I was a kid then, but as observant as I was, you saw the shift was big. That 93-94 period was something else. We went from wearing yellow & purple hoodies, to having kids look like construction workers.
As far as Cypress Hill, they didnt do what they did on purpose. I remember B Real talking about how few people thought they were from Los Angeles because they didnt look or sounded like a West Coast group when they dropped How I Could Just Kill A Man. The video was shot in NY last minute, it was winter, they looked Puerto Rican, & they didnt dress like East L.A. cholos. Plus they had no clue about Cypress Hills projects in Brooklyn. In Latin Lingo they looked all L.A., there was no doubt about where they were from.
Nothing about their sound or style yelled rugged or rough to me. Imo, they're what Outkast was to the South. If they were that influential on the style, & I was way too young to know, it was by sheer accident.