Interview with B-Real

 

Louis Freese aka B. Real is a third of the triumvirate that makes up the hugely succesful rap group Cypress Hill, best known for their stand on marijuana decriminilization and as being a rap group that crosses over to rock audiences. I met with B. Real at the Columbia offices to talk about music, drugs, gun control and the Presidential election among other things. As I entered the office the familiar smell of sweet California bud wafted out and I knew we would have a good interview. B. Real grew up on the mean streets of East LA. Involved in gangs until Rap took over his life. It took being shot and the efforts of his two best friends, Sen Dog and Muggs (the other two members of Cypresss Hill), to pull him away from the streets and into music. B. Real has a relaxed manner and was very at home with himself, an easy talker who made interviewing a breeze. It's hard to say something bad about such a warm guy, but he could have passed me that fat joint he smoked all through our interview.

 

D I'm just going to go down the line and let em rip and you give me your thoughts.
B All right.
D What are your feelings on the Tupac thing. Was it part of the whole east coast - west coast rivalry? Do you think that had something to do with it or was it something separate?
B I think he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't think it had anything to do with the east coast - west coast thing. It's just something that can happen on that kind of night... Las Vegas... things happen...
D It seemed like they knew where he was going to be.
B Ya never know, but I seriously don't think it was the east coast - west coast thing. But it's a sad thing, he's a talented man, he was definitely peaking. He had a lot of good things happening for him and it's sad to see ... with all the energy he had that he would fall victim to that sort of thing.
D Guy got shot a lot of times.
B He had a hard life in spite of whatever money he made. You can always make alot of money but that doesn't mean things are always OK so I think that proves it. Things like that can happen, like that's the world we live in.
D People were saying Dre had something to do with it. That's bullshit right?
B No way. No way. No. No, Dre is a business man. Dre is a professional, ya know, he's not thinking on that level.

D He has no need for that shit.
B It's just alot of rumors, man.
D Yeah of course.
B People like to spread rumors. The man has passed, ya know, he probably couldn't tell you who shot him, ya know what I mean, if he was alive today. It's just hard to call but people are going to say things.
D I think people are always just looking for a controversy.
B Oh yeah.
D So they play up the east coast - west coast thing.
B They'll blame it on this guy over here, they'll blame it on whoever is on the west coast that don't like him. I mean, ya know, it's a bunch of garbage. People just need to leave his soul to rest and leave him alone I mean look at the positive things he's done.
D Continuing on that, how do feel about gun control?
B I think people should have the right to own guns in their own home as long as it's under their name, as long as they are responsible with it, keep it away from the kids, keep it out of reach from the kids. I think Americans should have that right, ya know, cause you don't have a gun, somebody is comin' into your home, how are you going to defend yourself? Ya know, let's say you do cooperate with them. There are times when you cooperate and they still....If you have a wife or you have daughters or your sisters there is no telling what somebody can do when you're cooperating, ya know what I mean... You're under their control.. If I have a chance to defend myself I'll do it. I think we should have our right to have guns in our homes as long as we're being responsible. They should only be issued to responsible people. I think they should check the backgrounds a little more on the people they give guns to.
D Like not give them to felons?
B Exactly, I mean they're doing that to an extent now.
D and like assault rifles...
B I don't know about assault rifles, ya know. Me, I come from a home where there was always things happening in our area that we lived in so.. we moved around alot when I was a kid we moved to different areas alot and...
D All around LA?
B Yeah all around LA and most of them were pretty bad areas some of them were pretty cool but there is just no telling what can happen, especially with... ah... single women in homes, they got no man there to protect them and they got kids maybe. I mean they are the bigger victims because, ya know what I mean, cause that's who people prey upon.
D Especially when you have kids in the house...
B Women should take courses in how to handle the gun, shooting the gun, maintaining it, ya know, all the things nessessary to keep it safely in the home so situations can't get turned around.
D As long as it's responsible?
B Yeah as long as it's responsible. But I think we need that right, man because (laughing) there are alot of bad people.
D Yeah...In some states it's easier to get a gun than a drivers license.
B Hey people don't care. I believe there should be some control on it. They shouldn't just sell a gun to anybody, especially gauges (shotguns). Ya know what I mean, they sell a gauge basically to anybody. It ain't like a background check that you have on a hand gun. I know the reason for that. I'll give you the reason for that; because they can't track a shotgun...Like I said, you can't track a shotgun, the buckshot... there is no way. You can track a hand gun so they figure okay why go through the whole process, can't track this gun anyway. They should focus on the shotguns rather than the assault rifles.
D Yeah, people never talk about that.
B The assault rifle you can track, but hey, that's the government's problem.
D So what is up with Cypress as far as... is everyone still there?
B Muggs is still there, I'm still here, Bobo's here.
D from a recording standpoint or a touring standpoint?
B Both. Well, Muggs, we kinda of got this thing with Muggs where if he wants to come on the road with us he'll come. Ya know what I mean we don't hold him to it because we think that him developing his production is more important than him being there on the road. We can get any DJ to play records....

