As one of the frontmen of Cypress Hill, Senen Reyes (aka Sen Dog) has definitely placed his mark on music history. While most hip-hop artists spend more time in high school than making records, in the past 20+ years, Cypress Hill has sold over 17 million albums and released several ten top 10 hits including “How Could I Just Kill a Man”, “Insane In The Brain” and “Rock Superstar.” Cypress Hill was also the first Latino group to have both platinum and multi-platinum albums. It's a wonder why it took Sen Dog two decades to release his first solo album titled Diary of a Mad Dog. It's an album Sen Dog promises Cypress Hill fans will enjoy. It was our pleasure to chat with Sen Dog about the future of Cypress Hill, his first solo album and the heart attack he suffered while working on it.

Cypress Hill is currently in-between record labels. Your 15 year contract with Sony Records just ended. Because the Cypress situation is kind of stagnant right now, do Cypress fans have any need to worry?

No, man. We're still a band. We're still recording. We've got like 13 songs from our new recording and we continue to keep going forward, man.

 So why the decision to come out with a solo album?

Well, basically, nothing was really happening with Cypress. My personal management cat named Kevin Zinger, he owns Suburban Noize Records, talked me into doing an album. He was like, "Man, give me an album for my label. That will keep you busy for a little while." So I was like "Alright, cool," and jumped in it with him, you know, got a deal with him and started knocking it down. So that's how it came about.

Do you have any featured artists on Diary of a Mad Dog?

Not anybody known. I wanted there to be an underground feel to the record and I thought I've got a lot of homeboys that I roll with every day that deserve to be on a record that's actually going to come out and their names will get out because they're hot ass MCs and hot ass producers that just haven't come out yet. When it comes down to my solo stuff, I want to grow into having Snoop Dogg and Ludacris and guys of that quality on my record and stuff like that. But I want to build it up into that. I don't want to just jump into that right away, so that's where my mentality is on that.

It seems as though people are getting so sick of the mainstream stuff right now that they're getting hungrier for the underground hip-hop and there is a bigger market for it right now.

Yeah, well that's where I've always been at. I've never really paid attention to what's on the radio. I mean, maybe in the past I listened to the radio more, but now I think what's on the radio is what you're gonna get and you're gonna get it every hour. I've always just paid attention to what's not on the radio and that's where I put my attention to. One of my favorite artists that I listen to, I have never heard on the radio and that's Atmosphere. Atmosphere is hard and I've never heard them on any hip-hop stations where I live at and I think he's one of the most cleverest cats out there. So that lets you know the power over the underground and to me is where the real deal is at.

Exactly. A lot of people complain about the current situation, but if you dig deep and you look a little bit harder, there are a lot of dope people out there still making great music.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Some of these artists roll with labels that have the power and the payola and can get the record played, and some of these labels don't got that power. Some of these artists are better than what's on the radio, but that's the nature of the beast. It's always been like that. I would say to the real hip-hop consumer, the real hip-hop head, definitely find out what's underneath the surface because nine times out of ten it's better than any of the shit that's mainstream..

Now, during the recording of this album, is it true that you suffered from a heart attack?

Yeah, I went down for about 10 days from what they called a slight heart attack and it hurt like a motherfucker (laughs). I say to myself, if that's a slight one I'd hate to have a real one because that shit hurt like a motherfucker.

So it was just your heart basically?

Yeah, heart problems and artery problems and stuff like that. I went through a procedure where they had to repair one of my arteries by my heart and stuff like that. I was only in the hospital for like 10 days, but I think recovery-wise it took more than that. To me, it seems it took like 4 months before the time I could really see colors and hear good and not get tired really fast in the middle of the day. It took about 4 good months to really recover from that.

Wow, so it almost killed you.

Yeah, because 8 out of 10 times they say it's gas. I went in and they took X-Rays and they were like, "There's something wrong so we're keeping you," so I was like, "Alright."

Where were you when it happened?

I was in my house. I was in my garage drinking a 40 ounce.

Did you know it was a heart attack when it happened?

