字幕列表 影片播放
-
What advice would you give
-
to your younger self?
-
To my younger self?
-
Don't trust that one dude.
-
[Laughs]
-
♪ ♪
-
Today I'm talking to B-Real,
-
a pioneer and founding member of the group Cypress Hill.
-
They've sold over 20 million records
-
with songs like "Insane in the Brain"
-
and “(Rock) Superstar,"
-
and were the first Latino group to go platinum in rap.
-
Now at age 49,
-
not only is B-Real still touring and recording music,
-
he's also an entrepreneur, media host and an activist.
-
Do you remember what your first hip-hop memory was?
-
It was on 1580 KDOI …
-
it was an AM station, and they were the only ones
-
playing hip-hop music on the radio in Los Angeles,
-
maybe anywhere, at the time.
-
They played Run-DMC's "Here We Go."
-
♪ Here we come, here we come, ♪ ♪ here we kitty-come-come. ♪
-
♪ Come on, everybody, ♪ ♪ let's all get down. ♪
-
♪ What we have ♪ ♪ is a brand-new sound. ♪
-
I thought, “What the [expletive] is this?
-
This is dope.”
-
That was the first thing that, like, punched me in the face
-
and got my attention.
-
I've heard you say
-
that music has saved your life.
-
Can you just paint a picture
-
of what was going on when Sen Dog and Muggs
-
kind of pulled you into the group?
-
You know, I started hanging out
-
with gangsters and became a gangster,
-
and I was really running around wild
-
while they were still trying to pursue the passion
-
of getting a record deal.
-
They felt like, you know, it was their duty
-
to come get me out of the neighborhood
-
and get me back on the mic or writing.
-
That definitely saved my life
-
because the trajectory in a gang …
-
you know, you're either going to prison or in the grave.
-
Music and those guys pretty much saved my life.
-
♪ How I could just kill a man. ♪
-
Your lyrics portrayed the violence
-
that was going on around you,
-
but you never glorified that.
-
Why was that important to you?
-
I felt like, you know, we had to come with a message
-
that was making people aware of what was going on,
-
and then the choices you could make
-
to either go right or left.
-
I thought this is nothing to glorify.
-
I mean, I've lost friends, you know, that were close to me
-
due to the gang violence.
-
We already know that possibly
-
our day comes at the end of a barrel
-
with a bullet coming out of it,
-
whether it's a rival or a police officer.
-
There is a way out. I'm proof of that.
-
You guys kinda became celebrities pretty quickly.
-
The thing that pushed "Kill a Man"
-
over the top and gave it extra life and extra boost
-
was the fact that Chuck D. and the Bomb Squad
-
were putting together the music for the movie "Juice,"
-
which was Tupac's first role.
-
It was bubbling on the mix show play,
-
and then that movie blew that song up out of the water
-
and, hello, Cypress Hill, to everybody at that point.
-
What was the biggest challenge —
-
that now you couldn't go anywhere
-
without being recognized?
-
Well, you know, it was surreal because
-
we went from being able to go to the mall
-
and not be recognized and be incognito,
-
and no one gave a shit who we were,
-
to now, we went into the malls,
-
and we were like the Beatles.
-
I did not realize what that song would do,
-
what it would do for us and how it would change our lives.
-
♪ How I could just kill a man. ♪
-
♪ Here is something ♪ ♪ you can't understand. ♪
-
Your voice is one of the most distinctive in music.
-
How did you come to have that voice?
-
I was rapping in this voice to start,
-
and the guys did not like it at all.
-
They said, "You'd better come up with something,
-
or you're going to be writing raps for Sen Dog.”
-
We're all big fans of this rapper named Rammellzee.
-
You know, he had this crazy style where he'd be rapping like this,
-
Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah. [imitates low pitch]
-
Then he'd come all the way up here. [imitates high pitch]
-
And I said, “OK, I'm going to try to pitch my voice like him."
-
♪ To da one on da flam. ♪ ♪ Boy, it's tough. ♪
-
♪ I just toss that ham ♪ ♪ in the frying pan like Spam. ♪
-
The guys liked it.
-
I didn't think they would like it.
-
I barely liked it.
-
That's how it came about, and it took me some years
-
to get used to actually doing it.
-
I went to an opera singer
-
for lessons on how to breathe and project
-
without straining my voice, and stuff like that.
-
But I got used to it, and I started embracing it,
-
and I learned to like it myself.
-
You talked about the Latin influence
-
and, obviously, both of you guys speaking Spanish on "Latin Lingo."
-
Why was that important for you guys?
-
Realistically, the lane for Latin rappers
-
was very small at the time,
-
so we just wanted to be known as a hip-hop group.
-
So we would just sprinkle our Latin flavor
-
here and there and not overdo it.
-
To not get put in that box, the Latin rapper box,
-
because if you got put in that box at that time,
-
you weren't going nowhere.
-
That fan base didn't exist.
-
Latins that were Spanish-speaking,
-
Latins in this country,
-
were only listening to Spanish-speaking music,
-
not bilingual stuff,
-
and especially not any rap s—t.
-
That took time.
-
Guys like Kid Frost and Mellow Man Ace
-
opened those doors.
-
We went through it and kicked the door open and,
-
you know, made a gaping [expletive] door for others to come behind.
-
But now labels are, like,
-
we definitely know where to market them now.
-
There is definitely a lane for them now.
-
We need to sign them up.
-
You've been pretty consistent,
-
not only with the music, but being an entrepreneur,
-
still finding time to tour,
-
to one of your other endeavors, B-RealTV.
-
Why was it important to you to be an interviewer
-
and have conversations with other people?
-
People know me from Cypress Hill
-
but, you know, some of these young folks
-
don't know what Cypress Hill is.
-
They'll know me from “The Smokebox.”
-
"Hey, you're the dude from 'The Smokebox.' ”
-
I have fun doing it,
-
and most of the time, you know,
-
when the guest is open,
-
it's a great conversation and it sometimes is educational.
-
As long as people still want to come and do it,
-
and I'm having fun doing it, we're going to continue to keep rolling.
-
Where does that hunger come from, to not slow down?
-
You're as old as you feel, right?
-
So, if one day I get like Danny Glover in "Lethal Weapon" —
-
"I'm getting too old for this s--t” —
-
then I'll just retire.
-
But for me, as long as I feel good
-
and healthy, I mean, I love doing it.
-
And I think if you love it and you take care of yourself,
-
you can go as long as you want.
-
Hip-hop is like any other music.
-
It's ageless.
-
You can do hip-hop no matter how [expletive] old you are.
-
It's about relating to people, you know what I mean?
-
And the older artists have something to teach,
-
and that's relatable.
-
Word.
-
Appreciate you so much for your time.
-
Cool.
-
Thank you very much.