D Sure, sure. His talent is even more in the studio
B It's much bigger than being on the road with us. People know he is Cypress Hill. He doesn't have to be there with us showin' his face on the DJ riser. When he wants to he does
D Like he can call you guys up and say, I'm comin' in?
B Yeah I'm comin' in.
D Give me a spot.
B And there it is. But we don't pressure him, if he wants to come he comes. We feel that he should be working on his production and he does too. Cause every step he takes with his production is a further step to making his music better, taking it to another level, try to go different places with it and if he's on the road it restricts him because the environment on the road is so distracting, ya know traveling all the time, getting up early, going to the gig, ya know, finishing the gig, getting to the next place. There is no time to be creative. For me it's easy because I get inspired by seeing things as they go along. Production is different.
D What do you like doing most? Creating, being on the road or recording in the studio?
B I like it all. You have to be able to do it all to be well rounded. If I could only do one thing I don't think I would last this long in the game.
D The road can burn you out if that's all your doing.
B Right, if recording is all you're doing you don't get that feeling of satisfaction that people are really digging your shit. So I like to do it all man. Ya know, recording, performing, the interviews. I mean some interviews are... I mean some of the people asking the questions are a little questionable (laughing).
D The questioners are questionable.
B Yeah..
D Do you write at home or on the fly? Do you ever put pen to paper or do you just start freestyling and record it?
B Well on all three albums it was different. On the first album I did alot of writing on the bus. I had to take the bus to one place to get to Muggs' to do the stuff and it was about an hour bus ride, and if I had paper I'd (write)... cause when I'm seeing things, that's when I do my best writing. Maybe if I'm driving, ya know, I get ideas, they all just come to me. If I'm confined in a room listening to the beat trying to struggle for it it's hard because all the energy is trapped. Nothing is going out and nothing is coming in.
D You've got to be able to let your mind wander.
B Exactly. When you're on the road, the energy is coming from everywhere the ideas are coming from everywhere. Sometimes I can pull it off in a room but I like to be where things are happening, then I get alot of ideas. The first album was like that. I had to take the bus like I said from my house to Muggs' and I wrote, Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk. Actually it was in my head for two days. I wrote half of it in my head and then the other half the next day on my way over there, and I got over there and wrote it down. I remembered everything, amazingly, I smoke so much I don't know how I remember that shit. But I remembered it. And once I heard the beat it clicked. I said "I got it" and Muggs was like "I don't know, I don't know." Then I laid it down and we were; yeah OK, and I just started noticing that anytime I'm on the road if I'm driving... the better lyrics come when I'm driving, when I'm on the passenger side they're pretty good, they're slammin,' but they're better when I'm driving.
D That's funny, so when you're looking for something you just get in your car and drive.
B Just pop a tape in and...
D I saw that Chevy you got.
B Yeah, I just showed it in a car show this weekend. It's kinda hard to write in that car cause it bounces around. I guess I get creative that way. Again with production there is no way you can do that, cause production is all sound. It's nothing to do with writing.
D Have you ever edited yourself? Have you ever written anything you've said, that is too harsh I can't write that.
B Yeah definitely, I think probably we all go through that, you know there is certain shit that sounds so good but you can't say it cause you know it is going to offend people.
D It doesn't seem like, from listening to your records you guys worry about that too much.
B There are alot of things people look at us for already. We got one strike against us as far as the conservative standpoint which is the marijuana thing. Strike two is our songs seem violent, and they do, but it's not advocating violence. It's kinda informing you of a lifestyle that can go down if you take that road, and it's also the outcome of that lifestyle.
D They're more cautionary tales.
B Exactly, my songs are like movies but reality strikes at the end. There ain't never where the gangster gets away with it or the bad guy gets away with it. In my stories they don't. They either go to jail, or they die, or they become drug addicts and fuck their lives up ultimately showing you have a choice; you can go right or you can go left but that's all up to you. I'm just giving the example, because I've been through it. Like alot of these other bullshit ass rappers say "oh well we grew up in the hood, we did this and that." Alot of those guys are full of shit. They say that because it's the right thing to say.
D They ought to just say, "I like to make music this is what I'm making music about, I never grew up in the hood but hey, if you dig it whatever."
B Exactly, exactly. They never are themselves. Some do, but there's a good handful that are full of shit.
D Like who?
B I can't say.
D Oh c'mon man c'mon if they're are full of shit you can nail them down. Might as well.

