THE BIG INTERVIEW - B-Real Talks Cypress Hill, Tupac, Ice Cube, Smokebox, SNL Ban, & Almost Killing Big Boy

THE BIG INTERVIEW - B-Real Talks Cypress Hill, Tupac, Ice Cube, Smokebox, SNL Ban, & Almost Killing Big Boy

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to another episode of The BigThe Big Interview Podcast. Hey, b
do you still have your matter daddy? That from back in the days with
what the whole like the whole matterDaddy? Do you still have that matter
daddy? Yeah? Matter daddy.Yeah. Y'all are looking at that crazy

(00:24):
matter daddy. What is the matterdad? Nothing? What's wrong with you?
Nothing to matter? Big boys,neighborhood beautiful They in the neighborhood,
ladies and gentlemen. He is backin the neighborhood. He's got all legendary
up in here. Be real.Welcome back to the neighborhood. Man.
Well, thank you for having me, Mad It is our pleasure. Bro.

(00:44):
We uh Jose and I Rey roadto work this morning. Bro,
I got a playlist that like whenit comes to Cypress. Bro. You
know, I'm a fan first,you know what I'm saying. I was
a fan before I even got intoradio. So I they'll listen to you
guys, like even right now we'reout there talking right and not to sound
crazy, I was like, andI'm pretty sure you had the same feeling

(01:06):
I was, because I could tell. I was like, that's be real,
you know what I'm saying. Like, as long as I've known you,
and as many times as we satdown and as many times I've seen
you in the show do shows,I'm still like, Damn, that's be
Real right there. And we werecoming to work and I was like,
man, be Real is an amazinglyricist. And then we started breaking down

(01:29):
just early production too, like evenlike the first album, Man, that
first album, that just sounds likey'all were already so professional. You know.
I think it's because we had somuch time to work on it.
You know, that first album wasprobably crafted like in the time span of

(01:51):
five years. You know. Wecame up with a set of demos.
Then those got stolen from Bugs's.You know. Muggs went to New York
and he had a bag of allthe discs, the floppy discs stem and
you had to carry like hard copies. Yeah, and someone stole that,
so we had to start all over. At the airport. He gets there,
he says the back down to giveone of the homies a pound and

(02:13):
a you know, quick hug,and someone scampered off. Damn. Yeah,
so you know we had to startover. And at that point in
starting over, I think Mugs hada better idea. You know, did
you ever think back then, howdo we make this magic again? Because
even then that sounds magical, thatsounds like you know, and y'all never

(02:34):
lost it, but that sounds hungry, you know. I think, I
think what what Mugs was able todo with that in like having the great
memory that he does and like,you know, the ability to push it
into a different place, right,I think that just made him a little
bit more. It gave him alittle bit more fire. And for Sen
and I we were just like,all right, well, you know,
if we got to do it again, we got to do it again.

(02:57):
But this time we had a betterunderstanding, you know, because we had
already done that set and they werecool. But it wasn't necessarily what turned
out to be the first the firstalbum, you know what I mean.
So I think it was a blessingthat they stole that bag and made a
start over, because who knows ifit would have had the impact the same

(03:17):
way because the songs were slightly differentreally what was on there though, there
was a couple of joints that Ithink. There was one called the La
Strongest and it's a cool demo song, but like the album, song,
it wouldn't have been there. Itwasn't a song that ended up coming to
the album. No. I thinkthere was only maybe two songs from that

(03:42):
from that first from those that firstrun that actually got reproduced. You was
about to say something and something.You was about to say something with your
voice. Yeah, okay, Solike songs like the La strong there was
one called getting Funky in one calledla' Strongest, and they were dope like
send and I had a cool littlestyle to it. Send Dogs sounded amazing
on it. I sounded like myvoice was trash, like I was rapping,

(04:06):
like the way you hear me talkright now. So it was like
a deeper version. But it wasn'tcutting through any of the tracks. The
style was there, the lyrics wasthere. Back it was not cutting.
And Mugs was very real to meabout it, you know, because we're
brothers, you know what I mean, and we put our egos aside when
we work. And I've told youthis a couple of times. It was
like, yeah, yo, yougotta do something about that voice. So

(04:29):
we're going to have to have youjust writing for Send Dog damn. Like
okay, and that's early on.Tell me how you really feel Mugs because
you know, Mugs usually holds histongue. Yeah, no, yeah,
he's no to me known for that, you know. Hey, man,
So getting into the voice, andwe've had a chance to talk about this
before, man, where of courseyour you're rapping voice and your speaking voice.

(04:51):
There's a difference, definitely, Andat one point you did rap in
this tone that we're hearing right now, as you just explained. Yeah,
tell us the story again how youwent from this voice to what we hear
from as be real the artist.So you know, all of us on
the Cypress because you can still hearyou. Yeah, yeah, there's a
little little tones here and there,but us from the Cypress block. We

(05:15):
were always fans of big East Coasthip hopping all that stuff from the early
days, you know. And therewas this artist named rammel Z who used
to rap like this here, butin the middle of his wrap, he'd
go way up here, you knowwhat I mean. And Mello and I
were big fans of that. Solike sometimes we just be messing around,
you know how you do when you'relistening to a run DMC song, you're

(05:36):
rapping along like you're that even youknow, we do seeing you. Yeah,
yeah, same thing right. Sowe're doing Rammelz and Mellow and I
were messing with it a lot,so like he he wrote the original version
of real Estate on the first albumMellow. So when we did this,

(05:58):
we're like kick and not stop kickingthe verse and he's like, why don't
you do it in the ramel style? So I try it and it sounded
crazy. I didn't think they weregonna like it, but I was like,
well, if this is me stayingin the group as a vote.
Unfortunately, Muggs loved it. Hewas like, Okay, let's do this

(06:19):
again, and then we're gonna trythat on this song and this song and
this song which was they think ahand on the plump and eventually kill a
Man. And those were like thefirst three songs with the voice and so
early on hand on the pump killa man like that's those are the first,
like original real Estate really the firstnow with real Estate, and you

(06:39):
say, Mello wrote, he Mellowrote, because we would trade off.
Like I wrote two songs on Mello'sI think Escape from Havana. I wrote
two songs. It's either on thefirst or second album where I wrote Babba
Loo, Bad Boy, I Think, and no River Cubanos and one other

(07:01):
one or Tacapella. It was Tacapellaand River Cubanos that went on his That
his one of his albums. Soin trade, he writes me real Estate
in real Estate, the version hewrote goes on the album the but I
wrote a different but I wrote adifferent version for the single. I didn't

(07:24):
know real Estate was going to become. None of us knew real Estate would
be one of the singles. Wehad like six singles off that first song.
I wrote that you Ain't Flamboyant?He did, he wrote, he
wrote that whole verse. Yeah,he wrote that, and so like what
you kick? That just the lyricsfor me on that one, if I
could remember it, because I'm usedto doing the video version the video the

(07:46):
single, the single that we putout, we put send Dog on the
single. We we rewrote the songso that send Dog had a verse on
it because on the album he's noton it. So if it was going
to be a single, we wantedSend Dog on it. So I rewrote
my first verse for it to makesense in the style that that I was
running, and then I I wrotesend Dog's second verse for that and then

(08:13):
the rest of the song. SoI just did a rewrite, same style,
same cadence, but I just sortof recrafted it for me that I
wanted to be comfortable kicking it,and then we were doing a single with
it. So how's it go?Because it's a lot in there, bro,
Yeah, there's a lot, andit's a song we do a lot.

(08:35):
So I'm like, yo, it'stime to heard us, sort of
like murder any punk coming on thehill out of Oh. I ain't a
hater, but if you're a spectatorseeking to find the toys with no flavor
sye, I'm talking about those withvocals, ain't coming off with skill to
kill that will but offully some ofcourse, some didn't know the power of

(08:56):
the last flow I slow up,flow up, blow up those way those
made pros. Do you remember that? Yeah? Yeah, that part okay.
So the reason I like I stutteron that version because that's his version.
On our single version, it's adifferent version. So and I'll get
to that part. It goes,uh, you know, it's time to

(09:18):
hurt us, sort of like murderany punk coming on the hill out of
order. Ain't a hater, butif you're an instigator, or break your
ass off with the help from thebeta. Talk about those with vocals.
Ain't coming off with skilled to killthat will, but offully some of course,
some don't know the power of theafro or slow up fraud, blow
up those way. It pros upwith my stupid radio cut and then it

(09:39):
goes into the rest and then itgoes into the second verse. You ain't
flammboy and a toy boy on itain't paid to apply for underbe boyman.
But there's no help ont punks tokeep looking. Ain't surprised you got your
girl hooking doing that doulo. Butyou still can't do no damage homes because
you really can't manage to handle agang running like and funeral arrangements, a

(10:01):
whole lot of scandal, hectic,dialectic funk, Buddha vocalctic, accurate shooter,
duck down homes hit the ground.That's what you get when you're with
the brown dog sen It's coming tothe mound, Latino from Cypress rips the
compound. Hey man, realistic.We were this morning, bro, we
were rolling in and I was like, man, listen to this, listen

(10:22):
to this man, You know,and that was obviously inspired by Mellow because
Mellow was you know a lot ofpeople don't give him props like but his
writing ability and ability to come upwith a different orthodox style and so that
that was like, that was likethe first Cypress Hill song that was that

(10:43):
actually mugs felt was like, Yo, this is this is a song.
We need to build off this andso yeah, real estate salute to Mellow,
hey man and hand on a Pump. And when you say that was
a song that you just started thevoice with, how I could just kill
him man, Like I said,Man, those sound on like dudes,
that were just professional. I rememberthe first time I met someone from Cypress

(11:05):
and I remember I was in thestudio with Booyo Tribe and Booyo Tribe introduced
y'all to me as Cypress Hill Tribe. Yeah first yeah, yeah man,
And he was like, oh yeah, you know, you know, yeah
yeah, and so we're for wasthat a split second? Was it something
that y'all were known as or itwasn't more when used with Boo Yah.

