House Of Pain - House Of Pain (Fine Malt Lyrics)

Everlast, DJ Lethal and Danny Boy met in high school in Los Angeles. A few years later, they had made one of the most recognizable records in hip-hop history. Playing up an image as rowdy Irish-American hooligans, House of Pain signed to Tommy Boy and released their 1992 debut. It was carried by “Jump Around,” a DJ Muggs production built on a squealing horn sample that still makes an entire stadium leap at once. The single reached number three in the US and went top ten in the UK and Canada.

Behind the hit is a dense, hard-hitting rap record steeped in Muggs’ dusty, low-slung Soul Assassins sound. Cypress Hill’s B-Real turns up on “Put Your Head Out,” and Funkdoobiest’s Son Doobie joins on “House and the Rising Sun.” “Shamrocks and Shenanigans” and “Top O’ the Morning to Ya” lean all the way into the shamrock swagger. The mood falls somewhere between a frat party and a bar fight, with Everlast’s gruff, above-average delivery holding it together. Critics at the time compared it to a working-class Irish answer to Licensed to Ill, and the comparison still fits.

Three decades on, “Jump Around” has outlived its era as a club staple and a sports anthem. The album around it remains one of the definitive crossover records of early-’90s rap.

This 30th anniversary deluxe edition was remastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound and pressed on two 180-gram LPs, one orange and one white. It is housed in embossed, re-imagined artwork by Tristan Eaton. Side D adds bonus cuts, including Pete Rock’s remix of “Jump Around,” Butch Vig’s remix of “Shamrocks and Shenanigans,” and the “Jump Around” instrumental. It is a numbered, limited edition of 6,500 copies.