B I don't know man, let me think. Give me a minute to think about these guys. There are so many that come to mind but it's like me, I led that lifestyle and I've seen what it can do to people so instead of glorifying it like alot of these fake motherfuckers do, cause that's when you know they're fake when they glorify the shit cause they don't know. Anybody who's had one of their real homeboys die or you've seen a motherfucker get shot in front of you. Or you've seen your homeboy shoot that motherfucker across the street. Or you've seen the police beat your homeboy's ass or beat your ass or you got shot, you shot somebody, ya know you can tell the difference, because any motherfucker that's been through that ain't gonna glorify it. They're gonna say "I been through this, you don't wanna go through it."
D That was a turning point for you wasn't it. I read somewhere that you were in a gang and you were sort of into music and then you got shot.
B Yeah, yeah but that wasn't the turning point.
D Oh, that wasn't. What was it for you?
B I had nothing better to do. I figured, well, what's it going to hurt. At first I wasn't with this music shit. I was like, it was a hobby to me but before I was into gang banging I was into rapping. So it was always like a hobby. I eat my own shit right now because of what I said when Muggs and Sen Dog, the guys who pulled me aside, who I owe my life to, they told me "why don't you just try this shit, see if you can write songs." I'm like why am I going to do that shit for? I'm not going to make any money off this shit. I'm just going to waste my fucking time. I can be right here and make money every day. Doing the wrong thing. But to me that was money and I didn't see a reason to do that shit. "All right let me think about it." And I'm telling my friends that I'm here banging with, "Oh man, I ain't fucking with that shit. I ain't going to make no money off this right now". I didn't take it seriously at the beginning but then I realized this is an opportunity. I don't want to let these guys down, I don't want to let myself down, I've already let my mother down for so long I don't want to let her down anymore. So that was the change cause when I got shot it just made me more ignorant. I was thinking, well they didn't get me so fuck em twice. I was just a little more bitter for getting shot. Any motherfucker who gets shot for the first time doesn't believe it's happening to them.
D Really?
B I don't give a fuck how brave they talk after the fact, but you don't believe it. So after the fact you get kinda bitter depending what kind of person you are. Now if you're a mean motherfucker to begin with, you're really pissed off, "That motherfucker." If you're on one of those punks you're more timid. "I don't wanna have nothing to do with this shit." For some people that would be a turning point, for me it wasn't. It took good friends to pull me aside and talk to me and plant the seed in my head and I thank God for them all the time. But some people ain't as fortunate, you know what I mean, but alot of these other rappers never been through one day of that shit and they glorify it and they don't know how it affects the kids. They need to get with it and be themselves, don't try to project this image cause even though my songs are about what they are, you never see Cypress Hill projected as a gangster rapper image. It ain't about that. It's about showin' that this ain't the lifestyle for you, learn from my mistakes. If you can't learn from my mistakes you're basically on your own and God help you and hopefully your parents will guide you but alot of parents leave it up to us and then when their kids go a certain way, they blame all the shit their kids do on us. Violence was here before B. Real was here. Weed smoking was here before B. Real was here, before Cheech and Chong was here. I never try to glorify it. I never tell a kid he should go smoke to understand us better. A kid doesn't have to smoke weed to like Cypress Hill. He doesn't.
D What about Cube (Ice Cube) who put a pipe on his record even though he doesn't really smoke. You thought that was kind fake didn't you?
B I felt that was fake. I felt it was a ploy to get the people who are down with my movement, to be down with him for more record sales, ya know, Cube has always been a positive image, sort of, with not doing drugs and shit like that.
D Even though he is a spokesman for St. Ides beer.
B Put it this way, he had a pipe on his cover but when you go in the background he'll smoke a joint every now and then but it's not the type of thing he does on his own time.
D He was capitalizing.
B He was capitalizing and to me that's phony. It's got to come from here (points to heart). He never thought about putting a pipe on his cover till Cypress Hill came out. That shit right there is what gives everybody a bad rap. Then when people ask him about it he don't know what to say. But that's what interviews are for, to get that shit straight.
D As far as the whole weed thing goes... I mean alot of people who smoke pot, you know, are incredibly creative people and totally ahh...
B Mellow.
