Till Death Do Us Part

by

Cypress Hill

Edit

I can't believe the 1 and 2 star reviews some people have given this album. I bought Black Sunday when it came out and I've got all their studio albums - so I know my Cypress Hill. This album sees the Hill back on form after what was the disappointment of Stoned Raiders.

To all of you that say it's not Black Sunday or Templezs of Boom - come on, who would seriously listen to a group that always made the same album? Do you just want clones? This is evolution, and they still make the competion sound like fake pop amateurs. There's a lot of talk about it being a reggae album but there is a real mix of styles here which works so well. Buy it!!!

I've been listening to Cypress Hill since Black Sunday, so my review will be in the context of a pretty solid Cypress Hill fan.

Firstly, as many of the other reviewers have stated, the beats on most of the songs leave a bit to be desired. The production values are good; the music is very clear, except for parts that are intentionally not supposed to be (samples from vinyl, for instance). However, the beats just aren't that memorable. "Another Body Drops," "Street Wars," and "What's Your Name?" are really the only songs that you'll listen to over and over again.

On the other hand, the lyrics are outstanding. B-Real's flow has just gotten better by the album. I have all of Cypress Hill's albums on my MP3 player, and while I'm at work I'll listen to them in release date order, and you can really see how B-Real has improved his skills as a lyricist over time. His rhymes keep getting tighter and tighter, and I really believe that he's a fairly under-appreciated rapper. Let me state, however, that as someone else here said, the hooks suck. You can tell that they couldn't figure out a catchy hook, so they just repeated the name of the song (see the song "Dollar Bill"). This is a probem that started on Skull and Bones, and I think it's just going to continue.

I personally believe that III: Temples of Boom was the Hill's greatest album. It was so dark and moody, and Mugg's beats were almost dank and dungeon-like. Everything before III was Cypress Hill trying to find their identity, and everything after was them moving a little more towards the mainstream rap circle. I'm not saying they sold out, it's just that their music has become a little more of what one would expect from a rap group. If you don't have III: Temples of Boom, you need to buy it. It's one of my favorite albums of all time. Till Death Do Us Part, however, is a more mundane and forgettable chapter in Cypress Hill's history.