Dionysius Exiguus invented Anno Domini years to date Easter.

Anno Domini (abbreviated as AD or A.D.) and Before Christ (abbreviated as BC or B.C.) are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars. This calendar era is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth, with AD counting years after the start of this epoch, and BC denoting years before the start of the epoch. There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525, but was not widely used until after 800.^[1]

Alternative names for this era include vulgaris aerae (found 1615 in Latin),^[2] "Vulgar Era" (in English, as early as 1635),^[3] "Christian Era" (in English, in 1652),^[4] "Common Era" (in English, 1708),^[5] and "Current Era".^[6] Since 1856,^[7] the alternative abbreviations CE and BCE are sometimes used in place of AD and BC.

The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. For decades, it has been the unofficial global standard, adopted for pragmatic interests of international communication, transportation and commercial integration and recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union.^[8]

The term Anno Domini is Medieval Latin, translated as In the year of the Lord,^[9] and as in the year of our Lord.^[10][11]:782 It is sometimes specified more fully as Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ").

Traditionally, English has copied Latin usage by placing the abbreviation before the year number for AD.^[12] Since BC is not derived from Latin it is placed after the year number (for example: AD 2012, but 68 BC). However, placing the AD after the year number (as in "2012 AD") is also becoming common usage. The abbreviation is also widely used after the number of a century or millennium, as in "fourth century AD" or "second millennium AD" (although conservative usage formerly rejected such expressions).^[13] Because BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes incorrectly concluded that AD means After Death, i.e., after the death of Jesus. If that were true, the thirty-three or so years of his life would not be in either era.^[14]

Anno Domini inscription at Carinthia cathedral, Austria

History[link]

The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had been used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.^[15] The last year of the old table, Diocletian 247, was immediately followed by the first year of his table, AD 532. When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the consuls who held office that year—he himself stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of Probus Junior", which was 525 years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ".^[16] Thus Dionysius implied that Jesus' Incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the specific year during which his birth or conception occurred.

"However, nowhere in his exposition of his table does Dionysius relate his epoch to any other dating system, whether consulate, Olympiad, year of the world, or regnal year of Augustus; much less does he explain or justify the underlying date."^[17]:778

Blackburn & Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC, 1 BC, or AD 1 as the year Dionysius intended for the Nativity or Incarnation. Among the sources of confusion are:^[17]:778–9

• In modern times Incarnation is synonymous with the conception, but some ancient writers, such as Bede, considered Incarnation to be synonymous with the Nativity
• The civil, or consular year began on 1 January but the Diocletian year began on 29 August
• There were inaccuracies in the list of consuls
• There were confused summations of emperors' regnal years

Popularization[link]

The Anglo-Saxon historian the Venerable Bede, who was familiar with the work of Dionysius Exiguus, used Anno Domini dating in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, finished in 731. In this same history he also used another Latin term, "ante vero incarnationis dominicae tempus" ("the time before the Lord's true incarnation"), equivalent to the English "before Christ", to identify years before the first year of this era,^[18] thus establishing the standard of not using a year zero,^[19] even though he used zero in his computus. Both Dionysius and Bede regarded Anno Domini as beginning at the incarnation of Jesus, but "the distinction between Incarnation and Nativity was not drawn until the late 9th century, when in some places the Incarnation epoch was identified with Christ's conception, i.e., the Annunciation on March 25" (Annunciation style).^[17]:881

On the continent of Europe, Anno Domini was introduced as the era of choice of the Carolingian Renaissance by Alcuin. Its endorsement by Emperor Charlemagne and his successors popularizing the usage of the epoch and spreading it throughout the Carolingian Empire ultimately lies at the core of the system's prevalence. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, popes continued to date documents according to regnal years for some time, but usage of AD gradually became more common in Roman Catholic countries from the 11th to the 14th centuries.^[20] In 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius.^[21] Eastern Orthodox countries only began to adopt AD instead of the Byzantine calendar in 1700 when Russia did so, with others adopting it in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Even though Anno Domini was in widespread use by the 9th century, Before Christ (or its equivalent) did not become common until much later. Bede used the expression "anno igitur ante incarnationem Dominicam" (before the Incarnation of the Lord) twice. "Anno an xpi nativitate" (before the birth of Christ) is found in 1474 in a work by a German monk.^[22] In 1627, the French Jesuit theologian Denis Pétau (Dionysius Petavius in Latin), with his work De doctrina temporum, popularized the usage ante Christum (Latin for "Before Christ") to mark years prior to AD.^[23][24][25]

