We Talked to Cypress Hill's Sen Dog About Ending the Simpsons and Getting Hella High with Snoop Dogg

Cypress Hill aren’t resting on their laurels. The trio may be best known and loved for the slow, stoner funk and hip-hop from their first two albums (released in 1991 and 1993), but Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog still speaks with huge enthusiasm about the group’s future. It might have been over two decades since their debut, but Sen Dog clearly still gets a serious buzz from creating new music (which he described as sounding “fucking cool”) and considering future collaborators “I think it would blow people's minds if Cypress and Linkin came together”.

Ahead of their Lovebox performance this weekend, we spoke to Sen Dog about the hip-hop outfit’s upcoming album, The Simpsons and getting hella high with Snoop Dogg.

Noisey: How are you feeling about playing Lovebox?
Sen Dog: We're very excited to come play Lovebox. I don't think we've played England in three years, so we're excited to head back over there and take part in a musical happening. . We can't wait to get over there. We think it'll be pretty special. We've been coming to Europe since 1993 and there was always massive support for Cypress. People have always been rabid for us, every time we've played. It's gotten better over the years.

The one part that I'm saddened by is that it's the end of the tour, so we'd be going home soon after. You want to stay out here for a while.

Snoop Dogg is also on the bill, obviously you guys know each other pretty well, so will you have time to go over and see his set?
Yeah we have time so we’ll definitely be going over to support Snoop.

What’s it been like chilling with Snoop all these years?
He puts on great house parties. Music. A lot of people, a lot of alcohol, and a lot of smoke.

What’s it like getting stoned with Snoop?
It’s no big deal. He's a top-notch guy. We're all about smoking and stuff. Hanging around with him is great because he's a very humble person, and he always goes out of his way to make sure you're comfortable and that you're having a good time. For that reason alone he's good to hang around with, but he knows how to put on a good party. Plus, a lot of people that know him, we know too. It’s like a reunion.

So, Cypress Hill has a new album coming out. On your last album you had a couple of rock songs – which I’m sure many people were surprised by. Should we expect you to divert from hip-hop further this time around?
Well it's produced by DJ Muggs, and he's had his own style when it comes to Cypress Hill. He has his own vision for it. We've recorded a lot of music for it and when we get back home from this tour, we're going to record some more. As of yet, there's not really a rock song on there, but you never know what he has up his sleeve. But right now, it's a really solid record, and I can't compare it to any of the prior Cypress Hill records, because it's not that. It has its own sound. It's on its own level, its own planet. Planet Cypress Hill.

Can you give me any hints as to what it actually sounds like?
All I can say is that it sounds fucking cool.

You collaborated with people like Mike Shinoda and Tom Morello last time around - have you been collaborating with anyone for the new album?
Well right now on the Cypress Hill record, B-Real and myself haven't really got to that "let's collaborate with people" stage - we've been concentrating on getting our stuff together. But you never know at the end of the day who's going to appear on it. As far as myself, I've been collaborating with Billy Graziadei from Biohazard on a project we've got together - we've got some heavy funky hip-hop-y music.

Do you have a dream collaborator?
There are so many people that I look up to and admire. I would say that I'd love to do something with Linkin Park. That would be really special. We've toured together, and Mike Shinoda produced a couple songs off our last album, but it wasn't anything like Cypress and Linkin together on the same thing. I think that would blow people's minds if we came together and did something like that one day.

Cypress and Snoop Dogg and The Dogg Pound, with Kurupt and Daz in it, would be something super heavy. I know people would get a real charge out of that.

You mentioned you've been touring with Linkin Park - do you have a dream touring partner?
We were talking about this the other day. We've toured with a lot of great people throughout our careers. I remember that a long time ago, we did this tour with our good buddies House of Pain and Funkdoobiest, and we were talking about how that would make a super cool reunion tour, and that we could do something like that one day. Do it again. But that's just in conversation. I think we could do something with Dave and the Foo Fighters. There are a lot of bands. It's difficult to say. NWA. Sound Garden. Snoop Dogg. The list goes on and on. Rage Against The Machine. That's pretty much me - rock n roll, hip-hop and metal. Sometimes you've got to have that metal crunch in your life to make you feel alive.

I've got a huge question for you now, are you ready?
Yeah.

How would you end the Simpsons?
(Laughs) I’ve got to thank them for asking us to be on an episode. Now, The Simpsons weren't that old at that time, when we did that. It could have been four or five years that it had been on, and I'd watch the show and thought it was cool, so doing it, I thought 'cool', but I think the amount of younger fans that it gave us from appearing on that show, was incredible. Right off the bat, you have the whole younger generation of kids that wanted to know more about Cypress Hill - and that's what The Simpsons did for us. On top of it being one of the coolest animated television shows in the world, it just gave us a boost, from records sales to longevity, people growing up with Cypress. I hear it all the time from people I meet at concerts and even when I'm alone doing my thing at home and I meet somebody and they say 'the first time I heard you guys was from The Simpsons'. And from then on people went out of their way to find out more about the group. I was actually having a conversation with someone from The Simpsons about cypress hill doing a return visit. So don't be surprised if you see Cypress Hill in there again - just looking a little older though.

(We were having slight connection issues, so I think Sen Dog misheard me here. I repeat the question) If you had to end the show, how would you do it?
End? That's unthinkable. I'd never make the Simpsons end. If I had to, though, the last scene would be Homer and Marge… getting stoned with Cypress Hill.

If you went camping with three people from the music industry, who would it be?
Britney Spears. Perhaps have Snoop Dogg there so I have somebody to smoke with. Thirdly I’d have Wu Tang Clan, to have somebody to get rowdy with. Someone to get crazy with.

Amazing. Please take me camping with you Sen Dog. Thanks for your time Sen Dog.
Right on, thanks for your time.

Cypress Hill play Lovebox on Friday 17 July. Tickets are available for the festival here.

You can find Lucas on Twitter: @LucasFothergill