(11:26):
No, it was something that weintended to call ourselves, you know what
I mean, Like when we weremaking our first promo, hats and stuff
like that. We had Cypress Hilltribe on it and the whole deal.
But like you know, we hadBoo yall tribe tribe called Quest. We
felt like we didn't want, youknow, to try too many tribes.

(11:46):
Let's just go with Cypress Hill.And you know, we we took the
tribe off of there. But youknow with Boo y'all, we were always
brothers like that, so you know, they always looked at us like the
Cypress Hill tribe. Was there anothername before before y'all fell on Cypress Hill,
Well, it was DVX. Yeah, you know, before we even
before we were even doing our demos, we were just you know, showing

(12:07):
up at backyard parties and getting onthe mic and who was that at the
time that was a Mellowman Send Dogt Funk from the Funk Dubious Damn and
myself and sometimes there was there wasthis other female rapper that that we grew
up with. Her name was Mademoisellefree Day. Her name was Mademoiselle Freak.

(12:30):
Yeah, right, appropriate for thename, especially because it was like
in the late eighties, this typeof thing when it was you know,
we were just fans of it andlike you know, trying to do what
you know these other dudes were doing. You know, she could wrap her
ass off though, like you know, I'll tell you that. Like I
don't know if she was ever goingto get anywhere with it, but like

(12:50):
out of all of us, shewas pretty down polished. Heymen. Was
the Cypress Hill album Cypress Hill?Was that really nineteen ninety one? Or
am I tripping? Yeah? Theself titled That's That's ninety one? We
released it in ninety one. Again, it was like a five year,
you know, time span of workingto get to that album, to get

(13:13):
what we thought was going to bethe presentation like what so is that before
Chronic? Yeah, and that's beforeWhat's my Name? That's crazy? I
remember with Paul Stewart man shout outto Paul Stewart as well. I remember
Power Move promotions. Man. Iremember just when I first and I told
you the story before when I firstgot like Funky Feel one and Funky Feel

(13:39):
one was the A side, andwe would I had a hip hop line
called what Up so we would dolike gifting and you know, packaging and
giving stuff away. Man. AndI remember when I took Funky Pheel when
I thought Funky Pheel one was amazing. When I flipped that over and I
heard how I could just kill aman, I was like, what the
are these dudes? That was theone that that propelled us to Yeah,

(14:03):
because as cool as funky was Funkyfeel One, because I liked that song
too. Mugs did an incredible jobof the production. That was our first
single because Sony, well, itwas a double A side, as you
know, but they they chose thatas a A one. Let's just call
it guy one, right, Andthey thought, well, because we can't

(14:24):
put out a single of these guystalking about killing people, let's put out
this funky feel one joint and maybethat goes right. And it was slow,
you know, as cool as thatsong was and as much as we
might love it now in comparison toback then, it was slow going for
us. It wasn't until like themixed DJs in New York. Can't remember
who was the first, but theyflipped it and they started rocking it,

(14:48):
and then it starts trickling down toother mixed shows and then eventually down here,
and that's when it started to gobecause I think just the style of
the production of that song and thenour voices bouncing off of each other,
and the way that it was theI think it had an impact, like
the way when when when we firststarted hearing Public Enemy, it was just
something so different than all the otherstuff. We're like, oh damn yeah,

(15:11):
And I think that that effect wehad. That's what I was telling
Jose this morning. Man, itwas like Bomb Squad. I was like,
man, the way that you heardKeith and Hanking and you know what
I'm saying, Like the way soundswere coming in and out and it was
noises. I was like, man, that's what I said. It sounds
so polished from the beginning. We'recelebrating fifty years of hip hop, yes,
and it's crazy man that professionally y'allbeing involved with hip hop for over

(15:37):
half of it its existence. Yeah. We got two anniversaries popping off for
the for two of the kids,right, Black Sunday, Right, which
is it's what thirty thirty years oldthis year and Cypress Hill four, which
is the sleeper album my favorite outof all of them. Well, when

(15:58):
people me, Cyperushill four is alwaysmy favorite. That one's twenty five years
this year as well, so youknow, hit the milestones because I mean,
you know, as artists, whenwe're growing up doing this, I
mean, because we're growing up thisright then, eventually this is something we
do. You know, as ayoung artist, you don't expect like thinking

(16:19):
down the line, I'm gonna bearound twenty five years. You're you're You're
lucky if you get to be aroundthree or four years, especially back then,
because the game will chew you upand spit you right out. Yeah,
if you ain't built for it,no matter how talented you are,
you know, just like GM,I'm gonna chew you up and spend the

(16:40):
favor new piece. Hey man.And it's crazy because you didn't have the
power of social media back then,and you had to show up, right,
You had to show up. Youhad to show out every show.
You had to make sure you hadthe same energy every time. Now,
you know, even we're recording,you could always say a move that over
there and just punch me in righthere to move that over here. And

(17:03):
do you know it was like Iused to love to hear the tape the
two inches take and when it stopped, like those are a moment. Now
that got it on where you canhear it on like I think something digital,
but yeah, it was. Itwas a different kind of work ethic
too. Do you remember the firsttime you heard Cypress Hill on the radio.
Yeah, we were bugging out.It's like every movie you see,
you know, like The Five,you know how they're like tripping out.

(17:27):
You know, we start getting calls, Hey, we just heard you in
the mix, so we just heardthis and that, and like, well
damn I heard it. Yeah yeah, yeah, but why I keep miss
it? Yeah, come, Ikeep visiting. But I remember's when you
sometimes get home and it be amessage at eight o'clock like, man,
they're playing you, like, ohthey played that eleven thirty. Yeah,
yeah, And you know so Imissed it for a minute until I didn't,

(17:51):
you know, and then you know, it felt crazy because it's like,
you know, you do all thiswork and you don't know if it's
going to go or not right,no matter how much much work you put
into it, you just don't know. It's a gamble, you know what
I mean. And you know herein here in uh kill a man in
the mixes. That was a bigdeal for us because we were mix mixed

(18:11):
show kids. I mean, wegrew up off the mix shows here starting
with the kDa A mixed master showsaluted Tony g and Julio and all the
all the guys, m Walk andthe rest, jem and Gemini, you
know, Joe Cooley and all those. We grew up to that. And
and so you know when when whenthe Baker Boys come over here or go

(18:33):
to Power and they do the FridayNight Flavors, another mix show, and
we're like living with this, right, So we come from that mix show
culture. So to hear kill aman on the in the mix for the
first time, we're like, youknow, we didn't really care too much
about what funky phil One was.They were like, yo, killing man's
in the mix heymn. And thenthat was like you guys, like y'all

(18:57):
never even from from rap superstars torock superstars, no one ever looked at
Cypress Hill like, man, whatare they doing? That's goofy, Like
even y'all Hollywood star y'all got thatat Cypress Hill. You know what I'm
saying, Like y'all didn't go outand start doing things. We're like,
man, what the hell is goingon with them? Guys? When it

(19:19):
was easy to do that. I'lltell you what you know, like we
took some chances and stuff like thatthat we knew that hip hop purists wouldn't
get down with right, and wewere purists ourselves, so like we're taking
big chances doing these other things,like you know, like getting down with
with the with the heavy style ofyou know, hybrid of hip hop and

(19:41):
metal or rock or whatever it is, alternative, you know. But our
fans were always so open minded.I think they were as open minded as
we were about music. You know, whatever we were going to try out,
as long as it didn't sound whackright right right someway, it was
dope, even though it was maybeslightly different, because that happens some you
know, like some things will goover the head of your fans or just

(20:04):
people in general, like that's cool, but whatever, and you know they're
on to the next bit, right, But our fans have accepted all the
evolution and some of the chances wetook. Now, you know, you
don't win on every everything you do. And as an artist, that hurts
right, all right, but waitin tears for real, But this builds

(20:26):
character big, right, This helps, this gives you fuel to like,
Okay, I took an l overhere you know, we're gonna like bounce
back and we're gonna learn from ourmistakes over here. And I mean,
I think that's that that's why wewe were still around doing what we do
because we've been able to like figureout what works for us and avoid the

(20:48):
things that don't, and to knowand have have faith in our fan base
that they're gonna get what we putdown, even if it's something different,
as long as it's dope. Ifwe feel it's dope, we're gonna put
it out there. If we don'thave confidence in it, it doesn't go.
And that's just the way we've alwaysbeen. You know, when did
you know that Cypress Hill so calledmade it? Because I'm pretty sure it's

(21:12):
small things when you say, man, the Mixed show. I remember seeing
you guys at the Roxy and itwas just people that was die hard,
like those of us that just knew. And I remember y'all came out and
y'all did a show like y'all hadbeen performing and doing clubs or shows and
venues for years, Like y'all hity'all vocals. You know, Sin was