Change of year[link]

When the reckoning from Jesus' incarnation started replacing the previous dating systems in western Europe, different people chose different Christian feast days to begin the year: Christmas, Annunciation, or Easter. Thus, depending on the time and place, year number changed on different days, which created slightly different styles in chronology:^[26]

• from 25 March 753 AUC (today in 1 BC), i.e. from the incarnation of Jesus. That first "Annunciation style" appeared in Arles at the end of the 9th century then spread to Burgundy and northern Italy. It was not commonly used and was called "calculus pisanus" since it was adopted in Pisa and survived there till 1750.
• from 25 December 753 AUC (today in 1 BC), i.e. from the birth of Jesus. It was called "Nativity style" and had been spread by the Venerable Bede together with the Anno Domini in the early Middle Ages. That reckoning of the year of Grace from Christmas was used in France, England and most of western Europe (except Spain) till the 12th century (when it was replaced by Annunciation style), and in Germany till the second quarter of the 13th century.
• from 25 March 754 AUC (today in AD 1). That second "Annunciation style" may have originated in Fleury Abbey in the early 11th century but it was spread by the Cistercians. Florence adopted that style in opposition to the one of Pisa, so it got the name of "calculus florentinus". It soon spread in France and also in England where it became common in the late 12th century and lasted until 1751.
• from Easter, starting in 754 AUC (AD 1). That "mos gallicanus" bound to a movable feast was introduced in France by king Philip Augustus (1165–1180–1223), maybe to establish a new style in the provinces reconquered over England. However, it never spread beyond the ruling élite.

With these various styles, the same day could, in some cases, be dated in 1099, 1100 or 1101. The Annunciation style also caused a major problem: in some years, there was no Easter, and in other years, that feast was celebrated twice; for example, Easter occurred on 23 March 1504 (i.e. in 1505 for us) and on 12 April 1506, but not in 1505.^[27]

Historical birth date of Jesus[link]

See also: Nativity of Jesus and Chronology of Jesus

According to Doggett, "Although scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before AD 1, the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow a definitive dating".^[28] According to Matthew 2:1^[29] King Herod the Great was alive when Jesus was born, and Matthew 2:16,^[30] says Herod ordered the Massacre of the Innocents in response to Jesus' birth. Blackburn and Holford-Strevens fix King Herod's death shortly before Passover in 4 BC^[17]:770, and say that those who accept the story of the Massacre of the Innocents sometimes associate the star that led the Biblical Magi with the planetary conjunction of 15 September 7 BC or Halley's comet of 12 BC (less likely since comets were usually considered bad omens); even historians who do not accept the Massacre accept the birth under Herod as a tradition older than the written gospels.^[17]:776

The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was conceived during the reign of Herod the Great^[Luke 1:5] (i.e., before 4 BC) while also stating that Jesus was born when Cyrenius (or Quirinius) was the governor of Syria and carried out the census of the Roman provinces of Syria and Iudaea.^{[Luke 2:1-3]} The Jewish historian Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews (ca. AD 93), indicates that Cyrenius/Quirinius' governorship of Syria began in AD 6, and that the census occurred sometime between AD 6—7,^[31] which is incompatible with a conception prior to 4 BC. On this point, Blackburn and Holford-Strevens state that "St. Luke raises greater difficulty ... Most critics therefore discard Luke".

The Gospel of Luke also states that Jesus was "about thirty years old" ^[Luke 3:23] during the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar ^[Luke 3:1]. Tiberius began to reign with his father, Augustus, in AD 12. The 15th year of his reign would then be AD 26 or 27, placing Jesus' birth about 5 or 4 BC (because there is no year 0). Some scholars rely on John 8:57^[32]: "thou are not yet fifty years old", making the earliest possible year for Jesus's birth c. 18 BC.^[33]:776

Other eras[link]

During the first six centuries of what would come to be known as the Christian era, European countries used various systems to count years. Systems in use included consular dating, imperial regnal year dating, and Creation dating.

