Lets play Hip-Hop “Word Association.” If you’re unfamiliar with the game, here’s a brief overview: The way the game works is when someone says something, and the next person says a word that’s relatable to the previous word that was said. For example, if the name Michael Jordan was mentioned, the first few things that would come to mind are the Chicago Bulls, Nike, “The greatest player ever,” etc.

So now that you’re clear on the rules, lets begin. Brooklyn: The Notorious B.I.G./Jay-Z. New Orleans: Lil Wayne/Cash Money. Atlanta: Basically everyone! California: Snoop Dogg/The Game/Dr. Dre.

But hold up a minute, there’s another act from the left coast that deserves the same amount of recognition. Here are a couple of clues: It’s a three-man act, and they’re easily considered to be the Hip-Hop version of the Grateful Dead. Still in the dark? Well, it’s West Coast staples Cypress Hill. The group with over 17 million records sold worldwide, twenty-plus years of experience, and one of the most unique sounding front men in the business.

That’s right, Louis “B-Real” Freese has kept his nasal tone in circulation with contributions like ‘How I Could Just Kill A Man,’ ‘Hand On The Pump,’ ‘Rock Superstar,’ and of course ‘Insane In The Brain.’ With eleven albums under Cypress Hill’s belt,< STRONG> B-Real is ready to build his own legacy (don’t worry, he’s still part of the group). Besides quietly harnessing his production skills, he’s released three mixtapes, The Gunslinger vol. 1, The Gunslinger II: Fist Full Of Dollars, and The Gunslinger III: For A Few More Dollars. Fresh of their induction at the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors Ceremony, the Latin lyricist steps in the booth for self one more time, but it’s not for a another mixtape, it’s for his first official debut album, Smoke N Mirrors.

You can say his career is somewhat in the realm of déjà vu of sorts because with Cypress Hill, he started with a New York label in Sony Records, and now with this project, his East Coast roots reach back again 3,000 miles to the right with Duck Down Records taking on the album. So, the once young MC and “stoner” now turned elder statesmen (and still stoner), sets out to prove to the world that him surviving for this long in such a fickle industry wasn’t a fluke, as he refuses to go up and in smoke.                       

Sixshot.com: So talk about you signing with Duck Down, how did that come about?

B-Real: Basically I’ve been working on this record for a couple of years, because I like to take my time to make sure that all the songs I really like go together. So within the course of that time, I was trying to find a place to shop the record and what not. But I didn’t see eye-to-eye with a lot of people’s plans, and a lot of them just wanted to sign me because of my success with Cypress Hill. I know that’s going to be a factor and all that sh*t, but genuinely I wanted them to be excited about the record they’re getting, you know? I just wanted them to hear the music, and it ain’t about who I am or what I’ve done, it’s about this record and what we can do with it. Duck Down heard that I was trying to put out a record, and they approached me, and I let them hear the music, and they were digging it.

SixShot.com: How did that make you feel?

B-Real: That’s all you want in a label, somebody that’s excited about your record, and for them to have the resources and know-how in order to push it. When it comes to marketing and promoting, a lot of those things get lost depending on whom you sign to, so I just didn’t want to go anywhere. With Cypress Hill, our origins came from being broken and in New York, before we were broken anywhere else.

Due to the fact that we were signed to Sony Records, and the label was based out of here [New York]. Being that Duck Down is an East Coast label from New York; that puts me in a familiar position, because that’s how I started in the game. So it just made sense to me, you know? Even though I live on the West Coast, and they’re way out here, I think that I’m coming full circle because that’s the way Cypress Hill started.            
 
Sixshot.com: Was it difficult or relatively easy carrying a solo project by yourself?

B-Real: I’ve been doing this so long, and it’s just like sports man. When you’re an athlete and you have to go into training camp for your football season, or you have to play in a summer league before your basketball season, you practice and the more you do, the better you get. It’s just becomes more second nature for you, and being that I’ve been in the game for a long time, it’s sort of second nature to me to be that creative at any given time. If I’m at this “dude’s” studio just visiting and he’s like, “Yo, I want you on a cameo, can you get on it right now?” I can click that button in myself and write something tangible with substance and still sound good on the sh*t. I think it’s because I’ve been steadily doing it for this long, and putting out as many Cypress Hill records as I have, and putting out my mixtapes. So it wasn’t a hard thing at all.