D Mellow, and get a lot of shit done, but there is another whole element of pothead that doesn't get anything done. I don't know if it's because of weed or...
B Let me put it like this, man, there is certain shit that some people can do and some can't, like alcohol or red meat. There are certain things that don't do some people right. With weed; some people it makes them hyper, some people it drags them down low, some people get depressed, some people get paranoid, some people get euphoric... it depends on the person. There are some people shouldn't touch the shit. Sen Dog quit for a while and he felt better about himself. But you can't say it's the same for everyone.
D Do you think it leads to harder drugs?
B No. I think people lead to harder drugs, people that influence you. If you have a friend who does harder drugs Then he comes and says "hey try this, that shit is weak, "and because that's your best friend, you don't want to cheese up on your best friend so you succumb to the pressure and that's where it is. I'll tell you this right now I'm never one to hide anything. The way I started smoking weed was we used to smoke these things called Primos, which is coke and weed and that's how I started. I couldn't smoke one without the other. I never got into the base shit, never, I didn't like that shit I seen what it could do to people. I never tried smack because I seen what it did to one of my brothers. I see that shit and I know that the weed didn't lead into that, cause I went from doing that coke shit with the weed to pushin' the coke away. Now how do you explain that I went from a harder drug to a lesser drug?
D What do you think about the presidential race?
B I think it's a big fuckin' show that's what I think. Guys just trying to smear each other, I think Dole more than Clinton. I thought that TV ad that Dole used on Clinton was terrible.
D Yeah, Yeah, Where Clinton says...
B " ...Oh I'd try it again." What kind of shit is that. I think people got a laugh out of it more than anything. Dole I think is not really in touch with what's going on down here. I think there is a bigger plan than what Dole has in his mind. I'm putting my vote in for Clinton ya know, I couldn't vote for Dole, I just couldn't see myself doing it.
D So I hear your starting to get into acting.
B Actually, I was getting into maybe doing some soundtracks as well as...
D Aren't you going to do a New York Undercover?
B Maybe, possibly... I'm tryin' to see what's goin' on with it. If it's right for me, if I think it's right then...
D You have a good look... for the movies.
B Thanks man.
D I don't know, I've always just dealt with music. It's kinda hard goin' into that field cause I've never really thought about it before. I'm just tryin' it out to see if I could do it, however it turns out.
D Alot of rap artists have made that jump... but what do you think about people who get on sitcoms like L.L. and Queen Latifah?
B Hey I think it's cool if it works for them, because you've got to expand yourself as an artist and entertainer. Hey, not too many people can say they went from one thing to another and were successful at both. So you have to give props to LL.. and Queen Latifah and Will Smith to pull that off in spite of what alot of ignorant motherfuckers say...
D Some people say they are sell outs.
B I wouldn't say that. I would just say they are doing what's right for them. I mean, they're at a point in their lives where they need to make different moves and hey, they struck gold. How could you doubt somebody like that, that's making a positive effect. That's showin' that someone from down here can end up over here and do well. That's saying that we do have talent from these places that we come from, from nothing and instead of celebrating it, people talk shit. I don't get it. Nothing negative would ever come out of my mouth about those three because they've done something for themselves and shown they have talents far beyond what people ever thought they had, ya know. Anyone who gains a little bit of success in the rap world will be labeled a sell out, rap is not a part of the industry that is supposed to be on a large scale like that and the thing is that when you get on the large scale people have a problem with you because they think you're not keeping it real any more, so called, keeping it real, but to me a sell out is someone who would change their music completely around to get this recognition and money.
D Let me ask you one more question before I go. Do you have any idea what you want to be doing in ten years?
B Maybe writing movies, I think.
D Soundtracks?
B Soundtracks, but I'm saying like screenplays.
D Oh yeah?
B Yeah.
D So you happy about seeing Shaq on the Lakers?
B God damned right, we needed a big man in the middle.
D I can't wait, it's going to be a great season.
B Hey, I'm trying to scrounge around for season tickets.
D Oh c'mon you've got to be able to pull that off, you've got some pull in the city.
B I'm going to see what I can do man.
D Definitely, it's going to be a great season for the Lakers.
B All right.
D Take care man, nice talking to you.

Reach David Levine at levinedv@is.nyu.edu