B-Real stops by to talk with Nicole Alvarez.
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00:00I'm a little nervous because the legendary you're an institution be real. Well, thank you
00:04So like my hands are a little shaky, but i'll get it i'll get it together
00:07It's just I grew up listening. I grew up listening to
00:10It was like eric b and rakim tribe called quest nwa to live crew
00:15And cypress hill so having you here is is a freaking honor. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me and good afternoon
00:22Good afternoon. So we're gonna kick things off
00:24We're gonna kick off the 90s at noon with how I could just kill a man
00:27And this might be a good time for you to tell us like a little inside baseball on the song
00:33inside baseball inside baseball
00:35Like give me something that somebody might not know about how I could just kill a man or something that you remember
00:40Oh from recording it. Uh, well, you know, it's it's uh
00:44It was a song that was uh comprised from three different songs that I had written
00:49And when mugs made the beat he was like, hey take a piece of the song that you wrote for this thing
00:55Take this piece and this other piece and this is how we're gonna craft the song
00:59So it was like three different songs made in in one
01:03And uh, you know, I didn't know how it was gonna work. But once we started recording it
01:07I totally heard what he was, you know what he was saying because I wrote three specific styles
01:13on these three different songs and he thought
01:15Making those three different styles one on this one song would be it
01:20And that's you know, that's the genius of his production style is that he could hear something like that
01:25Ahead of time ahead of time and say hey, you know, I know that this song is this and all that but let's sacrifice this
01:32Because this one song is going to be great in comparison to the three of producers minds
01:38Yeah, and uh, the other thing was that you know, we we we ran that video in new york
01:44So a lot of people initially thought we were from new york
01:47Because not too many la hip-hop groups were filming videos in new york at that time
01:52So that was the other thing it created. Um, you know, like the where are they from type of vibe?
01:57Yeah, that's part of your genius though
01:59It's like because you did you mixed those two east coast and west coast those two sensibilities so perfectly and it's what makes you
02:05The historic cypress hill. Well, thank you. You're very welcome. All right, we're gonna get into it
02:10This is how I could just kill a man. It's the 90s at noon on k-rock
02:13The way I was obsessed with that song is like this little cuban girl in miami
02:17And I remember when that first got to us. I had never heard anything like it
02:22And to this day, hold on. Are you on? Yeah. Yeah to this day. It's still
02:27Still sounds just as good. I appreciate that. You're very welcome
02:31You know, we still have a lot of fun playing that song, you know
02:33A lot of artists get tired of playing some of their old songs or whatever
02:38we don't we're totally an appreciation of what those songs did for us and
02:43You know, we're fans of our music too. So, I mean, it makes sense
02:48Yeah, you know so when we see people having you know, it it still has that impact that you know that crazy energy
02:56from from day one to now
02:58How could you get tired of seeing that and how could you get tired of feeling that you know what I mean?
03:03So, you know, I I love doing these songs. Um
03:06Yeah, we we'd like to do newer songs and stuff like that as artists
03:11But when when it's a song that you know impacted someone and it means so much to them
03:16Yeah, you cannot move away from that. No plus it kicks so many doors open for you. You can't be mad at that
03:22You can't be mad at that. Okay, so I was watching your documentary, which is phenomenal
03:25I had never seen it before and in the post documentary q and a
03:29You were talking about how before cypress hill you were on the path. You said quote-unquote on the path to nowhere
03:35Well, where do you think you'd be now had cypress hill not happened fatedly or um, yeah, tell me about that
03:41several of things
03:43Could have happened trouble. Yes all trouble because you know, I was I was uh, I was gangbanger, you know for
03:50for a while before uh, we start making the music music was uh was the hobby and passion for for uh,
03:58send dog dj mugs
04:00Mellow mayonnaise t-funk from the funk dubious and myself who we all you know sort of grew up together as young men
04:07This was our hobby. We loved hip-hop. We loved the
04:11the the
04:13Rapping aspect of it because we started with the b-boy stuff and popping but we graduated over into you know
04:20emceeing and whatnot
04:22But for a while I fell off and I started hanging out with my other friends
04:26And you know, we were up to no good truthfully I have those friends still yeah, I am that friend
04:32I still have some of those friends, but they grew up and they're not on that path anymore
04:36Neither you know what I mean? And it happens there is a way out for yeah for these youngsters who think this is the only life
04:42That they could have you know, you you tell yourself that but that is not a truth
04:46You could tell yourself something else and manifest something different and I was fortunate enough to have this hobby
04:53that was still a passion
04:55and three great friends who who uh
04:59Saw where I was going which was nowhere. Uh, they could have been in prison
05:03Could have been could have been in a wheelchair or in the grave. Those are the three paths that
05:09you know
05:10Are are always are available
05:12Available to you as a gang member, you know, and uh, I was fortunate enough to have a different path
05:19you know god blessed me with a talent and these guys were
05:23um
05:25They they loved me enough to come get me for what they saw. I had at the time. Yeah, they saw you
05:30yeah, they saw me and uh, I appreciate that and you know for me that that's
05:35No matter what has happened between any of us in our personal lives over the course of the years
05:41Always love them like my brothers because you know
05:43They didn't have to take that chance and I could have been in one of those three scenarios now a few of us
05:50You know and it's a small
05:51Percentage that get out and don't suffer any of these things
05:57But it's rare. It is rare and you have to would you say you have to have a passion?
