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Cube for allegedly lifting for his own album, unpublished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.