(21:33):
on top of his mugs. Itwas like a whole The first time I
saw y'all was an introduction to whatpeople still see today, and that was
a live band, a live group, really putting on a real live show.
Do you remember what that night feltlike? Yeah? You know,

(21:55):
it took a minute for us toget to that point, you know,
because we know we were doing Werehearsed a lot, but we didn't really
have a direction. You know.The only things that we had to sort
of feed off to give us anindication on how this is done is you
know, Muggs had shows with seventyeighth and so he had a little bit
of experience. Send Dog had beendoing hype man work for his brother Mellow

(22:21):
for some years, so they hada little bit of experience. I didn't
have any right, and so we'dgo to these other shows like Public Enemy
shows, Leaders of New School,Day Law, Digital Underground, and I'm
soaking up all this stuff, andMugs took me to these places so that
I could soak it up and say, this is how we got to do

(22:41):
it. It's got to be onthis level or we ain't doing it.
And so, you know, ittook me to see some of those things,
and then the trial and error ofthe first three to four years of
going off of energy and not necessarilybeing polished yet. And then I think
by our third or fourth year,we started really snapping in on Like,

(23:02):
Okay, when I saw y'all atthe Roxy, what year was that?
Like how many years in was that? I'm not sure? Okay, but
but by that time we had enoughshows under our belt. Really, yeah,
by that time, we had enoughshows because I mean, you know,
man, I changed my whole hiphop history. I thought I was
early early was well, I meanit's considerably early, you know, because
we've been around thirty years. Butyou know, yeah, you know,

(23:26):
it took a lot of like Iremember, like some of our first shows
were, you know, with Naughtyby Nature, we we sort of were
like trying to figure out how youbuild this set list to get these people
on this road coaster ride, youknow what I mean? And it was
it was tough going that first,that first run because like the Naughty Heads,

(23:48):
they were like all about Naughty.They didn't even they did not care
to see us, you know whatI mean. And then y'all come out
there like who the F is this? And then and then when kill a
Man flipped, and then it wasin the middle of this tour. You
know what I mean. When flipped, then we start seeing you know,
the raw rob type of you knowreaction. Hey man, I remember being

(24:10):
on the road with Farside when passingme by flipped and you know what I'm
saying. And I remember we weresomewhere man, and Trey was doing his
verse, I'm shooting for her heart, got my finger on the trigger.
She could be my broad and heput his mic out and the whole crowd
said, and you know, andwe were like, I remember me swave.
Everybody we looked at each other likeoh, because we were on buses.

(24:33):
You know what I'm saying. Itwasn't like satellite radio if you didn't
pick up anything all you so youdon't see the success. And then when
you go to a radio station,of course they gonna, oh, man,
we love your song, you knowwhat I'm saying. But you're not
sitting there seeing if they're playing youfifty one hundred times a week. You
just move on. But the crowdlet them know it. Indicator. Yeah,
like when they're singing you know yourjoint and you don't. You're not

(25:00):
for this, you do that,they're like bringing it back and like oh
mission words, like yeah, Imean, that's some of the stuff that
we were encountering, like going toEurope for the first time on our second
album, because on the first run, you know, we didn't go to
Europe. We were doing all theseshows here in the States, like trying
to build our name and like builda name for us as a live act,

(25:23):
you know what I mean. Andso we avoided Europe that whole first
two years or whatever. And whenwe get out there for Black Sunday,
that was the indicator. We getout there and they know the songs and
they're singing them back to us,and we're tripping because this is a brand
new album. You know, itreleased there. It was obviously releasing the

(25:45):
States around the same time. Andwe're like when we were calling home or
like hey man, or they're tellingus some of our homies. Hey man,
there's lines around the block. Wecan't even get into a record store
to buy the album to support,I mean, and they're saying, it's
all for your album, and we'relike, yeah, man, it was.
It's something we didn't get to see. So these days, it's it's

(26:08):
the gift and the curse with withwith all the platforms and social media and
that stuff. Because one of twothings happens. You see it win and
you're like, oh, hell yeah, I'm winning. Like, look,
we're doing numbers. This thing's going. And sometimes you see the failure,
right, oh this ain't going,damn. And but sometimes the the so

(26:32):
called the winds are deceiving though,because you know, these days you see
some of these artists with a billionstreams and a lot of that is bots,
you know what I mean, Andthey're not actual people and they don't
get that part of the game.And you just said it, like when
you say your homies would be online. There was a difference between somebody

(26:52):
going out copping a hard copy hardyou know, and you don't see in
stores anymore and lines wrapped around theblock and people coming with your album to
sign it, you know. Andit's a different space now. And as
we're celebrating fifty years of hip hop, these are the things, man,
that I don't want people to forget, Like how how true that was?

(27:15):
Those things connected the artists to thefan base. When you went and did
those in stores and did the hardcopies and sign those actual hard copies.
You know, in this time thedigital age has sort of swept that out
because how many record stores could yougo to go do an in store at
a side amba, right, youknow what I'm saying, So that they

(27:38):
sort of pushed that to the side, and I don't think they were realized
they were doing that, but it'sjust something that that it evolved into.
Some of us still do meet andgreets, but it's not like an in
store, right, right, it'shad a show or something. Now,
Yeah, you know, unless youdecide to press hard copies to have available

(27:59):
at that meet and greet. Likeso if you know you're gonna, you
know, do like one hundred signaturesor one hundred people are coming in,
you know, to have a hardcopy present for them. Some are to
still do that. Yeah. Nowthey're collectors' items, and you know it
as opposed to buying it, andit became a collector. They don't even
got a CD player. Yeah,Hey, man, I remember I can't

(28:22):
tell you how many times. Iremember one time, man, I went
to go get my car washed,right, and they stole my Cypress Hill
CD out the car. Bro you'retalking about doubling back on some ignorant man,
I doubled back and it's crazy aswe talk about how long the stay
in power's been, I know,be real that you've seen people that you'll

(28:44):
go to a particular country or astate or whatever and you've seen people that
was like, oh man, Ihave a kid, yeah and now the
kid. You know what I'm saying, Like you've seen people in multiple shows
that you've probably grown up with.Yeah. Yeah, man. So there
was a okay, so what we'redoing Smoking Grooves? Right? And we
did this particularly this particular Smoking Grooveswith Public Enemy and I think Eric Abadu.

(29:08):
It was that lineup, and wedid all three Smoking Grooves. People
thought that it was our tour,but we were just like anchoring the show,
right like they would get others tobe the headliners, but we were
always the co headliner in the spotno other group did all three years.
We were the only ones. Andso with Smoking Grooves, y'all. Well,

(29:32):
people thought it was yeah, hellyeah, but it was I think
Paul Toillette. Okay. So weyou know, we got onto this thing
where like we're going to be veryinteractive with our fans. So we asked
for an autograph signing space where wecan have a boot there. We'll have
all our promo stuff. It's notgoing to have any merch We're not going

(29:53):
to sell anything from it. We'rejust going to be available to the fans.
So we'd have lines of like twothree hundred, four hundred people.
Well, these festivals are running,just come right before our set. We'd
be, you know, doing thisthing. And you know, Chuck d
was on this, and he wasone of like my idol, right like

(30:15):
like yo, Chuck, we gotthis autograph signed booth, come get down
with us over here. And hedecided, yeah, you know, because
he's a people person and he likesto see what people are doing as well,
like what other artists are doing,how they're engaging their fans and whatnot.
And so he came in there,saw that signed autographs with us.

(30:36):
And you know, there was thisone girl to come to your point,
right that she was pregnant. Herand her man came and her man knew
that I was a priest, andhe fought right, what a priest in
the Yoruba religion? Fa, yes, don't say that, like like and

(30:56):
just move on, bro. Ithought you knew me. But so they
asked me to pray on her belly, you know, and so I prayed
on her belly and Chuck was tripping. He was like, I've never seen
this in hip hop, and truthfully, I you know, I had done
like three or four of these,but you know, it happened in front
of Chuck, and so he rememberedthis throughout his time. He was like

(31:19):
telling this story to other folks.Hey man, I tell you I was
with be Real and this couple cameand and because he was there, he
saw it. And so we're doingProfits of Rage all these years later,
and we go through that same townin Texas and we're about to do the
show. A few hours before theshow, I get a DM from that

(31:41):
from that lady, just like,hey, I don't know if you remember
this, but years you know itsmoked grooves me and my husband came and
asked you to pray on my belly. Well, I'm here with my husband,
we're still married, and we broughtour eighteen year old son, who
wow, however old he was.We brought our son that you prayed over

(32:01):
to the show. I showed Chuckthis and he was blown away by it,
and yeah, you know that's heyman, But that's the relationships that
people build throughout the years. Bro, you know you can't buy that.
Yeah, you can't buy that.And I think that's the reason why.
Also, you know, you guyscontinue to eat off of hip hop because

(32:25):
y'all did hip hop and rock sowell, and y'all gave it to everybody,
you know, and it's not oneof the things now where it's like,
okay, you know, nobody isreally living off a so called royalties.
You know, there ain't no recordsales that just keep you in the
game. So it's about staying onthat road. And the one thing with
you Snoop q Wu Tang. Youknow when whenever you know Fuji's come around

(32:54):
or White Cleft, there's just ared Man method. Man. There's just
some people that you know, I'veseen multiple times and I know that I'm
going to get a great show allthe time. We don't go through the
motions, man, nah nah man. We're very competitive in the sense that
you know, if we're if we'replaying the co headline spot, you got

(33:15):
to come on after us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, We're gonna make
it hard for anyone, even ifwe love you, We're gonna make it
hard. Because that's I remember talkingto are Q one time, he said,
I don't mind going on. Youknow, it's about the person that's
going on after him that's gonna happen. I remember one time, and I'm
won't say the artist or a groupname, but they pushed there. We

(33:37):
got a headline, we got aheadline. We got a headline, and
it came back to me and itcame back to others and show enough.
Man, when the co headliner gotoff, the headliner couldn't live up to
it. Bro, Yeah, yougotta have that show. They just start
walking off. Yeah. For us, we look at it two ways.