Although the last non-imperial consul, Basilius, was appointed in 541 by Emperor Justinian I, later emperors through Constans II (641–668) were appointed consuls on the first 1 January after their accession. All of these emperors, except Justinian, used imperial post-consular years for all of the years of their reign alongside their regnal years.^[34] Long unused, this practice was not formally abolished until Novell XCIV of the law code of Leo VI did so in 888.

Another calculation had been developed by the Alexandrian monk Annianus around the year AD 400, placing the Annunciation on 25 March AD 9 (Julian)—eight to ten years after the date that Dionysius was to imply. Although this Incarnation was popular during the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire, years numbered from it, an Era of Incarnation, were only used, and are still only used, in Ethiopia, accounting for the eight- or seven-year discrepancy between the Gregorian and the Ethiopian calendars. Byzantine chroniclers like Maximus the Confessor, George Syncellus, and Theophanes dated their years from Annianus' creation of the World. This era, called Anno Mundi, "year of the world" (abbreviated AM), by modern scholars, began its first year on 25 March 5492 BC. Later Byzantine chroniclers used Anno Mundi years from 1 September 5509 BC, the Byzantine Era. No single Anno Mundi epoch was dominant throughout the Christian world. Eusebius of Caesarea in his Chronicle used an era beginning with the birth of Abraham, dated in 2016 BC (AD 1 = 2017 Anno Abrahami).^[35]

Spain and Portugal continued to date by the Era of the Caesars or Spanish Era, which began counting from 38 BC, well into the Middle Ages. In 1422, Portugal became the last Catholic country to adopt the Anno Domini system.^[20]

The Era of Martyrs, which numbered years from the accession of Diocletian in 284, who launched the last yet most severe persecution of Christians, was used by the Church of Alexandria, and is still used officially by the Coptic church. It also used to be used by the Ethiopian^{[disambiguation needed ]} church. Another system was to date from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which as early as Hippolytus and Tertullian was believed to have occurred in the consulate of the Gemini (AD 29), which appears in the occasional medieval manuscript.

Common Era[link]

Anno Domini is sometimes referred to as the Common Era, Christian Era, or Current Era (abbreviated as C.E. or CE). CE is often preferred by those who desire a term that does not explicitly use religious titles.^[36][37] For example, Cunningham and Starr (1998) write that "B.C.E./C.E. …do not presuppose faith in Christ and hence are more appropriate for interfaith dialog than the conventional B.C./A.D." Upon its foundation, the Republic of China adopted the Minguo Era, but used the Western calendar for international purposes. The translated term was 西元 ("Western Era"). Later, in 1949, the People's Republic of China abandoned the Chinese calendar completely and adopted 公元 (gōngyuán, "Common Era") for all purposes domestic or foreign.

No year zero[link]

In the AD year numbering system, whether applied to the Julian or Gregorian calendars, AD 1 is preceded by 1 BC. There is no year "0" between them. Because of this, most experts agree that a new century begins in a year with the last digits being "01" (1801, 1901, 2001); new millennia likewise began in 1001 and 2001. A common misconception is that centuries and millennia begin when the trailing digits are zeroes (1800, 1900, 2000, etc.);^[1] moreover, this convention was widely used to celebrate the new millennium in the year 2000. For computational reasons astronomical year numbering and the ISO 8601 standard designate years so that AD 1 = year 1, 1 BC = year 0, 2 BC = year −1, etc.^[38] In common use, ancient dates are expressed in the Julian calendar, but ISO 8601 uses the Gregorian calendar and astronomers may use a variety of time scales depending on the application. Thus dates using the year 0 or negative years may require further investigation before being converted to BC or AD.