SixShot.com: How earlier on in your career, do you think it still would’ve been second nature for you?

B-Real: I think earlier on my in career, maybe it would’ve been harder, because with Cypress Hill, we all bounce ideas off of each other, and everybody has input and stuff like that. So I think at that time maybe I wouldn’t have been ready for that, because I was so used to the other process. But doing so much work with Cypress Hill and being so creative, and then going into my mixtapes sort of gave me an extra head start on all of that sh*t, so when it came time to do my solo record, I wasn’t stuck.

It wasn’t hard for me, because I had ideas that wouldn’t have worked with Cypress Hill—you know what I mean? So it was one of those things where you have to jump into a different vehicle to go down a different road. It’s almost like I have two cars now: I have the old trusty reliable war-proven tank when I roll with Cypress [Hill], and who knows what kind of whip I’m whipping in my sh*t right now, but I’m about to find out… [Laughing]             
 
Sixshot.com: [Laughs] Did you always have to plans to eventually try a project on your own? Was this idea always in the back of your mind even in the early days with Cypress Hill?

B-Real: What our original plan for Cypress [Hill] was; and this is before we even put out a record. Sun Doobie was in our group as well before we even formed Funkdoobiest. It was myself, [DJ] Muggs, Sen Dog, and Sun Doobie. The plan was to put out the group record as Cypress Hill, and then eventually put out solo records on everybody else, but everyone had their own individuality that could work by itself.

SixShot.com: So what happened?

B-Real: We changed the plan up a little bit, because [Sun] Doobie really wasn’t ready in [DJ] Muggs’ eyes for the responsibility and what not. So we put a hold on him, and put out the Funkdoobiest later, and just put out the Cypress Hill records. We didn’t have any expectations on what was going to happen, because we were just trying to put out the record. Then we started having some success with it, so we kind of just rolled with the flow, and forgot about us doing these particular solo records.

We just stuck with doing the sh*t with Cypress [Hill], because with the success we were having and the response we were getting from people we were like, “Why do that?!” “This sh*t works right here!” So we stuck with that plan, and came back to the solo sh*t after we accomplished enough with Cypress [Hill]. We didn’t have to look back and think that we f*cked things up because we had all of these projects. We let enough time pass to where we knew we could take some time off, and go do the other things that we wanted to do that don’t necessarily fit here.

That’s pretty much what is happening right now, Sen Dog put out a solo record, Diary Of A Mad Dog, [DJ] Muggs put out the Plain Language record with Planet Asia, and previous to that he had Muggs vs. GZA. He had a bunch of sh*t rolling, and I put out three mixtapes to finally build the solo jump off. A lot of people thought we were breaking up, but we were just doing all of these different kinds of projects. But we were still doing a bunch of shows, and I would’ve figured that us still doing shows were proof enough that we weren’t breaking up, but some people like to twist sh*t.             

Sixshot.com: You also produced some songs on Smoke N Mirrors. Was production something you were always into?

B-Real: I always wanted to produce, and I was always in the background checking out what [DJ] Muggs was doing and stuff like that. I was always intrigued by that sh*t, like how you can put tracks together. It was something that deep down, I wanted to do, but I never really had the time to do it, because I was so wrapped up in writing for Cypress [Hill] and just rolling with that momentum.

SixShot.com: How did you finally open up time to really explore it?

B-Real: There were a couple of times where we didn’t tour a lot, like there were maybe one or two records that we didn’t really tour for. So those times when we stayed home is when I really started to get down and trying to learn how to do it. First you have to learn how to do it, once you figure out how it’s done, you have to develop a sound of your own, and not try to sound like the other stuff that’s out there. I spent a lot of time trying to do that before I put anything out there, you know what I mean? Because I know my name is going on it, and I didn’t want to f*ck up [our] brand or my rep., because we took so long for it to build up.

So I just took my time, and tried to develop as a producer. The first ones I put out were with other rappers on the underground tip. I had a couple of tracks I did that I thought would go good on this record, so I put them on. I try to do a little bit of everything, I’m very influenced by [DJ] Muggs of course and guys like Pete Rock and [DJ] Premier. I’m not concerned about my tracks being the best out there, but if I’m feeling them, I’m going to put them out.        

