Cypress Hill performed “Crazy” and “Band of Gypsies,” two tracks from their acid-soaked, psychedelic ninth LP, Elephants on Acid, on Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The hip-hop group – including newly recruited turntablist and former Beastie Boys member Mix Master Mike – kept things simple onstage, with emcees B-Real and Sen-Dog bouncing around while percussionist Bobo pounded out simple beats in the background. Both songs fit into their druggy aesthetic, full of stoner-friendly rhymes.
“Up all night on this road/Feels like my head is gonna explode/Vision all fucked up, man, I’m gone/Dead in the middle of the twilight zone/Losin’ my mind, so high, no lie,” B-Real rapped on “Crazy” over murky guitar riffs and scratches. On “Band of Gypsies,” laced with Egyptian chants and droning electric guitars, he proclaimed, “You’re lookin’ at the last of a dyin’ breed/ Weeded up, please, speed it up/Sittin’ in the Cali sun heated up/Inked arm needled up/Rocket style, Don Cheadle’d up/I put the fear of God in people, what.”
Cypress Hill issued Elephants on Acid in September, marking their first LP since 2010’s Rise Up. Producer Muggs spoke to Rolling Stone about the album’s psych-rock influence, saying the genre “has been a big influence” on him. “I’ve been listening to it since it was in my mother’s and my uncle’s collection,” he said. “I had the idea what the name of this record was going to be and then I just started building the whole sound around [it]. Just a whole sound like feeling like you’re high on hallucinogenic drugs – but you’re not on no drugs.”