The revolutionaries who brought cannabis culture to hip-hop
Before it became common to say “smoking weed” in rap, there was a group that seriously, repeatedly, and proclaimed it as a culture. Cypress Hill. Since their debut in 1991, they have countered the social notion that “marijuana = evil” with both their sound and their ideas. The “green trail” that this Latin hip-hop group left behind has gone beyond mere musical expression and has spread to social movements, politics, and subcultures.
From the beginning, he had a "marijuana-friendly" attitude
Cypress Hill’s uniqueness was already evident from their debut album. Their first album, Cypress Hill, released in 1991, contained several songs that blatantly and positively praised marijuana, such as “Stoned Is the Way of the Walk,” “Light Another,” and “Something for the Blunted.” At the time, rap was still dominated by anti-drug and social criticism, but they instead took the stance that “smoking is freedom, smoking is philosophy.” In particular, their second album, Black Sunday, released in 1993, became a symbolic work that fully promoted marijuana culture. Although it debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, they were so thorough that they included an information card on the back of the cover explaining the history of marijuana and its medical effects.
The classic songs “I Wanna Get High” and “Hits from the Bong” are still respected as staples of 420 culture.
"Cultural Activism" in Cooperation with Social Movements
Cypress Hill were not just “fun smokers.” They worked with the US marijuana legalization group NORML from early on, and tried to elevate marijuana culture from a “rebellious lifestyle” to a “legitimate cause.” Member B-Real said,
“We’re not just smoking, we’re explaining what it means to smoke,” he says.
In the 1990s in the United States, marijuana was considered a “gateway drug” – a gateway to serious criminality. In this climate, Cypress Hill became a political marijuana advocate in all of their live performances, media, album cover art, and public comments. One famous anecdote is when they smoked marijuana in the studio during a live broadcast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live and were banned from the show (1993). It was not a “flaming incident” but rather a deliberate act of bringing marijuana culture into the public sphere.
A "cultural indulgence" given to subsequent rappers
The reason why Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Redman & Method Man and others can now use marijuana as a theme is because Cypress Hill was the first to step into the “word minefield.” Snoop said in an early interview:
“Without them, we wouldn’t be able to be so vocal about weed.”
Redman likens them to “the Cheech & Chong of hip-hop (the legendary marijuana comedy duo)” and respects them as the people who created “the culture itself”. In fact, there were no marijuana artists before Cypress Hill who integrated music, visuals, politics, and actions like them. Their biggest revolution was that they set a precedent that “you can be successful musically even with marijuana as a theme”.
The person who built the “authenticity” of cannabis culture
There are many artists who talk about marijuana these days. However, while most of them portray smoking as a “hobby,” “pleasure,” or “status,” Cypress Hill has consistently portrayed marijuana as a “cultural necessity.” For them, marijuana was not an escape from stress, a mental tuning, an anti-social act, an anti-authority attitude, or a musical performance, but a way of life itself. Therefore, their “smoke” did not seem frivolous, but rather a puff of conviction.
Ahead of the times when "inhalation" would become a revolution
What Cypress Hill started was not just an expansion of the genre. It was bringing an “olfactory” message to the medium of hip-hop. And it was transforming smoke itself into a political expression. Their appearance of smoking marijuana was not just “cool” but a statement of intent and a cultural message. Their legacy is still being played on 420 days and passed on to the lungs and microphones of the next generation of rappers.
