Cypress Hill is fronted by one of the most distinctive nasals in rap: B-Real--whose delivery is key to their success. He sounds a lot like Mike Tyson.

Their version of 'Gangsta Rap' is unique because it comes from a Latino angle. The whole thing might be called VATOPLOXTATION as opposed to the BLACKPLOXTATION of most rap.

They claim to be EXTREMELY HARDCORE, which means they use A LOT OF THREATS; and profane talk about gang killings and cop killings and sex and dope is prevalent, though not necessarily in that order. However, on their own vulgar level they are COMPLETE MASTERS; and they certainly don't let things get too disgustingly idiotic. They have a much better feel for the musical and lyrical balance of all things 'GANGSTA' than someone like 'the Notorious Big,' 'DMX,' 'Eminem,' or any of a hundred run-of-the-mill pandering rap acts.

All in all, a deeply felt and powerfully delivered (as far as rap recrods go) collection of raps which works sort of like a street level "Cheech and Chong" meeting "Shaft,""Goodfellas" and Edward James Olmos' "American Me."

This is the first and, in my opinion, best album from Cypress Hill. Mad props go to Muggs for his unbelievably delicious production...the sampling and the straight up beats are uncomparable.

They really get going with HAND ON THE PUMP and STONED IS THE WAY OF THE WALK. Then they take off on LATIN LINGO and TRES EQUIS. These Spanglish and Spanish raps are just so unique...I listen to these songs over and over.

This is a classic album and a must have for any rap fan. Go out and get your hit now!

I can't believe anyone in their right mind would give this album anything less than 5 stars.

1) If you are a HIP HOP fan(not rock fan who ALSO likes "rap")
2) If you were actually alive when this came out(or at least old enough to ride a bike)
3) If you are an American(props to Euros keeping Hip Hop alive, but you guys have different taste)
4) And finally if you have actually listened to this album start to finish, 2 or 3 times...

...THEN YOU KNOW THAT THIS IS CYPRESS HILL'S BEST ALBUM EVER. STRATIGHT UP PRE-LOLAPALOOZA/MTV/CROSSOVER HIP HOP DOPENESS. Peace to you heads who were around when this joint dropped.

Cypress Hill was a major breath of fresh air when they came out. They were rapping from a latinos perspective, they dropped beats that were more than dope, and wrote lyrics about everything including weed. You can't deny that as soon as you hear B-real, you know just who it is. I'd hesitate to call this the best album of theirs, but I like it just as much as "Black Sunday", "Temple Of Boom", and "Skull And Bones". Top tracks for me are "Pigs", "Hand On The Pump", "Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk", and "Born To Get Busy". It's all good though. It's a fact that in the summer of 1992, if I wasn't playing House Of Pain or the Beastie Boys, i was listening to Cypress Hill. Of course, I could pretty much say that now as well.

Cypress Hill's Debut Album (along with second album "Black Sunday") is their best album effort......After Virtually coming from nowhere to take a firm stranglehold on the then floundering Hip-Hop scene, which was lacking innovation, sleazy Lo-fi fat Beats with a distinctive sound all of their own (Courtesy of D.j Muggs) , coupled with rapper "B-Real's" latino-voiced pro-marijuana rhetoric (which was to prominently feature in all their albums)....tracks such as "How I Could Just Kill a Man", "Hand on the Pump" & "The Phuncky Feel One" went on to became Club Classic's thanks to Cypress Hill ability to back up "B-Reals" Pot-smoking fantasies with Thumping Funky Beats (that have been nicked for various Latin / Jazz & Soul artists, and given reworked to work within a Hip-Hop Blueprint, endlessly Drug-influenced but with a playful Rambunctious Party feel, that defined Cypress Hill throughout the 90's. And although people will debate which of the Cypress Studio albums is/was their best work...the majority of people will usually cite this & "Black Sunday" as a careers best.