''Black Sunday'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American hip hop group

Cypress Hill Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. They have sold over 20 million albums worldwide and have multi-platinum and platinum albums. They are considered to be among the main progenitors of West Coast and 1990 ...

. It was released on July 20, 1993 by Ruffhouse and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The album proved to be a massive success just like the first album

. The album debuted at #1 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 261,000 copies in its first week of sales and became the highest Soundscan recording for a hip hop group at the time. Also, with their first album (

) still in the charts, they became the first hip hop group ever to have 2 albums in the Top 10 of the

US Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

at the same time. The album went Triple platinum in the U.S. with 3.4 million units sold. As Cypress Hill advocates for medical and

recreational use of cannabis Recreational drug use indicates the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions and emotions of the user. When a ...

the booklet of the album contains 19 facts about the history of

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

and the positive attributes of cannabis.

Background

The first single, " Insane in the Brain", became a

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

hit, starting a following among

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and hip hop audiences. A clean censored version of the album was also made which removes the song "A to the K". The song "Hand on the Glock" is a re-recorded version of the track "

Hand on the Pump "Hand on the Pump" is a single by hip hop group Cypress Hill, released from their self-titled debut album. While still successful, the song did not reach the popularity of previous singles "How I Could Just Kill a Man "How I Could Just Kill a M ...

" from the debut album ''

''.

Reception

The single "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" was nominated for the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

's Best Rap Performance of the year category. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' - 4 stars - Excellent - "…it's the Cypress combo of stark grooves and cinematic gangsta fairy tales that allows them to rule the streets, a formula not messed with on Black Sunday…" '' The Source'' - 4 stars - Excellent - "…a darker sequel…this album is definitely worth buying as it easily rips the frame out of all those Cypress bandwagon jumpers…" * Included in ''Q'' magazine's list of the 50 Best Albums of 1993. * Ranked #35 in ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

''s list of "The Albums of the Year" for 1993. * Ranked #29 in the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

''s 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. * Ranked #8 in ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''s list of "The Top 50 LPs of 1993".

Track listing

All tracks produced by DJ Muggs, except track 2 produced by

T-Ray Terahertz radiation – also known as submillimeter radiation, terahertz waves, tremendously high frequency (THF), T-rays, T-waves, T-light, T-lux or THz – consists of electromagnetic waves within the ITU-designated band of frequ ...

. Later repressings have a fade at the end of "Insane In The Brain" due to sample clearance issues, & "Lock Down" is omitted.

Personnel

Cypress Hill

B-Real Louis Mario Freese (born June 2, 1970), known by his stage name B-Real, is an American rapper. Since 1991, he has been one of two lead rappers in the hip hop group Cypress Hill, along with Sen Dog. He has also been a part of the rap metal band ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Sen Dog Senen Reyes (born November 22, 1965), also known by his stage name Sen Dog, is a Cuban-American rapper and musician who is best known as a member of the rap group Cypress Hill and as the lead vocalist for the heavy metal band Powerflo. He has be ...

–

* DJ Muggs –

turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

, arrangements, executive production, programming and mixing

Additional personnel

– producer ("I Ain't Goin' Out Like That") * John Gamble – engineer *

Andy Kravitz Andy Kravitz is an American drummer and percussionist, audio engineer, record producer, and songwriter. He has been nominated for 14 Grammy Awards, winning several. He lives near Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. Early life Andy Kravitz wa ...

– engineer *Manuel Lecuona – engineer *Jason Roberts – engineer *Chris Shaw – engineer, mixing *

Joe Nicolo The Butcher Bros. is an American music production team made up of brothers Phil and Joe Nicolo, originally based out of Philadelphia in the mid-to-late '80s. Together and individually, the brothers have produced albums for a wide variety of ban ...

– executive producer, mixing *Chris Schwartz – executive producer *Jay Papke – design *Anthony Artiaga – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

Certifications

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cypress Hill albums 1993 albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by DJ Muggs Ruffhouse Records albums Cannabis music