Shankul Bhandare
Typically accustomed to performing pieces by Rachmaninov and Brahms, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) will showcase their expertise on Wednesday night by playing Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain.”
The orchestra is bringing a 1996 Simpsons joke to life by performing the US hip-hop trio Cypress Hill’s acclaimed “Black Sunday” album at the Royal Albert Hall.
The evening is inspired by a joke from a Simpsons episode where Cypress Hill speculated they had mistakenly booked the LSO “possibly while high.”
After years of fan pressure, the group has arranged a one-night performance in London, where the LSO will perform their most famous songs, including “Insane in the Brain” and “I Wanna Get High.”
As pioneers of the West Coast hip-hop scene in the 1990s, Cypress Hill has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. Their hit “Black Sunday” album sold more than 3 million copies in the US and spent a year on the UK charts.
B-Real (Louis Mario Freese) told the BBC, “It’s been something we’ve talked about for many years since the Simpsons episode first aired. So it’s very special for us. And it’s coming off the heels of our 30th anniversary for our ‘Black Sunday’ album.
“We’ve played a lot of historical venues throughout our career, but nothing as prestigious as this.”
B-Real noted that Cypress Hill has always embraced experimental collaborations as “out-of-the-box artists,” mixing hip-hop with rock, metal, punk, reggae, and electronic music.
He added, “We salute the Simpsons because if they had not written that episode, we probably wouldn’t be doing this.”
In the Simpsons episode “Homerpalooza,” Homer tries to impress Bart and Lisa by attending the Hullabalooza music festival, a parody of the Lollapalooza festival, and mingling with 1990s rap and rock stars, including Cypress Hill and The Smashing Pumpkins.
In the episode, a crew member says, “somebody ordered,” then adds, “possibly while high … Cypress Hill, I’m looking in your direction.” This is followed by a rendition of “Insane in the Brain” with orchestral backing.
Cypress Hill has invited UK musician Peter Frampton, who appears in the episode as the person trying to book the orchestra, but they are still awaiting his response.
LSO first violinist and board vice-chair Maxine Kwok told the BBC that it is an important cultural reference and that “people are beyond excited at the idea of these diverse musicians mixing on the stage.”
She added, “Being a child of the 90s I remember the episode well.”
Rehearsals have revealed cultural differences, such as the LSO interpreting the word “glock” to mean the percussion instrument glockenspiel, rather than a gun.
The Simpsons has previously predicted future events, including Trump’s presidency, a tiger attack on Las Vegas magicians Siegfried and Roy, and the US beating Sweden to win its first Winter Olympic curling gold.
