Cypress Hill Rises Again With New, `Gritty` Album

B-Real said Cypress Hill worked with pals Everlast, Evidence and The Alchemist on the as-yet-untitled album for Suburban Noize Records.

Rap troupe Cypress Hill is finishing its first studio album in five years and planning a fall release, according to the group's B-Real.

"We're mixing right now," B-Real, who just released his first solo album, "Smoke N Mirrors," told Billboard.com. He described the group's new music as "gritty. It's aggressive. It's like hip-hop straight-up. We just felt like we needed to go back to that raw, gritty hip-hop sound but try to find a way to bridge it with what's going on now."

B-Real said Cypress Hill worked with pals Everlast, Evidence and The Alchemist on the as-yet-untitled album for Suburban Noize Records, but he didn't anticipate many other guests. "We don't really do a lot of collaborations in Cypress. We keep it in house."

The group members have been working mostly on their own projects since 2004's "Til Death Do Us Part" and a split with Columbia Records, their longtime label home.

B-Real (born Louis Freese) said he's been working on "Smoke N Mirrors" for the better part of three years, coming up with 40 songs -- 15 of which are on the album, the rest used for three "The Gunslinger" mixtapes he released between 2005 and 2007.

"It was different," he said of working solo on "Smoke N Mirrors," which features contributions from Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Buckshot, Damian Marley, Too $hort, Kurpt, Cypress Hill mate Sen Dog and B-Real protege Young De. "We're used to working with each other (in Cypress Hill), bouncing ideas off each other. This one I had to carry on my back, on my own. But I like challenges, so it wasn't that bad at all. I don't really get periods where I can't come up with an idea that I want to use. What needs to click will click."

B-Real plans to do solo shows to support "Smoke N Mirrors" and also hopes to develop new artists on his Audio Hustlaz label, concentrating first on Young De after finishing the Cypress Hill album. He also sees the possibility of Cypress Hill showcasing some of the members' solo material when it tours to promote the new album.

"Yeah, there's plenty of music to be done," B-Real said. "So we can get out there and pull off the live show at any point and maybe incorporate some of our solo work in there. That would be dope."