Songfacts®:

• Cypress Hill hit two main topics in their songs: weed and violence. But another big theme is madness, the kind of crazy that protects you from your enemies because nobody wants to mess with someone who's clearly unhinged. That's what's going on in "Insane In The Brain."
• "Insane In The Brain" is the biggest hit for Cypress Hill, the first Latin hip-hop stars. They were part of the first wave of West Coast gangsta rap pioneered by N.W.A, whose members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube were enjoying solo hits and selling lots of albums. Cypress Hill stood out with lead rapper B-Real's unusually nasal voice - it was as if Steve Urkel was threatening to kill you. Their other rapper is Sen Dog, who has a traditionally gruff delivery. They were like Public Enemy in reverse (B-Real = Flavor Flav, Sen Dog = Chuck D). On this and many other Cypress Hill songs, B-Real introduces the first line in the chorus ("Insane in the membrane") and Sen Dog answers back ("Insane in the brain!").
  
  Also distinguishing Cypress Hill is their beatmaker, DJ Muggs. He found lots of samples and squiggles to spice up the mix, creating tracks that would get the crowd pumping.
• You'll notice that "Insane In The Brain" sounds a lot like another hip-hop hit from this era: "Jump Around" by House Of Pain. Both songs were produced by DJ Muggs; "Jump Around" came first, released in May 1992 and peaking on the charts in October. "Insane In The Brain" came out in June 1993 and peaked that September.
• "Insane In The Brain" was the lead single from Cypress Hill's second album, Black Sunday. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1991 and slowly built a following for the group; the lead single, "How I Could Just Kill A Man," was a #1 Rap hit and even reached the Hot 100, peaking at #77 in March 1992. They spent that summer as a side stage act on the Lollapalooza tour, and in November they opened some shows for Beastie Boys (they appear on a remix of Beasties' "So What'cha Want").
  
  "Insane In The Brain" was released as a single in June 1993 and built anticipation for the album, which went to #1 when it was released in July. It spent two weeks at #1; along with Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, it was one of just two rap albums to top the chart that year.
• Kind of surprising that no one thought to rhyme "insane" and "brain" in a song title before. "Insane" had more of a clinical meaning decades earlier, so it didn't show up in the title of a hit song until 1979 when Desmond Child & Rouge went to #51 with "Our Love Is Insane." Next came "Go Insane" by Lindsey Buckingham (#25 in 1984), and then "Insane In The Brain."
• This being a Cypress Hill song, there are some pot references, but it's not the pot that makes them crazy, it's getting hassled by cops and dealing with their opps. And also, alcohol. B-Real explains that when he goes out drinking, it makes his mind slow, so he's not going to mess with the "big 4-0" (a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor).
  
  Cypress Hill, the first hip-hop representatives for NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), often talked about the benefits of smoking pot.
• DJ Muggs used a parade of samples to build the track, with lots of little stabs and beats popping in and out. The calliope sound in the bridge ("Like Louie Armstrong played the trumpet...") is sampled from a 1968 Sly & the Family Stone song called "Life."
  
  The voice that says, "I think I'm going crazy" at the end of the song is sampled from the 1967 track "All Over the World (La La)" by The Youngbloods.
• According to Sen Dog, the opening lines in this song are a clap back at Chubb Rock, who released a song in 1992 called "Yabadabadoo" with a few lines that seemed to mock B-Real's flow. So Sen Dog is addressing Chubb in the open, when he says:
  
  Who you tryin' to get crazy with ése?
  Don't you know I'm loco?
  
  Chubb called himself "The Flamboyant One," to B-Real takes this stab in his opening verse:
  
  To the one on the flamboyant tip
  I'll just toss that ham in the frying pan
  
  "I told B-Real, 'Cook his ass real good,' which he did," Sen Dog told Rock The Bells.
• The video got a lot of plays on MTV, which featured the band in their spring break coverage in 1993, giving them a lot more exposure.
• Cypress Hill played "Insane In The Brain" on Saturday Night Live October 2, 1993. It was their first - and last - appearance on the show. During their second song ("I Ain't Goin' Out Like That"), DJ Muggs lit one up on stage, getting them banned from the show for life.
• Cypress Hill were the first rappers to appear on The Simpsons, showing up in the 1996 season 7 episode "Homerpalooza," where Homer brings Bart and Lisa to the very Lollapalooza-like Hullabalooza festival.
  
  Backstage, an organizer shows up with the London Symphony Orchestra and asks who ordered them. When nobody fesses up, he blames Cypress Hill, figuring they ordered them while stoned. The group can't remember, so they own up to it. "Do you know 'Insane In The Brain'?" they ask. "We mostly know classical, but we could give it a shot," the orchestra leader replies. The group then launches into the song, with the LSO accompanying with violins. Marge Simpson, looking on, says, "This I like." Later, we learn that Cypress Hill didn't order the orchestra - Peter Frampton did.
  
  On July 10, 2024, the flesh-and-blood version of Cypress Hill and the London Symphony Orchestra teamed up for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where they performed "Insane In The Brain" and other songs the band's catalog.
• "Insane In The Brain" was a global hit, earning the band fans throughout Europe. The Black Sunday album was especially popular in the UK, where four of the tracks charted.
• Cypress Hill released their next album, Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom, in 1995. Sen Dog left the group soon after, but returned a few years later. They're ensuing albums didn't get much attention but they remained a popular live act decades later.