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Temples of Boom remixed · by Sach O
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This is an optical illusion but it could have been a Cypress Hill single cover
Cypress Hill – Illusions (Harpsichord mix)
Cypress Hill – Illusions (Q-Tip’s Remix)
Cypress Hill ft. The Fugees – Boom Biddy Bye Bye (Remix)
Cypress Hill ft. Erick Sermon, Redman & MC Eiht – Throw Your Hands in the Air
Coming off the back of Jeff Weiss’ shout out to Cypress Hill’s underrated Temples of Boom here are four remixes from the same era. Despite crossing over the minute their debut hit the shelves, Cypress always had a knack for delivering quality remixes showing off Muggs’ chops behind the boards and the group’s association with top notch producers and hardcore emcees in an attempt to shore up street cred and expand their audience. At their peak, the only track doctor on their level was the then unfuckwitable Pete Rock.
First up Illusions, the album’s lead single gets not one but two remixes. Muggs’ Harpsichord mix is easily the better of the two, pushing the dusted trippiness of the original into even darker, horrorcore influenced directions. Instead of twanging guitars evoking desolate streets, the combination of a mock-elegant harpsichord with the rock solid drums and scratching pushes the song’s underlying current of insanity to the forefront. By relying on heavy metal imagery rather than actual rock guitars, the group managed to get black t-shirt wearing white kids to bump their shit without sacrificing their sound. In fact the song’s combination of cartoonish gangsta rap, trip-hop drums and grungy angst makes it somewhat of an unrecognized mid 90’s alternative zeitgeist (while also making it extremely unfashionable these days since it lacks bravado, dance beats and “”“swagger”“”.)
Q-Tip’s remix on the other hand, takes the track in the opposite direction to mixed results. While the minimalist beat sort-of bangs, it feels more like a demo for the Ummah’s newly acquired MPC2000 than a true Tribe classic. Of course, it doesn’t help that Cypress’ whole M.O was diametrically opposite from Tip’s sunny boom-bap but if anything, the track’s hardly offensive and makes for an interesting curio.
A much better NYC collaboration was Boom-Biddy-Bye-Bye ‘s Wyclef Jean helmed Fugees remix which completely transforms the smoked out jazz of the original into state-of-the-art Mafioso rap. B-Real and Clef trade bars about a spot where “The Cubans meet the Haitians” and rattle off vague drug cartel related boasts/threats while Lauryn gets relegated to background vocals and adlibsl. While I can’t really think of two less convincing coke dealers than B-Real and Wyclef, the track’s mid 90’s post g-funk backing track has aged surprisingly well coming off like Gangsta’s Paradise’s harder cousin.
Finally, Throw your Set in the Air keeps it’s smoke-ready backing track but gets a few added BPMs, a guest lineup featuring Erick Sermon, Redman and MC Eiht, a festival-set ready chorus and a PC name change to become Throw Your HANDS in the air. This is from 1995 so you probably don’t need me to tell you that Redman rips his verse with the kind of stoned off the cuff genius that would later have Ludacris and Wayne taking notes, but Sermon and Eiht come through as well making for an underrated posse cut.
Here’s the videos for three of the remixes (well, a video and two links because Sony somehow thinks its a good idea to prevent blogs from embedding their videos. SMH.)
Illusions (Muggs’ Harpsichord remix)
Boom Biddy Bye Bye (Fugees remix)
Comments for "Temples of Boom remixed"
Ya’ll Niggas is White.
— Spick Rick Aug 29, 03:36 PM
“throw your hands in the air” was the shit.
— khal Aug 30, 10:03 AM
Man, Muggs was killing it back when. Can’t believe he built that many dope beats in such a short time span.
— sankofa Sep 1, 02:51 PM
Though they are not convincing at all rapping about cocaine, remember that clef’s homie John Forte (remember “staying alive”?) is a convicted coke dealer.
— vyntra 24 Sep 1, 06:49 PM
glad I bought “Unreleased and Revamped” for that Def Squad mix
— guodisdoug Sep 1, 11:00 PM
Classic album. Underrated group. Lot of anger in the making of this album. it can be felt. it’s said they crossed over, but as was said before , you cant choose who likes your music…
— YoYay Sep 2, 11:36 PM
G shit, Muggs’ illusions remix is just better in everyway than Tip’s. the harpsichord is what makes that remix while tip’s played production just fucks with my memories of Midnight Marauders and Low End Theory…
— dras allah Sep 3, 01:36 PM