06:01You have to have something outside of that life
06:03Yeah, I think you have to have something else and you have to have good people that that will tell you you have
06:08Other things available to you. Boom, you know and uh, and and manifest better things to yourself, you know
06:15Like on my dr
06:16Green thumb show we talk about this a lot and we say, you know
06:19It's what you tell yourself when you when you're constantly when you're in one of these, you know
06:24Neighborhoods and it's gang infested drug related. A lot of us tell ourselves. Oh, man. I ain't nothing
06:29I ain't never gonna be nothing
06:30Uh that dialogue isn't gonna work and that dialogue will lead you down that path because if you start believing it
06:37You're gonna have nothing and be nothing
06:39but if you change it and say
06:41I have the ability to flip it and do something and and and be something and have something
06:47You could totally do that and I deserve a good life. Yes, and I deserve a good life. That's right. That's right
06:52I deserve a good life. Okay more 90s at noon. This is rage against the machine. You like rage against machine. Oh, yeah
06:58Um, all right 90s at noon with my co-host be real. It is the world famous k-rock be real. These are your buddies
07:04Yeah, the beastie boys salute and much respect to the legendary beastie boys. You know what I think is
07:11There's nobody hold on. He's gonna do it. There you go
07:14Nobody can touch the beastie boys like nobody will ever come close to what the beastie boys were
07:20They're so loved by everybody. You know what I mean?
07:22Um, they just were able to reinvent themselves every time and it was always dope punk
07:29They're hip-hop. They're rock. They're hardcore. They're they're everything and I don't think anybody's been able to hold a candle to that
07:36Yeah, their stamp is is remarkable speaking of stamps
07:39So cypress hill you started cypress hill
07:43Did you have a vision for what you were going to do?
07:45And would you imagine that you would do all these first you're historic in so many different ways
07:49So let's go down the list
07:50Why don't you tell us some things that you've done that might have shocked you at the beginning? Oh my god
07:56because you were always very um
07:59I always saw you as like somebody who constantly needed to prove themselves. You had a lot of naysayers. Yeah, but you shut them down
08:05Yeah, you did we we use that as as uh fuel, you know
08:09We we had many people like doubting whether we were going to get in and do anything
08:14Oh, you think you're going to be like red dmc or something like that? We're like, no we're going to be us
08:19um, but
08:21You know, it was one of those things you got to have that self-belief and and uh that I don't give a damn attitude
08:28On what anybody thinks we're very punk rock for for being a still are my homies still are we still are?
08:34Yeah, and I don't think we had any idea that we were gonna
08:38Be the first in a lot of areas that that you know ended up surprising us like for instance
08:44One of the one of the things that tripped us out was
08:47You know, we released our first album on the top and it comes out charts on the top 200 at like
08:54170 something really low, right?
08:57And after a few weeks it drops off the chart completely
09:02This is our self-titled album cypress. Oh one
09:05Then which is iconic when kill a man starts blowing up on the mix shows then chuck d and bomb squad put it
09:12Um put it in the pivotal scene in juice. They place it and boom and it blows up
09:18We start coming back up chart again. So for about a year and a half you see our album just going up
09:25slowly, but surely
09:26and about at the two year two two and a half year mark or maybe no it was
09:31Probably a year and a half sony's like hey, you gotta turn in the other album
09:35So we need to get you guys in the studio. You guys need to come off tour because we're touring the whole time
09:42and
09:43You know within two three months. We had the record
09:47Made which was crazy because we took five years for that first album
09:51And when we were putting out black sunday, it was charting at number one
09:55Damn, you know number one album
09:57And our first album had come all the way up to number five
10:01So we were the first hip-hop group to have two albums
10:06in the top five 200, uh billboard charts at the same time
10:11and then we held uh
10:13The the number one spot with insane in the brain for six weeks
10:18Which was longer than anybody had at that time at number one in hip-hop number one single. Yeah
10:24And then uh our first day our first day sales of black sunday
10:29um previously ice cube ice cube had the the the biggest uh,
10:35First day sale at 270 something thousand records or something like that
10:40And we had like 365 thousand or something like that on our first day
10:45We had a lot of firsts going on there that people really didn't give them to us because we were a pot group
10:51Yeah to a lot
10:53yeah, we we did a lot of things, um, but we we never really um,
10:58We didn't celebrate them that much
11:01And you know, we were surprised by them frankly, but we just kept moving, you know
11:05We didn't like, you know take time and sit on that and you know, you just kept going
11:09Yeah, and here we are. We're gonna do this your friends here in corn
11:13We're gonna play corn and then can we talk about marijuana?