Proposed reforms[link]

The following are proposed reforms of the Gregorian calendar:

• Human Era
• International Fixed Calendar (also called the International Perpetual calendar)
• World Calendar
• World Season Calendar
• Leap week calendars
  • Pax Calendar
  • Common-Civil-Calendar-and-Time
  • Symmetry454

See also[link]

• Calendar

Notes and references[link]

Notes

References

External links[link]

Look up AD or Anno Domini in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Calendar Converter

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Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill performing at Bonnaroo in 2006
Background information
Also known as	DVX (Devasting Vocal Excellence)
Origin	South Gate, California, United States
Genres	Hip hop, rap rock, alternative hip hop, west coast hip hop
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Ruffhouse, Columbia, Sony Music, Priority, EMI
Associated acts	Soul Assassins, Tom Morello, Everlast, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Slash, House of Pain, Xzibit, Funkdoobiest, Adil Omar, Young De, Travis Barker, Psycho Realm, La Coka Nostra, Rusko, Rage Against the Machine, Fergie, La Coka Nostra
Website	CypressHill.com
Members
B-Real DJ Muggs Sen Dog Eric Bobo
Past members
Mellow Man Ace

Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Cuban-American/Latino hip hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide. It is one of the most well-known groups in West Coast rap and was critically acclaimed for their first two groundbreaking albums.^[1]

History[link]

Formation (1988)[link]

Senen Reyes (also known as Sen Dog) and Ulpiano Sergio Reyes (also known as Mellow Man Ace) are brothers who initially lived in South Gate, California. In 1971, their family had immigrated to the United States, settling in the Los Angeles neighborhood of South Gate. In 1988, the two brothers teamed up with Lawrence Muggerud (also known as DJ Muggs) and Louis Freese (also known as B-Real) to form a hip-hop group named DVX (Devastating Vocal Excellence). The band soon lost Mellow Man Ace to a solo career, and changed their name to Cypress Hill, after a street in South Gate.^[2]

Early works and mainstream success (1989–1995)[link]

After recording a demo in 1989, Cypress Hill signed a record deal with the major label, Columbia Records. Their self-titled first album was released in August 1991. The lead single was the double A-side "The Phuncky Feel One"/"How I Could Just Kill a Man" which received heavy airplay on urban and college radio. The other two singles released from the album were "Hand on the Pump" and "Latin Lingo", the latter of which combined English and Spanish lyrics. The success of these singles led to the album selling two million copies in the US alone. The group made their first appearance at Lollapalooza on the side stage in 1992.

Black Sunday, the group's second album, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 1993, recording the highest Soundscan for a rap group up until that time. Also, with their debut still in the charts, they became the first rap group to have 2 albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 at the same time. With "Insane in the Brain" becoming a crossover hit, the album went triple platinum in the U.S. and sold about 3.25 million copies.

The band headlined the Soul Assassins tour with House of Pain and Funkdoobiest as support, then performed on a college tour with Rage Against the Machine and Seven Year Bitch. In 1993, Cypress Hill also had two tracks on the Judgment Night soundtrack, teaming up with Pearl Jam on the track "Real Thing" and Sonic Youth on "I Love You Mary Jane".

The group later played at Woodstock 94, introducing new member Eric Bobo, son of Willie Bobo and formerly a percussionist with the Beastie Boys. Rolling Stone magazine named the group as the best rap group in their music awards voted by critics and readers. Cypress Hill played at Lollapalooza for two successive years, topping the bill in 1995. They also appeared on the "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons. Prior to Bobo joining the crew, Panchito "Ponch" Gomez sat in as a percussionist when not acting.

Their third album III: Temples of Boom was released in 1995, selling 1.5 million copies and reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200 on the strength of the hit single "Throw Your Set in the Air".^{[citation needed]} Cypress Hill also contributed a track "I Wanna Get High" to the High Times sponsored Hempilation album to support NORML.

Continued career (1996–2002)[link]

Sen Dog took a break from the band to form a Los Angeles based rap rock band SX-10.^[3] Meanwhile in 1996, Cypress Hill appeared on the first 'Smokin' Grooves' tour, featuring Ziggy Marley, The Fugees, Busta Rhymes and A Tribe Called Quest. The band also released a nine track EP Unreleased and Revamped with rare mixes. In 1997, band members focused on their solo careers. Muggs released Soul Assassins: Chapter 1 featuring contributions from Dr. Dre, KRS-One, Wyclef Jean and Mobb Deep. B-Real appeared with Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man on "Hit Em High" from the multi-platinum Space Jam Soundtrack. He also appeared with RBX, Nas and KRS-One on "East Coast Killer, West Coast Killer" off Dr. Dre's Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath album, and contributed to an album entitled The Psycho Realm with the band of the same name. Though the focus that year was not on group efforts, the band played Smokin' Grooves with George Clinton and Erykah Badu.