(33:58):
Right. If you got us inthe headline spot, you know, we're
we're looking at what everybody else isdoing it. We're like, okay,
we're gonna bring it. We're thewe're the hammer to the name, right
right, you know what I mean. And well we're in the co headline
spot. We're gonna make it hardfor whoever's coming after. Yeah. You

(34:19):
know, now, it's it's notin the attempt to make them look bad.
It's to elevate them, to makeyou know, to make them come
and bring a show. Now,it's up to them to do that,
just like it's up to us thatif somebody that we brought on in their
co headlining and they kill it.Like let's just say I Red and Meth
right, because we've done shows withthem where they play before us, and
it's like, you got to followthis, right, But we're confident that

(34:44):
we can follow almost anyone and deliverwhat we do and get that reaction.
Now I've seen it. Now Icould say that's ninety five percent of the
time. Because there's some nights you'renot gonna win, right, you know
what I mean? That crowd justain't for you, yeah, man,
you know, or maybe the reactionthat you expect ain't there, so you

(35:06):
may say, oh man, wedidn't get one. They got it.
And you have to take two thingsinto consideration. If it's a festival,
play right, and the doors openat like twelve and you go on at
like eleven, how much energy isleft people? That's not about to say
people getting getting tired? Bro.Yeah, some summer a summer festival,

(35:27):
most especially now, So you couldchalk that up to where like, Okay,
I didn't we didn't get the reaction, but that's because they've been on
their feet all day at this festival. And that's it, right, You
could use that as Oh yeah,I would definitely use that. I won't
blame it on me when it's ashow that's indoors and it's specific to like
eight five groups, your co headlinecomes and kills it and you have like

(35:52):
that, Okay, let's just hurryup and this over with type of thing.
Because we ain't getting the reaction,they put the half in the back
in the account. Ok Yeah.If they take the juice out of the
room and and you can't bring itback, I mean, that's on you.
And and I don't recall ever havingone of those nights that was specific
to like us headlining our show,but yeah, there's there's been times.

(36:15):
I mean, to shoot, wewere in the co headline spot at this
place called Rock and Ring and Germanyand uh uh this group h this metal
group named Romstein, who is verypopular in the metal scene. I mean
they are like crazy and their showis nuts and Germany is their home.

(36:37):
So you know, we're like,okay, we're in the perfect slot.
We're thinking, you know, we'regonna go on right before Romstein, We're
gonna slam them, and then youknow it's an allu to Romstein, right
wrong, We go up there.And normally because Germany's like are in Europe
is our biggest market, like forhip hop, they love sub cyber zil,

(36:59):
so we assume we're gonna go upthere. And we didn't do no,
you know, like half ass typeshow. We didn't run through the
motions. We're like given our show, and they were just okay, all
right, hurry up, we needRomstein on. Yeah, okay, cool,
yeah, still, but hurry upnow. Hey. It was humbling

(37:19):
to say the least. And thenwhen Romstein came on, they blew it
like they had peoples having sex onthe stage. Right, they were painted
in gold, and they were completelystill when the sets started, right,
And as the sets going, yousee these what you thought were like stage

(37:44):
props start to move, and thenthey're moving and then they're getting down,
getting down because you know, someof the songs are very sexually orientated.
I guess, right. And thenthey got these cannons that looked like penises.
Yeah damn, yeah, hey man, that's when you go, hey
man, I need some gold peoplestay. Yeah, and they got and

(38:07):
they got to two cannons and there'sthere's two two people men in the the
penis cannons and when they shoot it, it's a stream of white that goes
out. Yeah. Yeah, theywere ready. Hey bro, and that's
you can bring that from the house. It's like, how do you stand
up that? I mean, like, if we were going on after that,

(38:30):
oh man, thank god, noone thought, hey Cypress Hills headline
after yeah, oh man, itwould have been done. We would have
probably not you would have been like, man, we don't even know mic
is only four people right here?What are you talking about? Yeah?
It was. It was, uhman, it was. It was humbling
and interesting to say the least.Man. Thank you Germany, Thank you

(38:52):
dude. Romt. Hey man,we're celebrating fifty years of hip hop.
And did you ever have any relationshipwith Tupac? Yeah? Yeah, Tupac
was a homie. You know.We met him through the digital undergrounds.
Okay, so it's been it wasa minute. Well yeah yeah, people
do really didn't know that we weregood friends with money B. We met

(39:13):
him through a cat that worked atASCAT for a time, and he was
like, actually the first dude whobelieved in our Cypress Hill vision. His
name was Jerry Davis. Salute toJerry Davis and I think he passed rest
in peace. But he hooked usup with those guys. You know.
He's like, I know these guysin the Bay, they're called Digital Underground.
They're on the bubble right now,they're killing it. You need to
link up with these guys. Sowe meet money Bee and Fuse and Shock

(39:38):
and we and and eventually we meetPoac because Pac is a part of their
stage show at this point. Andwe start getting out with POC and so
when we get on he would showup to our shows in the Bay and
and roll around with us, andhe'd break these big ass sacks of some
bomb Bay weed and he had ahe had a hand cannon with them,

(40:00):
you know what I mean. It'slike, oh, y'all are going into
East Oakland to day. Okay,I'm coming with you. You know,
I'm gonna watch you back. Andfrom then on we were friends, and
we'd run into each other at theconventions and stuff like hanging there, and
he was a cool dude man.And uh, you know, it wasn't
until he got with death Row tillwe didn't really have any sort of communications

(40:24):
with each other at that point,you know what I mean, Because it
was a whole different get down whenhe went there. But yeah, he
was. He was a wild oneman. And what's crazy is it he
would roll places before he gets withdeath Row and he's still wilding out like
on his own, before he hasthat sort of backup, you know,
with a stable backup. Right whenhe was like sort of on the solo

(40:47):
run. He'd run around through theseconventions by himself, bulletproof vest, no
bodyguards. He'd you know, behaving a bandanna to cover his face and
just show up on you what youknow, a man. Do you remember
just like private conversations that you hadwith Park because I remember mine and I

(41:07):
knew that they were, especially atthat moment I when you fast forward and
all Parc was going to get takenaway from us. But you could see
how intelligent Pac was all the timeearly and you can see the wildside and
Parc to even before death Brow.You know what I'm saying. But you,
I know you had great conversations withTipker. You know, I think
he liked he liked being with peoplethat were like on the edge like he

(41:32):
was, you know what I mean, people that could understand that and and
that we're talking about something different andyou know, because he was very educated,
you know what I mean. Hewas an intelligent dude and very creative,
and I think he was always tryingto find a space, you know
what I mean, at least fromwhat I could tell as his friend in

(41:52):
that moment, like trying to finda space with people he could click with.
Like that's why he clicked up withthe Trench, right, they because
they were really good friends for along time. And you know, I
don't think they ever stopped being friends, but I'm saying they used to click
up a lot. That's why yousee them in videos together and stuff like
that, and Tretch constantly shouting Popout. But he was a cool dude

(42:16):
man off the hook. Yeah,when you when you did say, like
when he got with Death Row,the communication wasn't as much when you would
look at Pop you know, thedeath Row days when things started to get
a little crazy, did you notthat did you ever reach out? But
did you think like like damn man, like what's going on here? Well?
You know, I felt he washyper focused on mission and that was

(42:39):
you know, because I think hefelt he had a lot to prove to
to some you know, and likethat his blow up was inevitable, you
know. And I think that whenyou're super focused like that, you tend
not to see everything around you,you know what I mean. And I
think that that's sort of what happened. You know, you sort of focus

(43:01):
everything out people you used to talkto constantly, and it just things change
because you're on this mission. AndI believe he was on that mission.
So a lot of us that maybehad communication with him before, we didn't
have the same communication because he wasn'tavailable to it. He was in that
studio knocking it down because he hadsomething to prove, and then when he

(43:23):
started getting on that run and hestarted getting that momentum, he wasn't gonna
let it go at that point.What was your relationship with Biggie? Like,
I didn't have one, none atall. Did you ever meet or
slap hands? Nope? Wow.I seen him once when he was on
the bubble when people were talking abouthim early on with the party in Bullish

(43:44):
and he played at I believe itwas the Third Street Promenade. Remember that
spot. It was a hip hopspot that would yeah oh wow. Yeah,
they had a little hip hop clubdown there. I can't remember what
the name of it. Was,and it was on Thursday. But it
wasn't in like Santamanic called West La. It wasn't like the Jamaica Jamaica House

(44:05):
or anything of that. I don'tremember, but I know it was Third
Street Pro yeah, and he wasdoing the show down there. So me
and my homies we shut the studiodown and uh, we were like,
let's go check him out. Andhe got on the mic and it was
a small little stage, but heripped it. Man. I remember I
saw him and Poc on stage togetherin New York and they went into a

(44:27):
partying bush out there, bro,and he when he said, a fight
broke out and they stopped and thenthey start fighting each other. And then
when they came, can we justall get along so I could put hookys
on the neck Sean, Man,I knew I was witness in history right
there, Bro, Yeah, Iwas. I knew I was witness in
history right there. Man. Howdid Cypress Hill and be real? And

(44:51):
I didn't see this? And Iwas around at that time too. How
did y'all float through the so calledEast coast West Coast b when y'all had
love on every side like clouds ofsmoke? You know what I'm saying.
It was easy for us because Imean, you know, being from the
West Coast, we weren't necessarily labeleda West Coast group because we broke on

(45:16):
the East Coast and we had moreof an East Coast sound than a West
Coast sound up until I mean maybethe fifth album or sixth when we start
doing a more West Coast sounding typething. So we never got caught up
in that, you know what imean, because we had love on the
East Coast, and obviously we hadlove here because from here, and we

(45:38):
didn't buy into any of that,you know what I mean. Like for
us, we you know, wewere built off of East Coast hip hop,
and that's a fact, you knowwhat I mean, All our influences,
everything that we ever listened to thatinspired us to get into this was
from out there. So there wasno way we were gonna get involved in.