11:16Yeah, we're gonna talk about marijuana and I love corn too. It's the 90s at noon. I'm nicole alvarez with my co-host be real
11:23It's the world famous k-rock. This is a very surreal day for me
11:26I'm, nicole alvarez. It's the 90s at noon and i'm sitting with be real and we're talking about
11:31Edibles. Yes. I am. Not a good edible person. I told you I can't even look at one because I go places
11:37And I end up on the floor in fetal position. Yeah, I thought that you were untouchable, but apparently
11:43Apparently you two have ended up in fetal position on the floor. Yes, and it was an edible
11:48Yeah, it was it was not a traditional edible, right? What does that mean for the for the comments?
11:53All right. So a traditional edible would be like let's just say you infused. Um, let's say a cupcake or
12:00Or a cookie or a brownie or a rice crispy treat rice crispy treats
12:05These are traditional sweet edibles that that we know about. I don't like doing the sweets. They're too rich like for me thc is like
12:13Um very sweet along with the sugar that's already in okay and uh in whatever they're making right
12:20So it's very rich and I don't like that. I try to keep my sugar intake down. I don't like rich stuff
12:27so we start experimenting with rick simpson oil and um
12:31And uh solventless hash oil and we were putting them in gel caps so that we didn't have to eat any of the sugar
12:39Products or whatever. It's just straight up. I get it. Yeah the carbs we try to look out watching your figure
12:44Yes, I get it your performers. Okay all that right? So we start, um, you know taking the rick simpson oil in gel caps and
12:52being very experimental
12:55small dosage
12:56Um, and it was cool
12:58The minute I start going up
13:01Because you know, we're extremists in this thing. Like I said before, you know my squad we challenge ourselves, right?
13:06so I think I did a um
13:09800 to a thousand milligrams, which is close to a gram a thousand milligrams is a gram
13:14Put one in in one of those gel caps and your face melted. Oh my god
13:19I was sitting there watching tv for a second and then the tv waved on me like a proper wave
13:25and then you know
13:27I got hot I had
13:28You start taking things off that I um, I see my wood floor and I look down at my wood floor. I touch it
13:34Just that's how high I am at this point right just to make sure it's there it was nice and cool
13:39So I just laid down on my cold hardwood floor and cooled off
13:45But I was like hammered. What was the lesson? Would you say that you learned slow down on the milligrams?
13:52Okay, we're gonna play another song
13:54This is stunt double pilots. Did you know scott?
13:57Oh, we met them and played with a few festivals with them
14:01They were very cool dudes and rest in peace because he was a very talented very talented man, this is interstate love song
14:06I'm, nicole alvarez here with be real and this is the 90s at noon on k-rock. It's very strange
14:11That's a song i've known my whole life and you're sitting right in front of me
14:15Can you imagine though for somebody like me? This is surreal
14:18Well, I know you can be humble as you want. But like for me, this is crazy. Thank you. Okay, be real
14:24All right. That was cypress hill. I'm, nicole alvarez. Hold on so
14:28I think about this
14:29When you started out, you know, you guys like smoke weed. Yeah
14:33Uh, but the marijuana culture wasn't what it is now, right?
14:37Would you have ever imagined because it was a little more rebellious when you were when you were
14:42You know bringing it out on stage with your like 20 feet joints 20 foot 20 foot joints
14:47Yeah, it was a little more rebellious and it was a little bit more taboo and now it's just the norm
14:52Yeah, would you have ever expected that?
14:55I knew it was possible. Yeah, but you know
14:58Really, you know, you don't have a time frame for something like that, you know, you just try to
15:03You know put the put up the good fight
15:06we were
15:07pretty much mentored by jack harrer who taught us a lot about cannabis aside from just the the
15:15The casual consumption all the possibilities that we're seeing today now
15:19So we knew that that the possibility the possibilities of like it being an empire
15:24Well, yeah and and all its usage, you know, not not just for consumption medicinal uses medicinal uses and
15:32The technology that would be developed, you know later on
15:36You know that it is now that you see now in in the industry in terms of you know data collection
15:43Of let's just say cultivation
15:45You know people are using automated systems to collect data on what their crops do, you know, if if this was the right
15:53uh formula for this crop
15:56That is is it's the most efficient
15:58um all that sort of thing, you know, and then the automated functions of of what some of these, you know, new tech companies have
16:07Formulated for the cannabis industry and you're gonna see more of that and that's the trippy part
16:11I mean i'm because that's something we didn't even think about no tech
16:15No, I mean I just like walking into a store and being like this is how I feel and some dude hands me like either
16:21A joint or a jar of indica and i'm like, okay and then he's right. He's like he's a little witch doctor
16:26Yeah, so that part's cool. But then it's what you're talking about is a whole other
16:30dimension, um who can outsmoke you
16:34No, who could who can go toe-to-toe would be real whiz khalifa but like toe-to-toe or like almost there whiz khalifa wow
16:41He smokes so he can kind of maybe sort of outsmoke you no, there should be a smoke off is what you're saying
16:48We could but we just both be high
16:50What and and that's a bad but I won't go to sleep
16:53Why?
