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Chicagoland’s

premier chicano rap group Los Marijuanos

have enjoyed a close relationship with its Los Angeles area

contemporaries in the Cypress Hill camp for several years.

Dating back to the late 1990′s, Cypress Hill’s admiration

was apparently so deep for Los Marijuanos that a live band

the Cypress Hill rappers are members of appropriated the

Chicagoland act’s nom de mic without permission.

Acknowledging

that the Chicagoland rap group has applied for a trademark

to the Los Marijuanos name, its manager and label head at

Wicked Entertainment, Mickey “Sleepy” Elahi revealed

in a telephone interview Thursday that the label has sent

a cease and desist order forbidding the other act to use

the name. The letter was sent to Cypress’s attorney

Paul Rosenberg, who also represents Eminem.

The Los Marijuanos name was attached to the Southern California

group—also comprising the rock groups Deftones, Jane’s

Addiction, Methods of Mayhem, Downset and mic-controllers

Everlast and Mellow Man Ace, brother of Cypress Hill mic-controller

Sen Dog—when a friend announced it under that nom de

mic to rally more applause during a Jun. 11 gig at Club

Vynyl in Hollywood, Sleepy said. Before the Chicagoland

aired their concerns about the incident and ensuing confusion

during a Friday broadcast of John Mancow’s show on

Q101 FM, Los Marijuanos mic-controller and producer Pony

Boy tempered speculation grounded in a sense of betrayal

with a need for clear answers to amicably resolve the matter.

“Sen Dog

said he had another name that he liked, and I think it was

B-Real trying to scam,” Pony Boy said in a Thursday

interview from his Gary, IN home. We’ve got them on

video for our ‘smoke-umentary’ backstage saying

they’re down with Los Marijuanos at the Allstate Arena

when we did [a Dec. 9] concert with them, Twisted 7 and

Everlast. On [the cover] of our new CD, I’m wearing

Sen Dog’s new gear Latin Thug."

“So we’re

going to move on this fast before we put an album out. We

don’t want any trouble, we just want to know what’s

going on.”

In the mid-1990s,

Cypress Hill, led by B-Real, very publicly lowrated Ice

Cube for allegedly lifting for his own album, unpublished

music from an in-progress album the group reportedly allowed

the Westside Connection kingpin and his mic-controlling

kinsmen to hear. Before they subsided, the hostilities ranged

from a recorded attack on Ice Cube as a faux ghetto tough

to defending Common against Westside Connection’s vociferous

attacks on the Chicago-bred rapper out of the belief that

“I Used To Love H.e.r.” was anti-West Coast. B-Real

said the Cypress Hill and Ice Cube camps had considered

themselves close before than incident.

Rosenberg could

not be reached for comment on the Los Marijuanos matters.