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CYPRESS_HILL

                                                  February 14, 2007

             Jumping off the LIRR at the Jamaca
             stop, and riding the oxymoronic
             elevated subway line through Brooklyn
             turns out to have been an interesting
             move...  the El ran through my old
             neighborhood where I lived until I       When I mentioned I
             was five years old --                    was technically
                                                      from Brooklyn,
                     This looked like a cool          someone -- a
                     neigborhood to me...             hip-hop DJ at
                     old houses with small            KZSU, who was also
                     front yards, and some            from Brooklyn --
                     huge trees growing by            asked me "What
                     the side of the street.          neigbhorhood?"

                        I owe my mallocluded          I had no idea what to
     Much more          jaw to one of those           say.  I still had the
     graffiti           trees: I did a                address memorized:
     than when          high-speed tricyle            "30 Richmond St", and
     I was a            collision with a              I remembered it being
     kid...             sidewalk paving               near the frightening
                        stone pushed up by            Jamaica Avenue on one
     And a few          tree roots.  I lost           side and a cemetary
     years after        both front teeth on           on the other...
     we moved,          impact with the ground.
     I heard                                          It turns out that
     reports                Apparently those          the cemetary, and
     that the               front teeth perform       the surrounding
     neighborhood           an important              neighborhood is
     Had Changed.           developmental             named Cypress
                            role in                   Hill... which is a
       I would              restraining your          name I recognized
       infer that           lower jaw.                only as a hip-hop
       my Dad's             Without them, you         group, which I'd
       decision to          can end up with a         played on the air at
       leave was            serious underbite,        KZSU a few times.
       part of              which my thirteen         
       an incipient         year-old self liked       (Though they're actually 
       White Flight.        to obsess about when      from LA, and the name 
                            I was looking for         presumably refers to a 
                            something like that       totally different 
                            to obsess about.          neighborhood-- does that 
                                                      kill the joke?)
          Or maybe                                                   
          it was                                       
          unrelated.                                   
                                                       MONKEY
          He might've
          just wanted
          to get my
          brothers
          and I out
          of the
          Brooklyn
          juvenile
          delinquent
          scene.





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