16:54Because no one could put me to sleep seriously. So not even no matter how much you smoke you'll never pass out
17:00No, you are a specimen my friend. We will be right back. We're wrapping up the 90s at noon
17:06I'm, nicole alvarez with be real you taught me something today b
17:11So if you get fetal position high, which means too high
17:16Meditate meditate you said meditate just breathe. I know but have you ever like my fetal position high is like not like I
17:23Like I can't form words and other people seem like they're out to get me and like it gets really nefarious in there
17:29I had to do this one time on a flight because uh, my good friend eric bobo
17:35Is that the guy with the big lungs that you were talking about?
17:39Big lung bobo. He's our percussionist and drummer of member of cypress hill. Okay
17:43Um, we were leaving
17:46I'm gonna say maybe brazil or somewhere like that
17:49And we were coming back home
17:52Okay, he says here take this uh rso
17:55Gel cap this gel cap. Oh another edible. Yeah
17:59Because we were like asleep on the flight
18:02So I asked him how many milligrams is this and he goes? Uh, it's about a hundred
18:06Like okay, cool
18:08So I take it before we get on the flight. Oh hell no bad mistake
18:11Yeah, I should have took it on the flight, but I took it before we get on so i'm sitting there and it's starting
18:16To hit me and it's not a hundred. It's 250
18:20Oh my god, and my mind was ready for a hundred, but it was 250
18:25So like now i'm like feeling it and we start taking off
18:28Oh my god, and now the the plane is banking to the left and then banking to the right
18:34And my equilibrium is just totally
18:37Off at this point claustrophobia didn't like the walls start caving in at some point. I didn't die. I didn't get that but I was like
18:44Really in a bad way. So I start meditating to like snap myself out of buddha meditating
18:51Okay. Yes. I'm i'm breathing. I'm doing like the the circular breathing the whole stuff, you know
18:56Thinking of the mantra in my head to snap me out of it
19:00The flight attendant comes by she notices she sees that i'm sweating
19:05She sees me sweating and i'm breathing
19:07And she just without asking me she just drops a bottle of water on my table. Here you go
19:12At a girl. Oh my god, but I survived that was good, but I would never take any rso from eric bobo
19:19Before we get on a flight done done and done. Okay before we leave we're gonna wrap it up
19:23But before we leave let's talk about haunted hill. I want you to invite the masses. Tell us what you're doing night before halloween
19:28Yes, we're popping it off at the fonda on october 30th
19:33Uh, we used to do these shows these haunted hill shows in new york. We did them for 22 years straight
19:38it was our annual new york show because you know, we popped off there first, but
19:44for you know
19:45One of my friends that lives out here. My man. Damon. Hillary does a show called smoking scan smoking scan. Um,
19:53He kept on breaking my you know
19:56Start he was busting your balls busting my balls
19:59Yeah, uh about bringing the the cypress hill haunted halloween show to la like he had done it for years
20:05You're born and raised. Yes. He was the advocate
20:08Okay for these folks in los angeles to get this show
20:11So finally I tell our manager deb out there deb klein who's out there
20:15Um, I said deb we gotta get this show in la because people are on my back about this
20:21They want this particular show and we made it happen, you know, we started doing it here
20:26Uh, I think what is it like three four years back maybe five now
20:30And you know people come out and support we got a really dope lineup for this one. We got uh, the coyotes aka the yodis
20:38um
20:39Dope hip-hop group out of la homegrown hawthorne. Awesome. Um, they kill it funk dubious. Um,
20:47the alcoholics
20:49Or the licks now, right? It's the licks and uh who are you know?
20:54We go way back with them. It's gonna be a night to remember the almighty cypress hill and we're gonna do something different for everybody
21:00That night. So, uh, whoever comes in they're gonna get a great show this night done and done
21:05I've a like a normal honest question. Did you come here? Hi today? I did. Okay, good
21:11That's all I wanted to hear 90s at noon. That was be real. Thank you. So so so so much
21:15It's been absolutely amazing to have you here and surreal it's the 90s at noon on k-rock