Trueschool Monday #100

"Yes, I'm the pirate, pilot of this ship
If I get with the ultraviolet dream
Hide from the red light beam
Now do you believe in the unseen?
Look, but don't make you eyes strain
A nigga like me is goin' insane..."

"Insane in the Brain" is a hit single by the American hip hop group Cypress Hill. It was released in 1993 and in addition to hitting number 1 on the US rap chart, the song also was a surprise crossover hit, reaching number 19 in the Hot 100 chart in 1994. It was highly successful in other countries. The song was released on the group's Black Sunday album.

The popular lyric "Insane in the membrane" is sometimes confused for the title.
According to B-Real, the song was actually a diss song aimed at Chubb Rock. The group felt Chubb had ridiculed their style on his 1992 album I Gotta Get Mine Yo.

The song is built around many samples: a repeating sample of a horse from Mel and Tim's "Good Guys Only Win in the Movies;" a drum break from organist George Semper's cover version of Lee Dorsey's "Get Out of My Life, Woman;" a sample of James Brown grunting from the opening of his song "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud;" a sample of the line "insane in the brain" from Cypress Hill's own song "Hole in the Head;" the opening keyboard from Sly & the Family Stone's "Life" and a sample of the line "I think I'm going crazy" from The Youngbloods's "All Over the World (La La)," which concludes the track. In 2008, it was ranked number 34 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

A video for the track was filmed at San Francisco's DNA Lounge.