(46:00):
We didn't have no beef with anybodyon the East Coast for anything to
even like be a part of perpetuatingsomething like that. And we knew that
all the media outlets were just feedinginto that to make hip hop look horrible,
as you know, they've tried todo throughout hip hop's history, right,
So we tried to play into noneof that. We played a lot

(46:22):
of East Coast gigs and we didn'tsee any any blowback from it. I
just I think the people who werespecifically having the beef, which was you
know, poking Big in their camps, they saw the residuals of that,
and anyone who else, anyone elsewho would speak on it, you know,

(46:42):
that didn't necessarily have to. Theymight have caught something. But for
the most part, there was plentyof East Coast groups that came in that
time. It were doing shows atthe House of Blues or the Whiskey or
the Roxy or the Palladium or atthe Palace with no one giving them any
beefs, you know what I mean. Now, had it been you know,
Big or par for any of thoseguys coming from the camp, maybe

(47:06):
it would have been a different story. But all the like method Man Redman
kept you know, like a lotof them dudes kept coming down here.
Yeah, it was just and itwas love, but you know, to
hear it through the media, itwas like this crazy war going on and
it wasn't really that. Hey man, if you had a playlist of five
hip hop groups are artists. Whatwould be in your playlist? The groups

(47:30):
are the songs? What would youanswer? How you are? Playlist?
Damn? Okay, Taylor Soul wouldhave to be on this playlist. Public
Enemy would have to be on thisplaylist. Rock him, Let's see who

(47:52):
else? Ep M, D,Yes, Sir, KRS one, Damn
and those are like a lot oftoo. Yeah, and those are album
guys. Yes, you know whatI'm saying definitively. You know when you
when you heard a Public Enemy album, you knew it was a Public Enemy
album. Despite the voices. Therewas a sound to it, there was

(48:13):
a vibe to it. And that'sbecause they used one production team and that
sort of inspired us. You know, Mugs was the Bomb Squad all in
one. Yeah, and he wasvery much and he was very much inspired
by them. You know, that'swhere the wild sounds come from and stuff
like that on our first three albumswhere he's you know, sampling it off.

(48:35):
You know how is Mugs now?He is working man, Salute to
the to the Black Goat. He'sgot all kinds of stuff. He just
released a short film called Death Valley, and he's been working with all these
amazing artists as of late, andwe're about to be doing something pretty soon
as Cypress as Cypress and one ofmy favorite things he hit me with,

(48:58):
Man, and he hit me withthis out of out of nowhere. Because
sometimes him and I will just beworking on stuff on the low key.
He'll send me some stuff he thinksthat I'll like, and then I'll send
it back to him already done,and then we just you know, bank
it. If we use it later, we use it later, but it's
something that's that's there if we wantto go to Muggs is a beast.
He's a beast. And he sentme this one, and uh, I

(49:22):
guess I was probably the first oneon it, because you know, when
he first sent it to me,it was just a skeleton beat. So
I get on it and I putthe chorus on it and everything, and
then he sends it back with ranon it, and I'm like, oh,
I'm like, oh, Man,Ran okay. Because I'd done something
with ran on On on a Cypusalbum called south Land Killers way back.

(49:45):
I didn't know he was gonna beon the record. Mugs pulled the magic
right, and so he sends methis with Wren and Rn kills it right,
and I'm like, man, thisis tight. I send him back.
You know, Hey, this istight. This is what what are
we using this for? He goes, I'm gonna put this on my next
album. It's coming out in acouple of months. Call Cube, see
if you can get them on it. I'm like, well, that's a

(50:06):
lot of pressure, but a right, Cube, what's up? So I
send it to Cube. I said, hey, because you know, we're
we've been doing all these shows togetherand we've been talking a lot. We
we did some little work together.People haven't heard it yet, but I
heard it. Oh you heard it? Yeah? Ah, yeah, I
heard it. Bro. It's thebeginning. Yeah. Man. So I

(50:27):
tell him, hey, Mugs wantsyou to get on this joint right here,
and you know, if you likeit, jump on it. Let
us know. And he hit itwithin a week. Send it back,
Send it to Mugs. Mugs.It's the most saying man. You know,
it's a checklist thing for me becauseI got to be on a song
with Wren and Cube and it's hard. It's called dump on Him and uh,

(50:49):
it's on Mugs's new joint man,and it's it's also on his uh
is that available now? Yeah,it's all. It's also on his Death
Valley, His Death Valley short Film. I mean it's all on YouTube.
You know, we all released allthese little shows. Hey man, let
me ask you this. Man,we've been knowing each other for decades,
yes, sir, decades. Whydid you try to kill me? And

(51:15):
you set me up for like aslow kio though you know what I'm saying,
I don't know what I did man, and were not just like radio
homie that hits you three days.Huh, it's hitting me now, all
right, Reiduals. Let me tellyou man, For those who don't know,
I went into the smoke box withyou, yeah yeah, and it

(51:36):
was one of them things like bigyou know, we know you don't smoke,
and I was even like, yeah, man, I'll come through.
And for those that don't know,it's like you're sitting in a Cadillac and
you blow. You know what I'msaying, windows up, you hot box
and everything right, and you're doingan interview. I don't smoke. So
what they did is that they loadedthe car up. You know what I'm

(51:57):
saying. Of course, it's bereal. See my is behind you and
I forget who is behind me.Okay, So now they're smoking and we
start off the interview and I'm like, okay, I can do this,
you know. And then I startcoughing and I'm like this, dude,
really trying to do an interview andI'm dying over here. You know what
I'm saying. I'm like, andso then I'm trying my best and I'm

(52:22):
dude, be I'm sitting here like, are you saying the right words?
And I'm telling you, bro,you did though, be real, it
was all the right word no,man, especially when I realized that I
signed my house over to you.I'm gonna tell you, man, it
was bad for me. It wasbad for me in the car, and

(52:44):
then when I got out the car, it was worse. And you know,
people was like, oh man,you're gonna sleep well, and you
know I have a torn rotator carand so I remember you. I could
lift my arm up. But Ithink that I went from a happy zone.
I went past it. He wentto the anxiety zone. I was

(53:06):
there, bro, it was beit was bad. Bro. You know,
like we did this to Tony hawkBy as you stay with us,
Okay, I don't know, man, I ain't seen them. See what
see in the car? You know, the smoke accumulates quickly, you know
what I mean? As you know, and if you smoke, it still

(53:30):
will get to you. There's beenpeople that have like decided, okay,
well most of the people that comein there, they smoke, and some
of them can take it. Someof them are titans, they'll they'll they'll
deal with it, and others,yeah, they leave there definitely like I
don't want to ever do. Ohyeah, I know in my life now
you know what you prove to me. Unless I have something down the road

(53:51):
and a doctor or a homeopathic doctorsay like you gotta smoke, I would
never smoke in my life. Beand you taught me something that day.
I got out that car and itfelt like my feet were like wet,
like a spongy. When that youshowing the hell? Did did I ever
show you the video of when Iwas driving. I never released the video
of when Jose was driving me home. And then when I got home to

(54:14):
my wife, Dude, I thoughtthat I wasn't gonna come out of it.
I thought like, man, whatdid I do to my career?
What did I do? Remember?I kept saying you know what I'm saying.
It was bad, man. Iwas in the car laughing, and
it was bad. It was theworst. You know. I felt bad
when that was happening to you know, I don't know you laughing now,

(54:36):
how bad you feel? And it'scrazy because I remember when I was getting
out, y'all started blocking and Iwas like, what's going on? It
was like, oh, we gotanother interview and I'm looking at people.
It was designer coming through, andI'm like, y'all about to do this
again? Like, dude, Icould do that. I couldn't even do
that once a year, let alonetwice in the day. B I was
socked up, man, and allthe lies of you're gonna to go home

(55:00):
and go to sleep, none ofthat. None of it. Man.
We talked about it, and Ieven asked the neighbor. But that's why
they started laughing. I was like, dude, why did that man try
to kill me? What did Ido? You know, I don't think
you fell asleep because it's a contact. It's not necessarily like direct smoking.
Like if you would have smoked,you would have went through all that,

