Sen Dog, the Cypress Hill MC, has been making a documentary about his Cuban heritage called Mi Familia: Sen Dog and the American Dream. He described it on The De Los Podcast in June 2026, in conversation with hosts Fidel Martinez and Suzy Exposito.
The film follows him and his brother Mellow Man Ace between Los Angeles and Pinar del Rio, the Cuban city where he was born. "It tells the story of great musicians that our family has in Cuba and around the world," he said. He added that being an immigrant means being proud enough to tell your own story, and that he had never thought he had one because he had never stopped to look.
His family moved to South Gate when he was young, into a neighbourhood that was both Black and Latino, and he landed in an awkward middle. Some Black kids would not talk to the new arrivals because they had no English, and Mexican kids used slang the Cuban family could not follow.
That in-between position shaped what he listened to. His family played him Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. Television commercials brought him Elvis Presley. American Bandstand and Soul Train filled in pop, soul, funk and R&B. Rock and metal arrived through a high school classmate, a fellow Cuban named Dave Lombardo who went on to drum in Slayer. What he played on a given day, he said, depended on whose company he was in.
On being Latino in the hip-hop scene of the 1980s and 1990s, he was measured. There was a period, he said, when people had to guess what the group was, though he does not think it held Cypress Hill back, because the priority was simply to be good. He added that at the time they went about their business without realising race had anything to do with it, and that it really did.
Cypress Hill's Insane in the Brain remains the record most listeners know him by. More of our coverage of Los Angeles rap sits on the hip-hop hub, and other Latino music stories from the city include the Boyle Heights Youth Fest and the Grand Performances summer season.
The facts
- The documentary is called Mi Familia: Sen Dog and the American Dream
- It follows Sen Dog and his brother Mellow Man Ace between Los Angeles and Cuba
- Sen Dog was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and grew up in South Gate
- He was introduced to rock and metal by classmate Dave Lombardo of Slayer
- His family played him Celia Cruz and Tito Puente
- He spoke on The De Los Podcast with Fidel Martinez and Suzy Exposito
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