Iii (Temples Of Boom)

Cypress Hill is one of the rare groups whose bold innovations paid off with popular success. Instead of following up the smash hit *Black Sunday* with more of the same, they created the murky rap opus that is *Temples of Boom*. DJ Muggs had provided *Cypress Hill* and *Black Sunday* with uptempo funk beats, but here he turns towards the skeletal piano loops of “Killafornia” and “Stoned Raiders.” RZA and U-God guest on “Killa Hill N\*\*\*as,” but the influence of Wu-Tang is felt throughout the album, especially on the spare, spooky guitar of “Illusions.” In terms of subject matter, *Temples of Boom* is meaner than its predecessors. The group’s psychotic roughhousing is displayed on “Throw Your Set In the Air,” “Red Light Visions” and “Let It Rain,” but “No Rest for the Wicked”— a vicious assault on fellow L.A. rappers Ice Cube and Westside Connection — brings out a frightening rage in B-Real and Sen Dog. The band’s love for smoked-out ambiance comes through in the jazzy “Boom Biddy Bye Bye,” “Funk Freakers” and “Everybody Must Get Stoned,” but *Temples of Boom* shows the band’s marijuana celebration morphing into a vivid subterranean paranoia.