(55:22):
but you would definitely gone to sleep, Okay, Like the long one you're
talking about I would have went.I would have died the long one.
Yeah, man, but yeah,you know with contacts for someone who doesn't
smoke, yeah, it could giveyou the anxiety. Hey dude, and
you're in there with us like that, and you can watch the video.
Do when you picked up another one, I was like, you're about to

(55:43):
light another one? Like I wasin there and at one point I was
just like, I started thinking tomy mom, rest in peace. Right.
I was like, Mom, Ijust get off the car. I
do. And then I'm looking atJose through the lens and I'm like,
Jose, I've known him for decades, right, I'm looking at Jose like,
bro, get off of be real, understand your homie dying. Look

(56:06):
I'm looking at I was like adog in there, bro, like busty
windows, what I need? Youknow what this this? This? I
need to I need a tap button. You know for folks, you know
that it's like getting too much atbang topic say, I knew I should
have to, man, you know, there's been a couple of people I
had to let out, Like coolKeith brought his manager and his managers like,

(56:30):
hey, man, can I sitin the back way you guys do
this. I'm like, well,but he knew you were bro right,
Yeah, okay, And he waslike, no, man, i'd be
around smokers, you know. I'mcool that, like I could, I
could handle it. And you know, Keith was smoking a blunt, I
believe, and I was smoking abig fat joint. And it was only
two of us in there, andwe get it, well three of us,

(56:51):
two of us smoking and dude andback, and it got just a
little smoking. It wasn't even asbad as as what it was for you.
And he had to like run outof that car. He goes,
hey, could you let me out? I said, we don't do that
right now, but I let himabout three Like, man, you the
continuity and everything. I'm gonna haveto address this on camera now that you

(57:13):
had to get out the car.Yeah, we usually put that big old
buzzer like that you would hear onfamily feud. And I just felt like
if I would have tapped out,our got out. I don't know if
it's peer pressure or whatever, butI felt like I would have let hip
hop down. I was like,man, because everybody listen, everybody knows
you, right, all of usthat know you know, you don't smoke.

(57:35):
So the fact that you went inthere, people give respect, respect,
respect my bad like you too,grown. Oh no, they respected
that. Yeah, man, likeyou know, I'll think about my kids
and everything. While I was inthere, I was like, dude,
we had Noel g in there thesame way, like you and him are

(57:55):
the only two that didn't smoke,right, because he had just quit smoking
for something. I can't remember whathe was talking about, but he was
like, I want to be inthe box, but I can't smoke if
that's cool. Like all right,cool, we don't normally do that,
but you're the homie, right,we'll give you the past because because I
don't think he knew how crazy hegets in there with the smoke, right,

(58:20):
Yeah, he he felt that too. I won't tell anybody man in
the future. Bro, don't doit. I'm looking right in the camera
too. Don't do it. Ifyou ain't ready. I wish I wish
you would have. Did he getin after me? He got in before
you? Okay, that's Noel.You should have hit leave because now because
it's like my job now, myduty to tell people don't get in there,

(58:44):
and some people won't come do it. Now I can understand that there's
been a couple of dudes like thisdude doing a real interview too. There's
been a couple of dudes that wantedto get in there, like, hey,
I want to do the smoke boxcool. And then they showed up
and you know, before they camein the building, they paced out side.
It was like for about forty fiveminutes and then decided, you know

(59:04):
what, I'm not going to beI was like, that was a bad
decision, Like I was really right. I didn't think it was bad because
you weren't me and you didn't makeit home with me. Man. I
almost felt like, you know,on Friday when when Smoky not smoking,
when Chris Tucker is like by thepigeon coop. I felt that whole day.

(59:25):
Though. I love that you weregiving me reports though, Yeah that
was because I'm alive, because Iwas trying to, you know, walk
you through some of it and whatnot. But you know obviously that didn't work.
Yeah, man, hey dude,how old were you when you start
smoking? I was probably like three. You know, when I was created
on this planet, they gave mea program with full tolerance. Yeah,

(59:50):
I believe that about fat no probablythirteen. Hey, man, I remember
we did this like this challenge whereit was like who's this who? Then
we had wis Kalief and we hadyou know, the faces and where's Khalifa?
No matter what, where's Khalipha?Do that? Mom? Like it's
be real, and we and andand and it was like the elimination.

(01:00:12):
Man, it was like the what'sthat? The pack forwards and all that,
it got down and it was likehe was like, be real,
yeah you know, and I'm talkingabout burner snoop whiz. They we even
threw exhibit and what's the mighty cyrus? For some reason, she had lungs.
Yes, she got lungs. Andthey were like, be real,
Well, I'm just different. Thereyou are, Bron, You're a murderer.

(01:00:37):
I've put people to sleep. Yeah, you know, because I do
all this stuff all around, youknow what I mean, Like so the
flowers smoking with the joints. Iused to smoke the boons. I don't
really smoke bongs that much anymore.I like smoking joints on the glass tips,

(01:00:57):
the funky field tips. But I'lldo the bulls all, do the
concentrates. All that stuff. Sogood for you, and so yeah,
that's what I saw. So Igot a different I got a different tolerance
than most. And whizz, haveyou smoked today? Yeah? Of course
he was like, dude, thisis my cologne. It's called it in
the pocket. Hey man, Iremember that one time you had a suburban.

(01:01:22):
You was like, yeah, Ihad to change the interior in here
because the smell was holding in thecar. He changed the interior. He
didn't say I need to stop smoking. My man said I want to change
the interior in this new car becauseit's holding. And yeah, I gotta
get you. I gotta get leather. I try not to smoke in the
car, but it's just, youknow, it only lasts for maybe a

(01:01:45):
couple of have you have you everquit quit? No? But like there
was a time when I was inPanama doing something down there, and I
knew there wasn't any good weed downthere, and plus what I was doing
was sort of on a spiritual thingdown there with some you want to mix

(01:02:07):
a hyahuasca way we right, No, I didn't do that. I haven't
done that yet. So I spentlike a month down there and I didn't
smoke anything. When I got homeand the first joint I smoked, it
felt like I was thirteen again,man, because you know, we smoked
the heavy stuff, you know whatI mean, so o G cush was
what we were smoking, and atthat point that was the heaviest. It's

(01:02:29):
still one of the heaviest to thisday. But so you take a month
off and you come back straight tothat. Oh yeah, I felt like,
did you ever think about not goingback to it? No? Oh
yeah, he was like, Bade, that's a stupid question. People wouldn't
be able to tolerate me. Ithink if if I didn't smoke, because
you know, I'm less tolerable foryou know, how can I say this

(01:02:51):
without using the expletive the bull ishYou know what I'm saying, I'm less
tolerable of that, you know,when you're not small. When I'm not
smoking like the other things. SoI might I might ramp up real quick
if I'm sober. But I ifi'm smoking, I'll use my rationality before
I react, you know what Imean. I'll think about it, I'll

(01:03:13):
analyze it, Whereas you know,if I'm not smoking, I might react
off something way too fast. Heyman, you guys, You guys are
like on people wish list to smoke. Is there any celebrity that thought they
wanted to smoke with you, thatsmoked with you that couldn't hang well out
of hip hop? That's probably mostof them. Yeah, but I mean,

(01:03:36):
you know some of them folks camethrough the smoke box and and actually
hung but when they left it waslike Doug Benson, for instance, comedian
Doug Benson, Right, he wasknown for smoking and all that stuff,
and then he came and smoked outwith us. And what happened was our
bro e zone gave him some dabsbefore he got into the smoke box.

(01:04:00):
And then you know, we're chiefingin the smoke box and you know there's
other guys in there smoking, right, not just uh me, and you
know person getting interviewed, so we'relike boxing him out and he's dapped up,
so like, yeah, he probablyhad he had he had one of
those experiences. Hey, dude,I was really sitting in there and you
say that was probably the zone behindme. Yeah, I was really sitting

(01:04:23):
there like and with se minus all, like, dude, what are y'all
doing in the car? Y'all notasking no questions? Really, like,
get out the car and lighten someof his smoke up. Man, Like
it was really it was ridiculous,you know, I think because normally they
do ask questions. It's just thatI think that the zone was probably a
little bit intimidated that, like bigBoy was up in the front seat and

(01:04:45):
and but I know C Minus didand ce Minus you know, he he'll
he'll ask the questions because you knowhe's been he's here too. We do
yeah, but he but even hisquestions, he was like, hey man,
you know, yeah, dude,I was even getting I think,
and that's my guy. I thinkhe was surprised that you you would because
we allow yourself to be in that. His question he was like, man,

(01:05:05):
do you have your insurance card onyou Big? And I was like
yeah. He was like who dowe contact? Who do we contact for
emergencies? So I was like,all right. I think he was just
surprised that you were in there withus. Yes, he knows you don't
smoke. I mean, you know, hey man, you have been an
advocate. You guys have helped withlaws. You guys were you know,

(01:05:28):
known for smoking before it was likethat popular thing to do before it was
like acceptable because even then years ago, people didn't admit even doctors. Was
like, you know, now everybodysmoked, closet smoker. Yeah, man,
yeah, so just where you seenow, early days, man,
were y'all kicked out of like hotels, buses, you know, like pulled

(01:05:50):
over, asked to leave hotels.Yeah, paid, you know, like
there was a run. I hadfines on every damn because my room is
church right right right. Everybody congregatedgate with the doctor Reverenden is in procession
now, so you know, Iwould get all the fines, you know

(01:06:10):
what I mean. And then sometimesyou know, when they they had a
no fine policy, it's like,excuse me, so we're gonna have to
ask you to leave and I'd haveto run off to another hotel or whatever.
You have ever had to sleep inthe bus? No, okay,
Yeah, I'm just wondering, man. I mean, yes, in the
early days, we definitely did,you know. But the bus drivers,
you know, most of them know, and they because you know, this

(01:06:32):
has been happening since before we cameon to the scene. But people party
on their bus and that bus driverhas got to know. Hey, record
company or band is paying for thisbus. All you're here to do is
drive, not to partake, notto judge, not to tell anybody guy
or that, as long as they'renot destroying the bus, you drive.

