Search - Cypress Hill :: Grandes Exitos En Espanol

ASI SE HACE!

cypressplay hereagain | Raleigh, North Carolina | 12/10/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Simply said, Cypress fans HAVE to buy this album. Unlike typical Greatest Hits albums, the English->Spanish translation necessitates a different interpretation to convey their sentiment. Translating is harder than it seems and this album could (and should) be held up as a standard to all bilingual artists. It is obvious that Cypress, Mellow Man Ace, Jacken, Duke and Fermin IV put a lot of work into it. Often a lot of attention is paid to a more dance-oriented sound. Hopefully, this album will influence future artists and inspire a bit more diversity. Los Grandes Exitos puts CH ahead of all others as far as rhyming in Spanish is concerned."

A few misfires but a very potent arsenal

3rdeadly3rd | Brisbane, Queensland Australia | 04/25/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I don't speak a word of Spanish but I am a fan of Cypress Hill and Control Machete. After I heard that this was coming out I thought it would be interesting to listen to and after I heard "No Entiendes La Onda" ("How I Could Just Kill A Man" en espanol) that really decided me.The sound of this album is roughly equivalent to the sound of each song in English, mostly. Because of the problems of translating between the two languages, there are often some beats which should (or, in the English versions, do) have lyrics on them or lyrics without beats - however the "homeless syllble syndrome", as a friend christened it - is hardly terminal.The thing which is particularly interesting for students of cross-cultural linguistics is how rapping in a different language really puts a different tone on a familiar track. "How I Could Just Kill A Man" becomes a lot more menacing when performed in Spanish, while the emphasis on "Insane In The Brain" changes from the infamous sample to the elastic-tongued rapping when the song becomes "Loco En El Coco". In a purely subjective sense, it is very entertaining to listen to Real and Sen rapping "Medio loco en el coco/ido de la mente" over the "Insane" sample - although the song does lose the "Don't you know I'm loco?" intro and the sampled outro.One rather bored afternoon I had the brainwave of translating these Spanish lyrics into English. I am still unsure whether it was due to Babelfish's inability to understand idiom or whether that is actually what the words were, but it is now almost impossible to take "Loco En El Coco" seriously again. This is due to the comic frequency of a word translated as "frog" in the version given to me by Babelfish. I still can't quite work out what the word replaced in the English version.One of the problems with Cypress Hill is that their albums generally have a fair number of tracks on which it is clear that B-Real, Sen and co didn't work for enough time. Here it can be seen again, there are some tracks (especially the ones written especially for the album) which do have a distinct sound of not having been really taken notice of.The only other downside for me on this album is the fact that my copy of the CD doesn't work on my CD player - so I have to borrow my parents' to enjoy the idiosyncratic delights of this album. This is made up by the fun of playing "Loco" at a party and being told to take it off - before the listener's face gets a puzzled expression at the reams of Spanish coming out of the speakers.On the whole, a great CD for Cypress Hill fans (especially those who speak Spanish) or fans of Spanish music. If you want a good fun album which is certainly something different, this is the way to go."

LATINO LINGO

EMMANUEL | TIBAS, COSTA RICA | 12/31/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Este nuevo disco de cypress es una recopilacion de sus grandes exitos en español, cabe destacar que la transferencia lirico-vocal del ingles al castellano está muy bien conseguida por parte de BREAL y SENDOG. Este disco contiene un tema original junto con FERMIN IV de CONTROL MACHETE "SIEMPRE PELIGROSO" con el cual nos demuestran que este grupo puede producir un album original en esta lengua."