Sen Dog Of Cypress Hill Interview

via Crave Online

CraveOnline: Rise Up has a huge sound with a motivated energy behind it - was there a specific mindset you went in with for the record?

Sen Dog: We didn't want to go in any direction, really. Been there, done that. We've done the conceptual album. I just wanted to go into the studio & bang out the songs, know what I mean? Like old times. It's fun for me, its fun for us as a group. There was no hangups on trying to recapture any sound or rock a particular style or mood, like "oh, this song is too happy". We rolled with it.

CraveOnline: Any favorite tracks on the album?

Sen Dog: My favorite track switches every couple of days. My favorite right now is "Shut 'Em Down," produced by Tom Morello. It's got that biting quality of Rock n Roll, but also the street quality of Hip-Hop. That's one where I can picture one big massive moshpit going off.

CraveOnline: Last year at the Smokeout festival, B-Real had a joint that had to be a foot and a half long, at the least. I was standing in the photo pit, right at your feet, and I couldn't believe he was pulling from that thing for half the show and staying conscious - especially with his professed loyalty to the indica strains. Was that thing real?

Sen Dog: Yeah that was very real. I've seen my friend do some crazy stuff before, but that was out there, man. He was like "it's the Smokeout, we gotta make a statement!" and so on, and I said alright man, let's go then. I think it lasted like a week.

CraveOnline: Will we see another Smokeout in 2010?

Sen Dog: Definitely. The Smokeout is something we definitely want to continue. We had to put the whole operation on for a minute as we reorganized the whole mothership from the floor up. But now that we came back with the last one and it was successful, we're going to continue coming back. And honestly, I think this next one's gonna be bigger than the last one. But I can't give it away just yet.

CraveOnline: How's the new deal with Priority Records?

Sen Dog: It's going great, man. It's going really good. Of course, Snoop Dogg is involved, and that was one of the key elements for us in that they've got one of our guys... - you understand what I mean when I said 'one of our guys' - but we're excited, man. It's a great position to be in. This new album, new label, and they're excited to push this record and make the best of a great situation.

Read the full Sen Dog interview here:
Crave Online - Sen Dog of Cypress Hill