(01:06:55):
Hey man, I remember I knowthis one artist. They got on the
bus and when they got on thebus there, one of their guys started
handing them back their guns and thebus driver was rolling and saw this.
He dropped them off that sound checkand when they came out after sound check,
all their luggages right there by theby the truck trucks, and Cube

(01:07:16):
ever told yes first, oh yeah, yeah, you know, we like
we used to travel like that too, but we would never break them out
in front of the drive right right. We'd always just have them like low
key, you know, because whenwe were touring with Naughty in those beginning
days, right, they were strappedup. We were like naked out there
and we were like, damn y'alldoing it like this is Yeah. Some

(01:07:39):
of these places we rolled, theydon't like, they don't like who we
are, right one hip hop twowere brown and black. Yeah you know
what I mean, they ain't gonnalike us in some of these places.
So we got to be ready onI was like, oh man, I
didn't even think about that. You'relike, man, I let forty five
guns at hey So the very nextsure, you know, send Dog was

(01:08:00):
breaking something. Mugs was bringing liketwo three thigs, I was bringing some
of course, oh yeah. Andso yeah, our bus was strapped down
for a minute, but we neverlet our driver know. And the most
of the time our driver was strappedtoo though. Yeah, damn, I
guess it would happen to hey man. And the Lifetime banned from Saturday Night

(01:08:20):
Live. We touched on this before. That's still going on, still going
on. So when they said lifetime, they really meant they really meant lifetime,
right, So for those that don'tknow, they told y'all not to
smoke. Yeah, they told usnot to smoke. They kept telling Mugs

(01:08:40):
not to smoke, and you know, we were going to smoke. I
don't know, you know, ifthey were just guessing that or whatever,
but they felt the need to justkeep hammering at home and that you know
that we were going to smoke atthe end. You were, Yes,
we were going to smoke at theend, destroy our set and then smoke
at the end, like the aftermathof all of our set being destroyed on

(01:09:02):
the stage. We're going to youknow, pull out and smoke. But
because they kept, you know,bothering him with this, he decided,
I'm doing this right at the topin case they cut us. Maybe that
was his mentality case they cut ourour performance short and you know, you
don't get to see us do that. And then they kept telling him over
and over. So then he getsto the point that, all right,

(01:09:23):
mugs, is not a dude thatyou tell something over and over time?
Is that I got it? Andthey they weren't buying it though, because
he's I don't think he was agood poker player, smoke nothing. Yeah,
you know what I mean. Ithink they knew and he knew that
they would they maybe edit that out, so he lit it off the top

(01:09:47):
and that became a thing. AndI'll tell you what for all the for
the band that they have on usto this day, they run it in
syndication without edit. Wow with himsaying they told me I couldn't do this,
and boone, they see him lightup and the rest do they tell
you your band for life or you'vejust felt it came after? Yeah,

(01:10:08):
they told us, Oh, wellyou've been banned from miss n L for
life, but you're in good companyright right? Anybody else? Band Uh,
Eddie, No, that's banned.Eddie iszard? Is it well?
Sinado kind of rest she was?She bannedge against the machine, was then

(01:10:29):
CNL when she tore the pictro ofthe Pope. Okay, Uh Andrew Dice
Clay Andrew Dice Clay rage against themachine because they hung the flag upside down
down, Martin Lawrence, That's whatI was, Martin Lawrence's I think they
unbanned him though if I remember her, band, I don't know what they've
been. You know, crazy MartinLawrence can be crazier than us, right

(01:10:49):
about female hygiene, I think clearly, Launching into his monologue, I'm surprised
you guys were able to still surviveafter being for life from there are?
I think, how did y'all makeit? You know? I don't know,
man, man, I'll tell youwhat though. It was a blessing
though, because it's it's it's uh. It's one of those things that people

(01:11:11):
remember, and we didn't get playedout because of it. It actually added
to the to our legend like wewould do something like that, you know
what I mean? Because the firstguy to blaze on TV was a dude
named Reverend Bud Green on The RickyLake Show or something like that, and
we were on a way bigger platform. I just you know, my only
regret was that I wish that weall would have lit up. But it

(01:11:35):
was cool that Muggs did it.I heard that, No, no one
at the time is mad at him. No, not any management or anything.
I would I would imagine that thatSony yeah, a little bit concerned,
and I think he thought we weremad at him. And but the
only thing we were mad at isthat we didn't get like, damn you

(01:11:57):
did it at at the top.Did y'all go to the sn L like
how to do the party? Yeah? Because you yeah, because I mean
we weren't banned yet, you knowwhat I mean, Like they let the
show happen, and everybody thought itwas awesome. You know, No one
like Lauren Michaels didn't come up andsay what the was that? You know
what I mean? Everybody loved it. They thought it was really cool.

(01:12:17):
So we were hearing all this fromall the comedians and all the writers and
you know, the producers while wewere killed, while we were in the
at the party that everybody goes toafter SNL. Right, so we're like,
yeah, two days later, wellyou've been bad, Yeah you get
home first. Yeah. They theyjust have a good time. Yeah,

(01:12:39):
but it's still you know, theynever tooking it down. They've never That's
how That's how I'm saying it werebecause it was a good episode. Shannon
Doherty killed it in her appearance becauseshe was the host this night, and
we did our thing. We broughtsomething that no one had brought them.
Y'all brought legend to her too.You know what I'm saying, y'all brought
legend to her. Hey, man, while I got you here? Uh,

(01:13:01):
I not that I want to putthis to rest one more time,
you know what I'm talking about theApril Fools Show, Yes, that we
did that. I still get peoplethat come up because it was so good.
Yes, man, I get peoplethat come up all the time be
like, man, that was likean Ormon Wills moment, Like yeah,
because we were it was like theaterof the mind, you know what I'm

(01:13:24):
saying. And it was crazy.Because I still get people that say,
man, you and be real coolnow, I'm like, man, we've
always been cool. I still getit too. You know, hey,
what happened with you in Big?I'm like it pops up on Facebook and
pops up like it seemed like somebodyputs it up at least twice a year
because the audio acting was on points. Oh you say, so, huh

(01:13:45):
what happened? This is us live? Right? She looks like you maybe
it was. Let me set thisup, man. We went on.
It was April o'sday, right,and we went on and we set up.
Hey, man, this is whatwe're gonna do. We're gonna have
this fight. You gonna say this, And I remember I told you to

(01:14:08):
say something. He was like,nah, Big, I'm not comfortable with
saying something about your mom. Yeah. And and and I don't even know
if I would even say because Ididn't playing with my mom back then.
It was something. Probably it wassomething. And it was like, no,
I'm not comfortable to that. Andthen I asked you you got a
sister, yes, yes, AndI said, okay, that's gonna be
the trigger point. Yeah. Andso we literally sitting outside the studio in

(01:14:30):
an office talking about this April Fool'sjoke that we're gonna do. So we
go inside and we're looking at eachother as it goes on and Liz is
in there and this is what sistermane Oh wait you know, and she
looks like you? Then maybe itwas. Hey man, hold on,

(01:14:53):
hey dude, I don't play whenit comes to my family, man.
And I know we know one.I know we around a lot of brother
but my fan, man, that'stotally off limits. Oh come on,
don't get off feelings right now.Hey man, I'm not. It's only
me I know, Blair, Andthat's why I'm going to ask you straight
up, homie on the reel andon and off their I don't play when
it comes man. But I'm believingthis it was because you know, I

(01:15:16):
haven't heard this audio. They justfound it. Yeah, because it sounds
like an awkward moment. Man,that's all good. Dog, you've been
lifting ladies, Hey man, Ilook a little stronger you. Hey man,
you just totally played yourself. Heydog. We throw a lot of
jokes around, you know, butI don't play when I come to my
family. Good. You know that'sall good? All right, Well,
I'm gonna take you that straight up. I mean, then listen to Liz.

(01:15:39):
Yeah, you got to real man, I'm hey, we play around
but I don't play when it comesto my friend. Hey, if you
don't want to play with me,don't play. You bring me in here
every time to come have fun withyou. I'm having fun with you.
Now you want to take it serious? Okay, hold on big too.
Hey, you know what I'm saying. You better be playing. Hey,

(01:16:00):
get on, hold on? Hey? What what they want to get on
the want to No? No tripthis dog. Everybody comes in here.
They got bodyguards. I buy myselfwhat you want to do? Oh my
god, no Moveay. You knowwhat, man, it sounds worse than

(01:16:45):
what I thought. That's why peoplebelieve it. Bro buzzy buzzy it.
Liz Soul, Oh my everybody.Jason. Jason was in on it,
like dude, now, dude,but now I can hear and you gotta
think, this is no social media, This is none of that. Now

(01:17:08):
I can hear the how you saidthe theater of the mind. Yeah,
I can hear people listening to that. And we let all the cursing go
over there, everything right there.That was the key. Oh my god,
that's what made it sound real.And then when you got up off
the mic. Yeah, man,And it was just in the room.
Oh my god, bro, thatwas a class man. I tell you.