Cypress Hill released IV in 1998 which went gold in the U.S., on the backs of hit singles "Tequila Sunrise" and "Dr. Greenthumb." Sen Dog also released the Get Wood sampler as part of SX-10 on the label Flip. In 1999, Cypress Hill helped with the PC crime video game Kingpin: Life of Crime. Three of their songs from the 1998 IV album were in the game ( "16 Men Till There's No Men Left", "Checkmate" and "Lightning Strikes"). B-Real also did some of the voices of the people in the game. Also in 1999, the band released a greatest-hits album in Spanish, Los grandes éxitos en español. In 2000, Cypress Hill then fused genres with their fifth album, Skull & Bones, which was a two-disc album. The first disc, "Skull" was composed of rap tracks while "Bones" explored further the group's forays into rock. The album reached the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 and number 3 in Canada. The first single was "Rock Superstar" for rock radio and "Rap Superstar" for urban radio. Following the release of the album, Cypress Hill (along with MxPx) landed a slot opening for The Offspring on the Conspiracy of One tour. The band also released Live at the Fillmore, a concert disc recorded at the Fillmore (in San Francisco) in 2000. Cypress Hill continued their experimentation with rock on the Stoned Raiders album in 2001. However, its sales were a disappointment, as the disc did not even reach the top 50 of the U.S. album charts. In 2001, the group appeared in the film How High.

[edit] Till Death Do Us Part (2003–2007)

Cypress Hill recorded "Just Another Victim" for WWE as a theme song for Tazz. At the time, WWE was using original music for almost all of the wrestlers, so this was an unusual step for the company to take, but it remains one of the more memorable songs to emerge from the wrestling organization. The band released Till Death Do Us Part on March 23, 2004. The album saw the band experiment with reggae especially on the lead single "What's Your Number". The track features Tim Armstrong of Rancid on guitar and backup vocals. It is based on the classic song "The Guns of Brixton" on The Clash's London Calling and has proven to be a success on the modern rock charts. However, the album represented a further departure from the signature sound of their first four albums. The album also features appearances by Damian Marley, son of Bob Marley, Prodigy of Mobb Deep and producers the Alchemist and Fredwreck.

In 2004, the song How I Could Just Kill A Man was included in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas created by Rockstar Games, playing on West Coast hip hop radio station Radio Los Santos. In December 2005 a best of compilation album titled Greatest Hits From the Bong was released including 9 hits from previous albums and 2 new tracks. The group's next album was tentatively scheduled for an early 2007 release. In the summer of 2006, B-Real appeared on Snoop Dogg's single "Vato", which was produced by Pharrell Williams.

In 2007 Cypress Hill toured with their full line up as a part of the Rock the Bells tour, held by Guerilla Union, and headlined with Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, and a reunited Rage Against the Machine. Other acts included Immortal Technique, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The Roots, EPMD, Pharoahe Monch, Jedi Mind Tricks, Erykah Badu, MF Doom, Sage Francis, Brother Ali, The Coup, Blue Print, Lucky I Am, Living Legends, Felt, Cage, Mr. Lif, Grouch & Eligh, Slightly Stoopid, and Hangar 18.

[edit] Departure from Sony and Rise Up (2008–present)

On July 25, 2008, Cypress Hill performed at a benefit concert at the House of Blues Chicago, where a majority of the proceeds went to the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness.^[4]

In August 2009, a new song by Cypress Hill, titled "Get 'Em Up", was made available on iTunes. The song is featured on the Madden NFL 2010 video game.^[5]

In November 2009, a new version of Guns N' Roses classic "Paradise City" performed by Cypress Hill, Slash and Fergie was made available as a bonus track to Slash's single "Sahara" off Slash's solo album Slash.