Sixshot.com: Speaking of the legendary people you just spoke upon, talk about your experience at the Hip-Hop Honors Awards. Did you ever feel like your career would ever reach that point?

B-Real: I thought it was great man, I thought everybody who went in this class really deserved it. It was a great class, because you had the Bay Area of the West Coast, and the North side of the West Coast. You had Too $hort, and you had us representing the West big time; you know what I mean? Then you had the greatest storyteller of all time Slick Rick in there with De La Soul and Naughty [By Nature]. It was great, because I think everybody put in a significant amount of work in and left a mark on Hip-Hop.

It was crazy just to see all of the people who attended, there were a lot of people there that maybe didn’t get shown on camera, but it was f*cking sick man. It was like a reunion, because a lot of the cats that were at the event were there right when we first started—like right at the beginning, and we toured with a lot of those cats. We have really good friendships with a lot of those mothaf*ckas, and it was a great time man. I felt privileged to be a part of that whole sh*t.      

Sixshot.com: So how do you think yourself or Cypress Hill as a whole have managed to remain relevant all this time?

B-Real: I think it’s few things. It’s the quality of the sh*t you’re putting out, and good music isn’t based on whether you have a lot of radio or video rotations. There’s more to an album than just the single. If your single doesn’t get pushed, and it’s not a commercial success—that’s one thing. But if it’s an album that’s very good, but didn’t get the commercial success, people will come to see you live. You sell them songs by making the people a believer in those songs, and we’ve been able to put out good music this whole time. There are a couple of songs that I would do different, but as far as our albums as a whole, they’ve always been consistent.

We never did anything else that other people were doing, and we always went against the grain, and I think people respected that. We were like the underdogs, and we didn’t get a lot of spins on radio with the exception of ‘Insane In The Brain’ and ‘Rock Superstar.’ But a lot of our sh*t is based off how we affected the live show listeners. Being that we stayed on tour for a lot of our career, it just built up a following, and the people supported us through each part of our career. There have been good times and bad times, but our core base has been there the whole time.           

Sixshot.com: I had an older act say once in an interview that he hates when other older acts don’t respect the contributions that younger acts make to Hip-Hop, and how they use their veteran card as a crutch. Do you agree or disagree with that statement?

B-Real: Who said that?

SixShot.com: It was [--------]…

B-Real: He said that?! Well look man; I think that a lot of the older rappers that don’t give the young cats their due have their different reasons. I can’t speak for any of them, but for me, I don’t hate on the young mothaf*ckas. I do sh*t with them, because we can’t hold the throne forever. We can hold it for a while, but at some point they’re going to be the ones to carry on this sh*t. So you have to find that happy medium for now. You just have to guide them through this sh*t, just like the mothaf*ckas before guided us. There’s no bridge anymore between the old school and the new school, that bridge is gone and only a few people still have that bridge to this day.

There are rappers out there from the new school that know the history, they know where the sh*t came from, and they respect the pioneers who were here before them. But then there are the other ones who don’t know, and don’t give a f*ck. So usually that’s how this type of mentality starts, and then the veterans don’t want to do sh*t with these mothaf*ckas because they don’t appreciate the roads that we’ve made for them. Then the young ones who know the history and respect it get caught in the middle with the young cats who don’t give a f*ck, and then the veterans group them all up. That bridge is gone, and someone has to make it again.

SixShot.com: What’s your relationship with the younger generation of MC’s?

B-Real: I f*ck with the young cats because they keep you fresh man, because it’s a competitive game and you want to be as good as them. So if you can twist it up with them, and get down with them, f*ck it, go ahead and do it. Why be threatened? Go for yours. Show them why you’ve been in this game for this long. But at the same time, the youngsters have to know that they have to pay their dues just like everybody else did. You can’t just come in and expect respect off the top; respect is earned, especially in this game.

In the 80’s and 90’s you had to have years in the game before anyone would even acknowledge your ass. But I don’t hate on the youngsters, I try to big them up when I hear the ones that I’m digging, and for them it ain’t about the money, you know? We all want to make a living off this sh*t, definitely. But you have to love this sh*t, you can’t just be taking advantage of it. But there’s always some kind of conflict in Hip-Hop, so it is what it is, and eventually it will work itself out, and people will be cool again at some point.