(01:17:29):
That was like a similar thing towhat orson Wells did, you know,
by scaring the hell out of people. We were getting invaded by UFO,
but on our on our you know, in our hip hop culture,
that was the equivalent of that becausepeople thought we really had beep. There
was people calling him, yes,right after we went off the air,
people calling me, hey, youneed me to come down there. Everybody

(01:17:50):
was literally on their way. Andthen when I went fast forward, you
know, thirty years and eight,and when I go look at the documentary
and I see all your homies inthere, I'm looking like, oh,
this could have been bad. Younever came back, and like told people,
we came back. But the shotaround the world is what people listen
to. Yeah, that first itwas the first shot they heard, yeah,

(01:18:12):
man, And to this day peoplebe like, no, that was
real, y'all just cool, andy'all try to say y'all squashed yeah man,
Like, oh my god, bro, I haven't heard that audio probably
since that day. It's good,yeah, because you know, someone that
didn't really know that, they totallythink I can see why that was believable.
Yet you know what because we bothtook our voices in that range.

(01:18:36):
God, yeah, it was.It was beautiful. It was beautiful.
Acting too was like you bring mehere all the time, how fast man
man and lives in the background screaming, Oh it was perfect. That was
it was perfect. We should havegot at least an Emmy for that,

(01:18:58):
because nobody's pulled one like that.Not at all, bro, not at
all. And listening back to that, I was like, Okay, now
I understand how people because you can'tsit and be like that, I can
see why they believe it because thenit went it cut and went straight into
something. It's just cut off andwe went it was like somebody just pushed
the button and it went into something. So it was like, I know,

(01:19:20):
people had to be looking at theirstereos and there's people are like,
oh my god. Oh if socialmedia was around, then can you imagine
we would have been able to pullthat big dog back. We would have
had to like fight, it's gonnabe a gang fighting the buck man downstairs.

(01:19:41):
We were both putting out the fireto our friends and it's like,
oh man, this was just ajoke. No, no, no,
no, don't cooke down here wouldturn around around. This is you know,
it's funny is that we kept wekept going, like because when when
when I left went on their andhe was saying something and then I called
back on the hotland Oh yeah,oh yeah, cause we didn't. We

(01:20:05):
didn't. We didn't let it gothen, And I think that was about
like a Friday, and I thinkwe came to clear it up on like
Monday. Yeah, that's that.Damn Jason being a producer, it was
awesome. That was one of themost awesome things nobody in the Yeah,
it could have got me killed,but you know the same here. Yeah,

(01:20:28):
man, oh man, there itis brow now watch. That's why
I had to keep talking over thisaudio because somebody would have taken that and
they would have been like, ohthis is you know, it would have
been twenty twenty three. They justlisten to this, oh man. Real
Obviously, over the years, yousee your fans reciting every lyric from you
guys all the time. Is therea song that we would be surprised that

(01:20:49):
you know every single lyric that's obviouslynot your own. Wow, that's a
good question. There's probably several,Like they ain't necessarily hip hop songs.
Either give me that one. Damn, that's a good question. You hit
me. It's a funny thing howthat happens. You know it, But

(01:21:12):
when someone asks you, you totallyforget it. But probably the led Zeppelin
song. I think it's the immigrantsong or what is it? What is
it? The one they use inthe thor movie? Oh song? Is
that there? It is? She'sgoogling. Yeah, no, I know

(01:21:32):
a lot of led Zeppelins Immigrant song? Yeah, okay, Yeah? Is
that one of those songs where you'llpull up to and give Valet your card
and like, what the hell arelistening? Yeah? Like it most especially
bugs people out when you're dipping inyour lo lo and you're yeah, I
think Baver would listen to like somethingthey were going with sample, I think,

(01:21:57):
yeah, I heard something wrong fromnow, you know. That's That's
the funny thing about low writing isthat you'll see everybody has a sort of
different style. Like, you know, I used to rock with Lifestyle Car
Club. I'm honorary member at thispoint. But like a lot of guys
who started the club, they didn'tnecessarily listen to oldies. They were listening
to like Pink Floyd. Yeah,yeah, that's crazy, right, Zeppelin

(01:22:17):
AC dcs in their cars when theyroll up, they're most likely rolling that,
you know what I mean. Andsome of the guys that come after
them, they grew up off theoldies, and you know, you might
hear them rolling up in that.And then the generation after that they're rolling
up with hip hop and whatever they'reyou know, rolling out now, you
know, trap style stuff, youknow what I mean. Everybody's got a

(01:22:38):
sort of a different flavor. Heyb, broal, I want to play
something for you, all right,and just by ear if you know what
this he is, let it beknown. Damn that's I mean? Is
that a song I featured on?No? Hey man, I don't think

(01:23:00):
this is as big as what Ithought it was. I think Louis sold
this to us the wrong way.Yeah, evidently that's porn hub. Porn
Hub. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I played this for so many people
and no one's got it yet.I knew we introduced it to me,
and I'm like, maybe they ain'tknow. I think that's the last thing
anybody's paid attention to when they goto pornhub. That could be it.

(01:23:26):
That could be it, man,believe that, Hey B, do you
still have your matter, daddy,that from back in the days. What
the whole like the whole matter?Daddy? Do you still have that matter
daddy? Yeah? The hell isthat? What do you mean matter daddy?
Yeah? Do you still have thematter daddy? I don't know what
that is? Matter daddy. Yeah, y'all are looking at that me crazy

(01:23:53):
matter daddy. You can't look itup because he would know it. You
got me on this on the matterdaddy, matter daddy. Yes, what
is the matter? Nothing? What'swrong with you? Nothing the matter?

(01:24:15):
Nothing is the matter with me?Be real? All right, all right,
I'm ready for you believe that man, got real. Please taking amongst
your friends. You know what I'msaying. That's a good one. That's
a good way. Listen. Youknow we we used to do this to
each other all the time. AndI got Joe Grande the worst. Wait

(01:24:41):
what did you get Joe with thetry tip o? Yeah? Man,
yeah, but he likes so helikes to try tim though. Yeah,
do you do try tim too?He was like Joe was Joe was he
He was like, yeah, tryto love, try to tip And then

(01:25:03):
Joe was like all right, Somy setup was hey, big and I
I forgot I'm with somebody that doesthis. So now, yeah, I
said, hey, we got thissmoke out jumping off. We got all
these artists are plugging the Smokeout festival, right. I said, we're gonna

(01:25:24):
have barbecue there and everything. Hesays barbecue like, yeah, we're gonna
have ribs, chicken. Try tip, you like, try tip and he
stops. He he realizes the setup. Joe love, try tip. Try
to tip about all right? Man, this was in the vein of that.

(01:25:46):
Yeah. Man, I'm glad thatyou started it back up because I
got ready for you on I forgotwho I was messing with. Yeah,
man, yeah, I probably liketo cut that out. Yeah, because
you know what I'm saying, Hey, what a say? Let the sleeping
dog? You got to do that. That was Thank you, brother,
I love you always. Man,I love you period, be real And

(01:26:08):
thank you for coming into the neighborhood. Man. Thanks for having me a
man. It is a pleasure,bro. And I'm telling you man,
I'm a fan first, been afan for years, peer as well,
man, friend as well, andI love to see what you're doing man,
and keep inspiring us, bro.And as we celebrate also fifty years
of hip hop. How can wecelebrate without having you in the neighborhood as
well. Bro, Thank you,Bro, and thank you for the many

(01:26:30):
contributions that you have made to tonot just hip hop and not just the
genre, but changing people lives.You know what I'm saying. And I'm
telling you I've had some of thegreatest times with you, and now I
have a horrible time with you aswell. When I got into the smoke
box, that almost died in there. Other than that, and it's crazy,
man, because you had all thesegreat deposits then that one withdrawal came

(01:26:55):
in. It almost closed your accountup with you. Yeah no, but
but but but but I'm it,and God knows I wouldn't. I could
be walking in Phoenix, Arizona,it could be one hundred and twenty eight
degrees and you can pull over withair coming out of the window and be
like, big you need a ride. I am not getting you out alrighty,

(01:27:15):
be rail in the neighborhood, ladiesand gentlemen. Thank you once again,
my brother sir there. It ismuch love to you and everybody here
all the time. Ladies, you'refinding a big boy from Big Boy's neighborhood
on iHeartRadio. We have the mostfun on your radio. What you got.
So neighbor they were walking in theirneighborhood and they were like, oh

(01:27:39):
my gosh, what is that noiseI hear from the house. And they're
like, it's a woman. Sheneeds help. And all they hear is
so they call the cots and they'relike, so we got a call that
there's a screaming woman in your house. And then he's like, sir,
it's not a woman, it's myparent. If you went to brunch and

(01:27:59):
just heard this, I'm yeah,yes, yes, give it up for
the parents, Give it up forthe parish. It's been the lead pair
to come in. Gotta love it. Nobody knows there. It is right
there, man, the things wedo here. Thank you for listening.

(01:28:20):
It is upon the Big Boy BigBoys neighborhood. You can catch more of
us right here on iHeartRadio.