How I Could Just Kill a Man
The debut single and first major hit, a double A-side with The Phuncky Feel One.
Cypress Hill, from Cypress Hill (1991)
- Released
- 1991
- Length
- 4:04
- Album
- Cypress Hill
The group's first single, released as a double A-side with The Phuncky Feel One, was their first major hit in 1991. Together the two topped Billboard's year-end Hot Rap Singles chart for 1992. It was in the film Juice in 1992 and was reissued in 1999 with Spanish lyrics and a new video. Kevin Powell of Rolling Stone wrote that the title is purposely misleading and that the song is about ghetto-survival techniques, with a stomping drumbeat and blaring horns.
It samples Lowell Fulson's 1967 hit Tramp for the guitar and bass, with drums from Manzel's Midnight Theme. Near the end a voice says all it wanted was a Pepsi, a line from Suicidal Tendencies' Institutionalized. The video has cameos by Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Tim Dog and Ice Cube. In 2001 the group made a sequel, Here Is Something You Can't Understand, on Stoned Raiders, with the same chorus and new verses from B-Real, Sen Dog and the guest Kurupt. In 2021 the Alchemist remixed the song for the debut's 30th anniversary.
Live
Spin ranked a performance on Yo! MTV Raps from the MTV Spring Break show at Daytona Beach in 1992 as the group's greatest live appearance.
Covers and versions
- Cpt. Kirk &. (1994) As How He Could Just Kill a Man, on Round About Wyatt.
- Rage Against the Machine On Renegades, issued as a single, and performed with Cypress Hill on the DVD Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.
- B-star On What We Do.
More songs by Cypress Hill
Hand on the Pump, Latin Lingo, Insane in the Brain, I Ain't Goin' Out Like That, Throw Your Set in the Air
Sources
- How I Could Just Kill a Man, Wikipedia
- Cypress Hill review, Rolling Stone (1991-10-03)
- Cypress Hill's 10 greatest live performances, Spin (2023-06-23)
- Cypress Hill release 30th anniversary expanded edition of debut album, Pitchfork (2021-08-13)