No matter what it was. At first, I would argue with him about certain things. After a while, things just worked and I thought let me just go with this guy's vision and see what happens. I'm a big fan of "How I Could Just Kill A Man," cause that was our first banger. "Hand On The Pump" also. But when we did that "Rock Superstar" song I was blown away.

I remember first hearing that song on the Training Day movie preview that used to play on TV all the time. It definitely caught my attention.

Big up to Training Day for putting us on like that. I think that helped further escalate that song to another level, because not only was it a banging song, but now we're on that year's best movie. And it's everywhere. So I think that has something to do with the song getting as large as it did.

You mentioned Muggs being a visionary in the studio. Was that always part of the group dynamic? Can you walk me through a bit of the creative process that you guys went through when you were new to the scene? 

When we were young, and kind of new and fresh, we didn't have a lot of guys that wanted to work with us or give us beats or anything like that. I think we were kind of looked at like ehhh, I don't know about those guys. Except for Tony G and a couple of other guys that gave us a track here and there, people didn't really care. Muggs came in and took over that whole area. We decided since we didn't have a whole lot of producers working wanted to work with us anyway, so as long as Muggs is giving us tracks, we'll just stay with him. It turned out to be a collaboration that lasted for many years.

That was the beginning of it. We started getting into it, and trying to create more and more songs, it was obvious that his sound was different than anything else that was out there. It wasn't like the Compton sound, or it wasn't like a New York sound. It had its own vibe to it. So I kind of felt like we were on our own path, as far as what the music sounded like. There was nothing there that sounded like us musically. And that's all due to Muggs. As for the studio process, we could write rap songs separately or on our own, come to the studio, present them to the fellas and see what everybody thinks. Or we could get to the studio and just start getting down right then and there.

I don't have to have a track to write a rhyme. That's how I started. We didn't have tracks, we just wrote rhymes with no beats. Muggs had that vision to formulate it all. He figured things out like, I want him there. Sen, that second voice you do, I want you to punch it right there. He saw the future in the recording of that first album. He put all the elements together where he wanted them. And, you know, the combination is still in use today. So I think he had a stroke of genius there. But we always knew that Muggs had his radar open for anything to do with music and hip-hop sounds. So I always knew that we were going to have peerless sounds. As soon as we come out, we knew that people were going to trip out on his production. And I think that was the catalyst for the future. 

Time flies. I'm curious -- some artists like listening to their own music, others don't really enjoy it. Have you listened to Cypress Hill recently at all? And if so, how do you feel it stacks up in your whole discography? 

I feel that Cypress Hill ranks as the number one Cypress Hill album, even though others have outsold it. It's the one that we planted our flag with, and the world responded. I listened to all of the Cypress Hill stuff. Often, actually -- especially as I get ready for tour. There are certain songs I've got to remind myself of. So I have listened to the album in recent times. It's kind of like hard to get through man, cause I get emotional. I just remember the good old times that we had making that album. How all of us didn't have anything, but we were bro'd up to the thickest. And it's kind of like putting myself through the ultimate torture test: listening to that record and not getting emotional. [Laughs]

When you do something like that, and then you listen to it thirty years later, you remember everything that you were doing back then. But I have listened to it. It's a great record, still. I think if even if it came out today, it would bang. So yeah, man. That's what I feel about that record. And now thirty years down the line, we're still here, we're still doing what we do. We've been able to support our families and raise our children behind hip hop, which is incredible. And I'm blessed to be part of Cypress Hill and, and the legacy that we formed all the way to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, brother.