Insane in the Brain

Released in June 1993 by Ruffhouse and Columbia as the first single from Black Sunday, it was written by Louis Freese, Lawrence Muggerud and Senen Reyes and produced by Muggerud. It reached number one on the US rap chart and 19 on the Hot 100, sold three million copies in the United States, and earned the group its first Grammy nomination. VH1 placed it at number 34 in a 2008 list of the 100 greatest hip-hop songs.

Sen Dog recalled B-Real writing in his blue Cadillac Seville in a parking lot and showing him the line about the membrane. DJ Muggs made the beat in his apartment in Queens. It began slower, but the drum machine could only change tempo in steps of six beats a minute, so he sped it from 96 to 102. He said its format was close to House of Pain's Jump Around, a beat he had made right after the debut. B-Real did not want to go back into the studio so soon, so Muggs offered it to Ice Cube, who passed, and gave it to House of Pain. The beat for this one took about a day, the lyrics three hours and the recording about an hour.

Sound

The main drum break comes from George Semper's version of Get Out of My Life, Woman, on his 1966 album Makin' Waves. Muggs told Sound on Sound it was not his favorite record on the album, but that it had to be the single. Joe Nicolo mixed it at Studio 4 in Philadelphia, using a Lexicon Primetime II as the only delay and an EMT 140 plate or Yamaha REV-7 for touches of reverb. The phrase insane in the brain had already appeared on Hole in the Head on the debut.

Billboard's Larry Flick predicted a brain-embedding hook, Ben Thompson of The Independent called it the party record of the aeon, and NME made it Single of the Week. The video, directed by Josh Taft at San Francisco's DNA Lounge, puts the group at a rave under strobing lights.

Live

The group played it on Saturday Night Live on 2 October 1993. In 2009 Snoop Dogg brought out B-Real and Sen Dog to perform it on Lopez Tonight. It was also used in an episode of The Simpsons, Homerpalooza, and in the film Zoolander. Sen Dog later said the song made the whole world know them, and that they had once dreamed of being the Grateful Dead of hip-hop.