Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill's formula has been imitated so much, it's easy to forget how shocking it originally sounded: crazy Latino voices, Spanglish gangsta threats, blunted '70s funk beats that made you laugh out loud. B-Real and Sen Dog come on as a hip-hop Cheech and Chong, praising the sweet leaf with a devotion rarely seen beyond the parking lot at a Phish show. While the rappers twist their "Latin Lingo" into vato rhymes about blunts, guns, and 40 oz., DJ Muggs pumps bongloads of bass into paranoid sound collages like "Hand on the Pump," and when you turn it up loud, the beat goes boo-ya. The combination of whiny sing song flow and low-riding bass made the album hugely influential, most notably on Dr. Dre, but nobody quite duplicated that perfect balance of humor and horror -- not even Cypress Hill themselves. The followup, Black Sunday, was jokier, with the hit "Insane in the Brain" and the definitive "I Wanna Get High." Subsequent releases reflect poorly on the relationship between cannabis intake and creative inspiration. (ROB SHEFFIELD)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide