producers: muggs

Their universal appeal, or more precisely: their style that had people from all kinds of different genre backgrounds get down to their groove, might be the exact downfall of Cypress Hill. Then again, this also needs some clarification: if Cypress Hill would have continued to do their hip hop thing, that they often enough have done right, then the chance that the people would continue to be checking them out, would be there. But what the Hill is trying to do, is to cater to all those different, and we shall dare to say, new fans, that are foreigners to the Hill genre. What means that the Hill picks up electric guitars, and that is not the best, or a good idea.

Or simply stated: when all them rock, ska, skater, and what not dudes started to check out Cypress Hill, then not because they played their kind of music, but because their hip hop was appealing to these guys. Hence it's an error in the Hill's logic to go and change their kind of music, catering to those from the outside, thinking that that's what they want. It's actually exactly what they don't want. It's what Sen Dog wants, probably. However, all of this culminates to the early finding that not all is good on "Stoned Riders", if not to say: too much is not too good. Especially considering that with Muggs behind the boards, they'd have one of the illest beatsmiths in their own house.

We are just not too thrilled about the guitar sounds of "Intro" or "Trouble", with the latter sounding better, in a 'we can accept this in a Linkin Park kind of way', and the lyrics being reflective: "you could not give a damn / coulda just Killed A Man / sawed off in my hand / but I had to kill the plan / think I've found my piece of mind / feet planted on the ground / I just had to redefine". That further shows how "Amplified" and "Catastrophe" (that's simply too hard) should sound like to allow a minimal acceptance from the hip hop crowd. But the last two tracks mentioned are just too boring, lacking any kind of the plush and emotional quality that modern rock can put onto tracks, hence it's even struggling to sound in any kind of way spectacular to the ears of rock adoring audiences.

Obviously there are also straight up rap tracks on here, like there's "Kronologik" (feat. Kurupt) and with it, things non-surprisingly sound much better. The lyrics content is reminding us of past achievements, what might be necessary in this forgetting world. With MC Ren and King Tee being put on "Southland Killers", you know it will get real and hard, while the production is rather bare. With "Memories" we get the impression once more that Muggs was inspired by some fellow LA producer, that answers to a three letter name. B-Real continues to talk about memories in between a popish-chorus. We can get our groove on on "Red, Meth & B", where Meth and Reman share the same interests and blunts with the Hill. Still grooving, but in a different vibe is "Lowrider", that tries to do a catchy hook, falling flat on its face as a result, while B-Real captures this Latino flavor nicely, concluding: "now when people are done, bumping their head to this / you wonder why you wanted anything instead of this".

Muggs shows what he's really capable of, when he puts together the live sounding "Bitter", that is of a bendable universality, of a sound that can be received by a scattered audience, with it still having character. This is definitely one of the strongest tracks. "It Ain't Easy" fails in trying to get this widespread appeal. The team up with the Dogg Pound's Kurupt on "Here Is Something You Can't Understand" got an instant groove, that's an updated version of "How I Could Just Kill A Man", with the two tracks sharing nothing but the chorus.

Too many artists forgot that it was their style that first attracted folks to it. They change and start to create what they think the audience wants. And this attempt almost always fails. Hence the Hill is not furthering a style, even finding a new style, they are just doing a couple of flavors that are often too specific in one or the other direction, to have all like them equally. So the listener will always face a couple of tracks he has a hard time to get with. And it remains to be seen if the audience is willing to put up with that.