Cypress Hill's eighth studio album, Rise Up, features contributions from Everlast, Tom Morello, Daron Malakian, Pitbull, Marc Anthony and Mike Shinoda.^[6] The album was released on Priority Records/EMI Entertainment, as the group was signed to the label by new Creative Chairman Snoop Dogg on January 15, 2010. The album was finally released on April 20, 2010.^[7] The album's introduction single, "It Ain't Nothin'" was released as a free download from the group's official website. The song "Rise Up" was featured at WWE's pay-per-view, Elimination Chamber, as the official theme song for that event, and was released as the third single for the album, with "Armada Latina" being fourth. The song also appeared in the trailer of the movie The Green Hornet.

Cypress Hill commenced its Rise Up tour in Philadelphia on April 10, 2010. Julio G had replaced DJ Muggs for the tour. Muggs had been absent due to working on several other projects, including separate albums with B-Real and Sen Dog. The group was supposed to stop in Tucson, Arizona but canceled the show in protest of the recent immigration legislation. At the Rock en Seine festival in Paris on August 27, 2010 they said in an interview that they would wait and see what happens with the legislation before going back there.^[8] Cypress Hill performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in late August 2010, on the 28th at Leeds and the 29th at Reading.

In summer 2012, Cypress Hill and Dubstep artist Rusko will be releasing a collaborative EP entitled 'Cypress X Rusko'.

Style[link]

Rapping[link]

One of the band's most striking aspects is B-Real's exaggeratedly high-pitched nasal vocals.^[2] In the book Check the Technique B-Real describes his nasal style, saying his rapping voice is "high and annoying... the nasal style I have was just something that I developed... my more natural style wasn't so pleasing to [DJ Muggs and Sen Dog's] ears"^[9] and talking about the nasal style in the book How to Rap, B-Real says, "you want to stand out from the others and just be distinct... when you got something that can separate you from everybody else, you gotta use it to your advantage."^[1] Sen Dog's voice is deeper, more violent and often shouted alongside the rapping; his vocals are often emphasized by adding an additional background/choir voice to say them. Sen Dog's style is in contrast to B-Real's, who says, "[Sen's] voice is so strong", and "it all blends together" when they are both on the same track.^[9]

Both B-Real and Sen Dog started writing lyrics in both Spanish and English and B-Real was inspired to start writing raps from watching Sen Dog and Mellow Man Ace writing their lyrics,^[9] and originally B-Real was going to just be the writer for the group rather than a rapper.^[9] Their lyrics are noted for bringing a "cartoonish" approach to violence by Peter Shapiro and Allmusic.^[2][10]

Production[link]

The sound and groove of their music, produced by Muggs, is notable for its spooky sounds and stoned aesthetic; with its bass-heavy rhythms and odd sample loops ("Insane in the Brain" is notable for having a pitched-altered horse neigh looped in its chorus), it carries a psychedelic value, which lessened in the later albums.^[2][10]

The band is also known for involving rock instruments. In their songs – this has caused the band to sometimes be classified as a rap rock group.^[2] The double album Skull & Bones consists of a pure rap album ("Skull") and an entire CD of rap/rock songs ("Bones"). Also in IV, there is "Lightning Strikes" which doesn't truly use electric guitars, but a synthesized version of it. In the live album Live at The Fillmore some of the old classics are played in a rock/metal version, with Sen Dog's band SX-10 and Eric Bobo playing the rock instrument.

The band's music is constantly subject to change: while the first album and Black Sunday follow a more minimalistic and funky sound, III (Temples of Boom) has a very dark, spooky atmosphere and heavy beats, sometimes approaching hardcore rap. IV introduced more diverse sounds on the beats while maintaining the hardcore edge. The first albums are mostly influenced by psychedelic music, but the band eventually got closer to modern rap as it is today while still experimenting with rock from time to time, like on "Skull and Bones" and "Stoned Raiders".

The band involves horns in their songs, and often have guitar and horns together in the instrumentals. "What's Your Number?", "Trouble", "Tequila Sunrise", and "(Rock) Superstar" have become some of the band's most popular songs featuring these elements.

