With the utterly tongue-in-cheek Superstar becoming this bastardised hip-hop outfit's biggest hit in their 10-year history, this is undoubtedly Cypress Hill's finest moment. While NWA were rapping that gangsta shit a decade ago, they were also warning us off drugs - while looking for the base-man. Cypress Hill became the first stoner-hop band, hazily bringing breaks from the bong. Unsurprisingly, just about every teenage toker and college student fell for their Latino drawl. Cypress Hill haven't given up the weed - rather they now smoke the highest quality, in ever more copious amounts. They still walk the gangsta walk with Cuban Necktie and a number of, frankly, hilarious godfather-like rhymes. But the main thing that gets up the nose of the Soul Assassins is people who bogart the joint, don't share their shit, those who ain't got that weed etiquette. You're more likely to get a gun stuck right up your ass if you blag a smoke off Cypress than if you call their mothers hoes. The first CD, Skull is an odyssey of hip-hop perfection. Symphonic strings are embraced by the nastiest breaks, while B-Real, DJ Muggs and Sen Dog rap in Spanish, English, patois or whatever takes their fancy. They rap it on the off-beat, the missed beat, and fit in more words than you'd think feasible. On the second, shorter CD, Bones, they unleash the heavy metal monster, as crunching guitars and louder shouting produce the best hip-hop rock collision since Public Enemy and Anthrax did Bring The Noise. Often what they do is just plain daft, but they're unattainably clever with it somehow. A volley of childish insults makes up Stank Ass Hoe, the daisy-chain, yet hard-as-nails, combination of Certified Bomb makes you think, are they ever for real? With metallic tracks like Valley Of Chrome and Dust, they turn a new corner. Be it an updated version of West Side Story, or a real-life slice of ghetto life, Cypress Hill are only halfway through their book of technicolor rhymes. Forget the hard stuff, these dope tracks are just what we need.

Written by Sonicpress contributor, Owen Adams.