My man done lent me a tape deck so I been ripping tapes all day. When I found this one I had to up it immediately.
Click Here to Download and Jam - Cypress Hill live at The Underground Houston, TX April 10, 1992
Yeah man, that's the whole concert right there and then some. It was April in Houston, and well, the club was so damn hot, the humidity destroyed the DAT machine, so Cypress I guess was only able to perform the songs they had instrumentals from on vinyl. I interviewed Sen and Muggs (audio DL below) that night so I had my lil cassette recorder in my pocket. I switched it on when I thought the show was about to start and left it on till well after they stopped, capturing all kinds of ill crowd noise.
This is a piece of Houston history here for real. At least for me it is. It was the first time I ever saw UGK Live in person. They didn't perform, but their crew was at least 10 deep, all wearing black baseball caps with UNDERGROUND KINGS embroidered on them. I remember seeing them around the club and thinking to myself, "Who the hell is this calling themselves Underground Kings?" Then the DJ Played "Tell Me Something Good" and shouted them out and I realized that yeah, these are the dudes I been hearing every ten seconds on the radio every day on 97.9 the Box (when it was good).
Listening to the banter before the show you can hear the legendary Steve Fournier (who may or may not have been wearing a tuxedo) shout out UGK, and then he and Golden Child - former DJ on the Box, I think originally from Philly? I could be wrong - play with the crowd as we all grow restless waiting for the group to come on stage. Turns out the DAT problems were the hold up.
Anyway they came out and straight ripped it. Of course it was a short set, but by then I was used to that shit. Every time I went to a rap show back in those days, the DJ would spin records all night, and the group would come on no earlier than 1:45 a.m. At times they'd come on after 2 a.m. when all the drinks had been cleared and everyone was just milling around like WHAT THE FUCK?
I wasn't even 21 at this show, in fact I was 20, so I did a lot of standing around. Waiting, wondering, whatever.
I saw Muggs walking to the dressing room (if they even had a dressing room at that spot) and asked him if I could get a quick interview. He went and got Sen and we did the interview right in the middle of the club. You can hear the crowd noise and the DJ Playing the jams in the background. I hope you enjoy listening to this half as much as I did just now.
Click Here to Download - Matt Sonzala Interview with Cypress Hill - April 10, 1992 at the Underground in Houston, TX
Incidentally I went to the Underground the next week for the Too Short / Too Much Trouble show, and he never showed up. Fucked up thing is, I was doing promotions at the Box at that point, and everybody up there pretty much knew he was not coming and blamed Majic 102 for sabotaging the show. I guess he never got on the plane.
That however didn't stop the club from pumping him up all night, until finally at 2 a.m., maybe a little after, they made the announcement that he did not show up, and everybody had to get the fuck out.
The place erupted into a total fucking mess, and I was like what the fuck, car was parked in so I couldn't get out of there and I just kind of milled around attempting to avoid the madness. It was so fucked up, but alas, was pretty much how a lot of the shows went back in those days.
Shit sucked, but when it was on it was on. Like this here particular night. Enjoy the show, and the interview, and leave me a comment if you feel so inclined.
Also, FUCK THE BOX. I wonder what Steve Fournier thinks about the ban on Trae? I wonder if he even knows. I wonder if he's still in Houston. Anyone have a Steve Fournier sighting lately?
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