Happy to get the new record out? It’s our first album in six years. It’s a new record with a new label, new agency, new frame of mind. We’re glad to be out and ready to tour. Give our fans something they’ve been waiting for.

Snoop Dogg signed you didn’t he? Snoop is a part of the label and he was very instrumental in signing us. We’ve been friends for a long time. I’d been on tour with him in South America when I put out my solo record Smoke N Mirrors. As friends do, we asked each other what we had going on and it just sort of fell in place. We felt like Priority was the right place for us because they have such a rich and deep history as far as hip hop music goes. It made for a great marriage.

You must struggle to get stuff done, the amount of weed you smoke? Oh yeah, there’s definitely a lot of smoke. But you know our work ethic has always been something that is second to none and our standards are high. Sometimes you might have a couple of crappy songs, you might have to throw them away. But the fact is, as long as you’re in there, grinding it out, working on music, that’s the most important thing.

How come marijuana is so central to your music? It’s because that’s how we’re living our lives. It’s part of who we are. It’s a part of what we believe. That obviously lends itself to the music aspect of our lives and leads into that. You know, a lot of people use it as gimmicks and shit like that. It’s definitely for real for us.

Would you ever give up? Well, you never know. But even if I were to stop smoking tomorrow, I would still be a big proponent and advocate of legalisation. I totally believe in it.

Does writing fresh material get harder? For us we’ve used our lives as the backdrop. That’s real life shit and people can always relate to it. That’s always relevant. If you start talking like a movie, exaggerated, there’s no substance.

Is it harder finding inspiration after so much success? Not at all. A lot of people get a misconception with the way this lifestyle is. We live comfortably but it’s not like you see in the videos, it’s not like you’re in a fucking limousine. That’s not reality man. I live a pretty modest lifestyle for the success Cypress Hill has had. My house is a big house but it’s not a mansion. I haven’t just fucked off my money on any little thing. You have to be a businessman about it. There’s no school for that when you get involved in making music so a lot of people learn the lessons a little too late and end up being broke. Some of these rappers were the most popular motherfuckers, you know what I mean. Knowing that, I try to live my shit modestly and keep cool.

But you still manage to find an edge? Even though my home is cool and I live comfortably, there’s still struggles. On the street, there’s envious people who might have been your enemies in the past, they still fucking hate you. They hate you even more. The bottom line is money doesn’t solve anything, so there’s always things to write about. Money can pay your bills, but it doesn’t take away who you are if you don’t let it. I still hang out with the same people, I still live my life like I did beforehand and experience a lot of the same shit. I think that allows me to write about things that are still edgey.

Any plans to tour Down Under? We definitely have plans to come to http://www.travelsearch.bugbitten.com/search_tours/TNT_Down_Under/trip_search/?search=Australia[Australia]. As far as I know we’re coming in September. We love Australia, man. We always have a great time out there. There’s nothing but love, they appreciate hip hop and the fan base over there is just ridiculous.

Rise Up, through Priority/EMI is out now.