Side and solo projects[link]

Eric Bobo is part of the group Sol Invicto with producer Richie Londres and Stephen Carpenter of the Deftones. Eric Bobo is also a main member of Cultura Londres Proyecto which is a Spanish Hip Hop group from London, England. In 2008, he released his first solo album "Meeting Of The Minds" on Nacional Records. In 2011, he joined up with Chilean DJ Latin Bitman to form the group Ritmo Machine & in November 2011 they released the album "Welcome To The Ritmo Machine" on Nacional Records with special guests Sick Jacken (Psycho Realm), Ana Tijoux, Sen-Dog, Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys), P-Nut (311), Pato Machete & Chali 2na (Jurassic 5).

2009 saw the releases of both B-Real and Sen Dog's solo efforts Smoke N Mirrors and Diary of a Mad Dog. B-Real is also part of a super-group called Serial Killaz with both Xzibit and his protege Young De. B-Real started his own production company called Audio Hustlaz, with which he has worked and featured on tracks with Kurupt, Young De, Xzibit, Adil Omar, Snoop Dogg, Bitza and others, and has also done guest appearances for La Coka Nostra, Ill Bill, Prozak, Akrobatik, The Outlawz, Nipsey Hussle and Apathy.

Other notable side projects include B-Real's rap metal group Kush with members from Deftones and Fear Factory who are as yet to release any official material.

Sen Dog has released one album with his rap metal group SX-10.

Muggs has released collaborative albums with Sick Jacken, GZA, Planet Asia, Ill Bill and others.

Discography[link]

• Cypress Hill (1991)
• Black Sunday (1993)
• Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom (1995)
• Unreleased and Revamped (1996)
• Cypress Hill IV (1998)
• Skull & Bones (2000)
• Stoned Raiders (2001)
• Till Death Do Us Part (2004)
• Rise Up (2010)

Awards and Nominations[link]

Grammy Awards

MTV Video Music Awards Awards

Band Members[link]

Current Members

• B-Real – lead rapping (since 1988)
• DJ Muggs – turntables, production (since 1988)
• Eric Bobo – drums, percussion (since 1993)
• Sen Dog – rapping (since 1988)

Former Members

• Mellow Man Ace - rapping (1988)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Cypress Hill interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' April 2010
• Cypress Hill interview, August 2010, Radio France Internationale
• Cypress Hill on Velvet Hammer Site
• Cypress Hill at Legacy Recordings (Sony Music)
• Eric Bobo video interview

Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933, in a photo found by police at the Joplin, Missouri hideout

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their gang was known as the "Barrow Gang" which included Bonnie and Clyde, and at times Buck Barrow, Blanche Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Joe Palmer, Ralph Fults, and Henry Methvin. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. Though known today for his dozen-or-so bank robberies, Barrow in fact preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders. The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers. Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.^[1]

Even during their lifetimes, the couple's depiction in the press was at considerable odds with the hardscrabble reality of their life on the road—particularly in the case of Parker. Though she was present at a hundred or more felonies during her two years as Barrow's companion,^[2] she was not the machine gun-wielding cartoon killer portrayed in the newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Gang member W. D. Jones was unsure whether he had ever seen her fire at officers.^[3][4] Parker's reputation as a cigar-smoking gun moll grew out of a playful snapshot found by police at an abandoned hideout, released to the press, and published nationwide; while she did chain-smoke Camel cigarettes, she was not a cigar smoker.^[5]

Author-historian Jeff Guinn explains that it was the release of these very photos that put the outlaws on the media map and launched their legend: "John Dillinger had matinee-idol good looks and Pretty Boy Floyd had the best possible nickname, but the Joplin photos introduced new criminal superstars with the most titillating trademark of all—illicit sex. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were young and unmarried. They undoubtedly slept together. Without Bonnie, the media outside Texas might have dismissed Clyde as a gun-toting punk, if it ever considered him at all. With her sassy photographs, Bonnie supplied the sex-appeal, the oomph, that allowed the two of them to transcend the small-scale thefts and needless killings that actually comprised their criminal careers."^[6]

Beginnings[link]

Bonnie Parker[link]

