The Simpsons sparked a Symphony – Cypress Hill, Chuck D & Hip-Hop’s golden era are going orchestral
What started as a joke on The Simpsons has morphed into one of 2025’s most surprising musical trends: hip-hop going fully orchestral.
That’s right—golden-era legends like Cypress Hill and Chuck D are swapping MPCs for violins, snares for timpani, and proving that bars and brass can absolutely coexist.
At the centre of it all? A surreal, full-circle moment. Back in 1996, an episode of The Simpsons imagined a stoned Cypress Hill accidentally booking the London Symphony Orchestra to perform “Insane in the Brain.” Fast forward nearly 30 years, and the weed-fuelled gag has come to life at London’s Royal Albert Hall—minus the cartoon chaos but with just as much bombast.
Cypress Hill’s orchestral reworking of their stoner-rap classic Black Sunday, backed by a 70-piece LSO and the deft hand of conductor Troy Miller (who’s previously drummed for Amy Winehouse and Roy Ayers), feels like the latest logical step in hip-hop’s endless evolution. The set—now a streaming film and album—oozes gothic grandeur, all hazy horns and cinematic swells wrapped around gritty tales of street life and smoke-filled rooms.
“We always thought about doing this,” B-Real told THR. “Muggs used to say our tracks had this cinematic, dark tone. Troy just helped us dial that up to eleven.” For Sen Dog, the experience was nothing short of spiritual: “It was like hearing ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for the first time. Just total awe.”
This genre fusion isn’t just for nostalgia acts ticking bucket-list boxes either. Nas has been hitting stages nationwide with major symphony orchestras. LL Cool J brought the LA Phil to Coachella for a blockbuster set blending “Mama Said Knock You Out” with Star Wars cues. Rick Ross and Metro Boomin have each teamed with Red Bull Symphonic for lavish, string-drenched performances, while Kosovo’s next in line with a July collab featuring MC Kresha & Lyrical Son.
Chuck D—who helped usher hip-hop into the Rock Hall—sees this not as novelty but necessity. “Hip-hop’s always borrowed, evolved, adapted. This is just the next phase,” he says. “Wu-Tang and RZA were sampling strings in the ’90s. Now we’re bringing the whole damn orchestra.”
For conductor Troy Miller, it’s not just a genre experiment—it’s a creative “explosion.” Inspired by Mahler and Stravinsky, he leaned into the brooding, atmospheric tone of Cypress Hill’s tracks and built arrangements that don’t just support the songs but duel with them. “Hip-hop gives you this wide-open canvas,” he says. “And Cypress Hill were brave enough to paint something new.”
But for all the big names and concert halls, the most beautiful twist is how The Simpsons—of all things—planted the seed. As B-Real puts it: “We still owe it all to that episode. Just the perfect example of life imitating art… and then blowing it up with a 70-piece orchestra.”
Turns out, Insane in the Brain sounds even better with strings