I had some idea. I had never felt anything like this, so I was like, "This ain't natural." So I called my moms up to come get me, I was like "Moms, I don't feel good." So I had an idea because my left arm was numb and my fingers were tingling and shit, so I was like, "Yeah, something's fuckin' wrong here."

So how has it changed your life in general and your lifestyle choices?

Big-time, man. I've basically been given a second chance. It could have been worse. It could have been a full-on stroke. I could have paralyzed half my body and shit. I definitely look at it like You definitely have to change up the way you eat and all that stuff because that's the main shit right there. It's all the high cholesterol stuff and all the years of doing that will eventually fuck you up. It will catch up with your ass. Nobody's immune to it because the older you get, the older your body gets too, so eventually that lifestyle will catch up with you and you'll end up in a fuckin' hospital like I did.

Did it change the outcome or the tone of the album at all?

Um, I think some of the songs that came afterwards, there are a couple of songs that were a little more serious like that song called "Fumble" that fits a drum and base-driven, techno, house kind of sounding song. I don't think it changed anything really drastically. I just think it slowed shit up because I couldn't even keep a thought for a month after that. I would be thinking about something I wanted to do and then just forget out of nowhere, you know? That's just the whole part of the shock your body and your system has been through.

So are you still recovering or do you feel like you've totally recovered now?

You'll always be recovering. Always, always. 20 years from now your body and cholesterol could be perfectly fine at low levels and whatnot, but you know, your body still went through that shock. That shock still went through your system. It's like being a junkie and recovering and getting clean. You're never going be clean. You're always going to be that junkie if you let yourself. I mean, right now I feel 100% but I've got to stay on top of shit, taking my meds and all that, to stay that way.

When you decided to come out with a solo album, was it important for you to distinguish yourself as a solo artist or was it not even a thought?

You know, it wasn't even a thought because I'm always going to be Sen Dog from Cypress Hill, you know what I mean? I'm always going to be that guy and I'm not trying to distinguish myself as a solo artist and be like, "Okay, here I'm on my own now. I'm the shit. My shit's as equal with Cypress. It's the same, blah, blah, blah." Nah, I'm not trying to do that.

I recognize who I am and that's who I am. I'm not trying to be different from that. When The Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and those guys, they were all doing their individual thing, but every time you saw them, you immediately associated The Beatles with them. I ain't trying to go against the grain right there.

Hey, and being Sen Dog from Cypress Hill isn't a bad thing...

...It's not a bad thing at all, man. I'm part of one of the coolest fuckin' rap bands of at all time and we've been a band together for 20 years and been professional for almost 18 and being onstage. I relate me being in this band like I relate to being a part of the Beastie Boys or Public Enemy or something like that, you know what I mean.

Growing up listening to you, I always thought of Cypress Hill as being more of a rock band in a way because you guys appealed to that rock crowd just as much as the hip-hop crowd.

I mean, I'm an older vato, homes. I'm 42 years old, so when I first got into music, hip-hop wasn't as dominant as it is today. When I first came from Cuba, there wasn't any hip-hop. I was a little kid and the first music that I listened to that was American music was Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Beach Boys and Elvis Presley. That was my education into American music. It's funny because B-Real and where they were growing up at, they were going through the same thing with their family situation. We listened to a lot of rock n' roll growing up and we didn't even notice, but our initial thoughts of how we wanted to present the band visually were kind of rock influenced and somebody noticed that about it and they were like, "Man, this logo looks like a rock band logo or something," and we were like, "Oh, this is too cool." So we just ran with it, you know what I mean?

When we were coming out with our first record, everything that everybody else was doing, we did the exact opposite. People were putting their faces on their album cover. We would have no faces on our album cover. People were showing their pictures and all 28 teeth on their eight-by-tens. You could hardly see our faces on our eight-by-tens. All this imagery that we admired from guys like Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin and watching Pink Floyd and The Who and The Grateful Dead and stuff like that, all that great imagery that was going on, we were like, "Man, we've got to do shit like that."

