They may be more accustomed to Rachmaninov and Brahms, but on Wednesday night the London Symphony Orchestra musicians will demonstrate their perfect crescendo in Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain.”
The band played American hip-hop trio Cypress Hill’s critically acclaimed Black Sunday album at the Royal Albert Hall, finally turning the 1996 Simpsons joke into reality.
A joke from The Simpsons episode will be repeated tonight, with Cypress Hill speculating that they mistakenly booked the London Symphony Orchestra “probably while drunk”.
After years of fan pressure, the orchestra has struck a deal for a one-night London performance in which the London Symphony Orchestra will perform some of its best-known songs, including “Insane in the Brain” and “I Wanna Get High.”
Cypress Hill is considered a pioneer of the West Coast hip-hop scene in the 1990s and has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. Their hit album Black Sunday sold over 3 million copies in the US and spent a year on the UK charts.
B-Real (real name Luis Mario Fries) told the BBC: “We’ve been talking about The Simpsons episode for years, ever since it first aired. So this is very special for us. It comes on the heels of our The 30th anniversary of the “Black Sunday” album.
“We have played in many historic venues throughout our careers, but none with the same prestige as this one.”
B-Real added that Cypress Hill has always been an “out-of-the-box artist” doing experimental collaborations, including combining hip-hop with rock, metal, punk, reggae or electronic music.
He added: “We tip our hat to The Simpsons because if they hadn’t written that episode, we probably wouldn’t have done it.”
In an episode of The Simpsons titled “Homerpalooza”, Homer attempts to impress Bart and Lisa by attending Hullabalooza, a performance at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, and interacts with the 20th century ’90s rap and rock stars including Cypress Hill and The Smashing Pumpkins hung out together.
In the episode, a staff member called “someone with orders,” adding “probably up high…Cypress Mountain, I’m looking in your direction.” Next is a rendition of “Insane in the Brain”, complete with classic orchestral accompaniment.
Cypress Hill also invited British musician Peter Frampton, who plays a man trying to book the orchestra in the series, although they are still waiting to hear back.
Maxine Kwok, first violinist and deputy chair of the London Symphony Orchestra’s board of directors, told the BBC that it was an important cultural reference and “people are very excited about the idea of these different musicians mixing on stage.”
She said: “As a person born in the 1990s, I still remember this scene vividly.”
There were cultural differences in rehearsals, for example the London Symphony Orchestra understood the word “glock” to mean the percussion instrument “glockenspiel” rather than a gun.
The Simpsons has previously predicted future events, including Trump’s election as president, a tiger attacking Las Vegas magicians Siegfried and Roy, and the United States defeating Sweden to win its first Winter Olympics curling gold medal.