Bonnie Parker
Parker with 1932 Ford V-8 B-400 convertible sedan. Captured Joplin film
Born	Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (1910-10-01)October 1, 1910 Rowena, Texas
Died	May 23, 1934(1934-05-23) (aged 23) Bienville Parish, Louisiana 32°26′28″N 93°05′34″W / 32.441217°N 93.092659°W / 32.441217; -93.092659 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Ambush)
Cause of death	Gunshot
Resting place	Crown Hill Memorial Park Dallas, Texas
Nationality	American

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, Charles Parker, a bricklayer, died when Bonnie was four.^[7] Her mother, Emma Krause, moved with the children to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb of Dallas, where she found work as a seamstress.^[8] Parker was one of the best students in her high school, winning top prizes in spelling, writing and public speaking.^[9] As an adult, her fondness for writing found expression in poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal"^[10] and "The Trail's End" (known since as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde"^[11]).

In her second year of high school, Parker met Roy Thornton. They dropped out of school and were married on September 25, 1926, six days before Parker's 16th birthday.^[12] Their marriage, marked by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, was short-lived, and after January 1929 their paths never crossed again. But they were never divorced, and Parker was wearing Thornton's wedding ring when she died.^[13] Thornton was in prison in 1934 when he learned of his wife's death. His reaction was, "I'm glad they went out like they did. It's much better than being caught."^[14]

In 1929, after the breakdown of her marriage and before her first meeting with Clyde Barrow in January 1930, Parker lived with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas. One of her regular customers in the café was postal worker Ted Hinton, who would join the Dallas Sheriff's Department in 1932 and, as a posse member, would participate in her ambush in 1934.^[15] In the diary she kept briefly early in 1929, she wrote of her loneliness, her impatience with life in provincial Dallas, and her love of talking pictures.^[16]

Clyde Barrow[link]

Clyde Barrow
Clyde Barrow in 1926, aged 16
Born	Clyde Chestnut Barrow (1909-03-24)March 24, 1909 Ellis County, Texas
Died	May 23, 1934(1934-05-23) (aged 25) Bienville Parish, Louisiana 32°26′28″N 93°05′34″W / 32.441217°N 93.092659°W / 32.441217; -93.092659 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Ambush)
Cause of death	Gunshot
Resting place	Western Heights Cemetery Dallas, Texas
Nationality	American

Clyde Chestnut Barrow^[17] (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) was born in Ellis County, Texas, near Telico, a town just south of Dallas.^[18] He was the fifth of seven children of Henry Basil Barrow (1874–1957) and Cumie T. Walker (1874–1943), a poor farming family that emigrated, piecemeal, to Dallas in the early 1920s as part of a wave of resettlement from the impoverished nearby farms to the urban slum known as West Dallas. The Barrows spent their first months in West Dallas living under their wagon. When father Henry had earned enough money to buy a tent, it was a major step up for the family.^[19]

Clyde was first arrested in late 1926, after running when police confronted him over a rental car he had failed to return on time. His second arrest, with brother Marvin "Buck" Barrow, came soon after, this time for possession of stolen goods (turkeys). Despite having legitimate jobs during the period 1927 through 1929, he also cracked safes, robbed stores, and stole cars. After sequential arrests in 1928 and 1929, he was sent to Eastham Prison Farm in April 1930. While in prison, Barrow beat to death another inmate who had repeatedly assaulted him sexually.^[20] It was Clyde Barrow's first killing.

Paroled in February 1932, Barrow emerged from Eastham a hardened and bitter criminal. His sister Marie said "Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison, because he wasn't the same person when he got out."^[21] A fellow inmate, Ralph Fults, said he watched him "change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake."^[22]

In his post-Eastham career, he focused on smaller jobs, robbing grocery stores and gas stations, at a rate far outpacing the mere ten to fifteen bank robberies attributed to him and the Barrow Gang. Barrow's favored weapon was the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (called a BAR). According to John Neal Phillips, Barrow's goal in life was not to gain fame or fortune from robbing banks, but to seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses he suffered while serving time.^[23]

First meeting[link]

There are several versions of the story describing Bonnie's and Clyde's first meeting, but the most credible version indicates that Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in January 1930 at a friend's house. Parker was out of work and was staying in West Dallas to assist a girl friend with a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was supposedly in the kitchen making hot chocolate.^[24]