It was natural for the rock n' roll audience to gravitate towards us because part of our energy and part of our history and knowledge of history is influenced by the greatest rock n' roll artists of all-time. Growing up as a little kid, I wanted to be Jimi Hendrix. I wanted to be on the stage burning my guitar. I got into hip-hop, so I could burn my turntables (laughs). Set them niggas on fire, that type of thing, and people would bug out on it because we would smash up our set. People would be like, "What's wrong with these guys? They're breaking apart completely good Technique 1200's," and that was part of our show. We got into it and that's what we did, and from that I think the whole alternative audience gravitated towards us and things were cool.

What was it like Cypress performed at Woodstock '94?

That was raw. That was raw. That was, like, the first time we were really on a massive stage and I remember saying to myself, like, "Fuck, we could land a helicopter on this fuckin' thing," you know? After that show we were talking in the backstage dressing room and we were like, "Dudes, we've got to fuckin' do a bigger show now. We need more shit, we need more visuals, we need more lights," and all that. We knew that those sized gigs were going to start coming, so we knew we had to get ready for all that.

Sen Dog and the rest of Cypress Hill on stage at Woodstock (2004).

Out of all the shows that you've performed, what's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you onstage?

Well, there were a couple of times there where I fell on my ass. The stage was wet, whatever, it was raining, whatever, and I fell down in the middle of a rap. That's pretty embarrassing. Then when you completely forget a song right in the middle of it, then the crowd still raps it along while you forget and you have to stop the fuckin' song, apologize to ‘em then start the motherfucker over, then you forget again (laughs). So that's pretty fuckin' bizarre-embarrassing right there.

What's the most ridiculous thing you've ever read about yourself online?

I don't remember right now because to tell you the honest truth, man, I never really paid a lot of attention to what was being written in the magazines. If I came out on a magazine cover I would keep it, but I would never read it. I think one of the most ridiculous things that we ever heard was that I was some sort of illegal refugee that was in this country. And me any family had snuck in here from Cuba and whatnot and that Cypress couldn't go to Europe for some reason because they had found out that I'm an illegal alien or some shit and I don't have a green card or some kind of bullshit like that. That got out and I was like, "That's pretty fuckin' stupid," (laughs).

Do you think with the changes that have been happening in Cuba lately that Cypress Hill will ever be able to play there?

Yeah, I think so. I think so. There are slight changes going down right now. There's going to be big changes going down later, but I think so. There's going to be a moment in time when they're going to be ready for that. Rage Against the Machine played there a few years back and they basically opened the door for that, so now with Raul Castro in charge and the small changes he's made, it shows there's going to be even bigger changes down the line. He's willing to step up and make those changes and it will become a different Cuba.

So Cuba is somewhere you would definitely like to play?

Oh yeah, definitely, man. That would be the coming home party of all coming home parties right there.

Out of all the places you've toured where else haven't you played in the world?

Um, we haven't played in China or Korea. I don't know. There's not that many places. I mean, we've been all over Taiwan... we've been to Japan and all that stuff, but we've never been [to China or Korea].

Cypress Hill at festival "Les Ardentes 2008" (Liège Belgium). Flickr photo by Steph.

Finish this sentence: I want all my fans to…

I want all my fans to never stop believing in Cypress and always keep supporting us and believing in us. Because the one reason we still do Cypress Hill is because all of the fans that have supported us for so many years and always come check us out on tour. We feel that we owe it to them to keep this band going for generations. I always want our fans to know that we love them and we appreciate them more than anybody can appreciate anything on earth.

B-Real and Sen Dog; © T. Van Nunnery | www.tvannunnery.com

	Sen Dog - Diary of a Mad Dog (2008) To hear a song sample, click on your flag. 01. Fumble 02. Capo 03. Biggy Bang 04. Hard In The Paint 05. Graceful 06. Juggernaut 07. Backin' Up My Gang 08. Don't Sleep In The Streets 09. The Sicko 10. International 11. Hell and Back 12. What You Wanna Do 13. Hood Rat Love 14. Stand Up 15. Curtain Call

This item is available for purchase from Amazon.com Sen Dog, (born Senen Reyes in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban rapper, and member of rap group Cypress Hill. He is the older brother of fellow rapper Mellow Man Ace. For more information, check out Sen Dog's MySpace Page Rating: Requirements: CD player, iPod, Zune, etc. Manufacturer: Suburban Noize Records