Cypress Hill Jams With Slash, Tom MorelloOctober 02, 2008 , 1:05 PM ET
Gary Graff, Detroit
With his first solo album just out, rapper Sen Dog is looking forward to new projects with his group concerns.
The MC, who released "Diary of a Mad Dog" this week and plans to do some touring soon to promote the album, tells Billboard.com that Cypress Hill is "in the process" of making a new album, which will be the follow-up to 2004's "Till Death Do Us Part." "We've got 30 songs done," says Sen Dog, who describes the album as "definitely hard-core hip-hop. I wouldn't say it's overly hardcore, but it's definitely a hip-hop album."
The set will include writing and production collaborations with Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello on a track called "Rise Up" and with Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda on another song. Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash, meanwhile, plays on a tune called "Front Line." But Sen Dog (real name Serien Reyes) says the final guest list will be relatively small."I mentioned that to B-Real; I said, 'Hey, B, are we gonna have some guest artists, like Snoop Dogg or anybody?" Sen Dog recalls. "And he goes, 'No! F*ck no! Me and you are f*cking tearing this shit up now. We don't need no help.' And I'm like, alright, dawg, as long as you're happy...'"
Sen Dog says the trio hopes to finish the album in December and have it out by the spring of 2009, pending a new label deal following its departure from Ruffhouse/Columbia. "There's already major-label interest out there," he reports. "We're gonna basically turn in a done album and see what's the best deal for us."
In early 2009, meanwhile, Sen Dog will release the fourth album by his rap-rock group SX-10 on Suburban Noize, which also released "Diary of a Mad Dog." He calls the as-yet-untitled set -- which includes guest appearances by guitarist Zakk Wylde, Slipknot DJ Side Wilson, B-Real and Cypress Hill percussionist Eric Bobo "the best work I've ever done to date on my own. It's everything I ever envisioned SX-10 being." But another Reyes Brothers album with his sibling Mellow Man Ace isn't on his radar yet.
"We released the 'Reyes Brothers' album in '06," Sen Dog says. "Right now (Mellow Man Ace) just got married, and he's written a movie for somebody, so that's where all his time and energies are going. And right now my solo record and SX-10 and Cypress should keep me busy, so we'll do the Reyes Brothers another day."
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003869704
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