No Rest For The Wicked

Album: Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom (1995)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is about an argument Cypress Hill had with another gansta rapper, Ice Cube, originating when Cube allegedly stole the hook to Cypress Hill's song "Throw Your Set In The Air."

    According to an interview given by Cypress Hill rapper B-Real, Ice Cube was allowed to hear "Throw Your Set In The Air" when it was in the mixing process. Cypress Hill were producing a song for Ice Cube's movie Friday called "Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up" (you can guess what that one's about). After playing him that song, they let Cube listen to some other tracks they were working on for their upcoming album, Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom, including "Throw Your Set in the Air."

    After listening to the track, Ice Cube asked B-Real if he could use it in the film. B-Real refused because he wanted to use it on their album. Ice Cube asked to listen to the track once again, which he was allowed to, and then he went home.

    When the Friday movie came out, the soundtrack included an Ice Cube song called "Friday" with a hook that closely resembles "Throw Your Set In The Air," which Cypress Hill had yet to release. In "Friday," the chorus is, "Throw your neighborhood in the air." That's when the problems began and Cypress Hill decided to write "No Rest For The Wicked," which they included on the album along with "Throw Your Set In The Air."
  • The song is full of references and insults to Ice Cube. For example, it makes fun of Ice Cube's real name, O'Shea Jackson. In one verse it claims: "Jackson, lemme figure out the name - Jack 'cause you be stealing other n-gg-z game." In this context, "Jack" means "to steal."
  • At the end of the first part of the song we can hear: "Cube, better sit back and check yourself." That's a reference to one of Ice Cube's songs, "Check Yo Self," included on his 1993 album The Predator. Curiously, this album was produced - among others - by DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill.
  • In one part of the song the story about this argument is told to the listener, yet very briefly and very Cypress Hill-styled. We can hear DJ Muggs stating: "Yeah n-gga, my homie thought he had a homie in you. He let you listen to our mutha--ckin' cut, and you turned around and put some old variety s--t out. What kind of s--t is that? Hmmm..."

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