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Cypress Hill: Former `pot band' finds road life to be `a game of skill'

By Brian A. Gnatt
Daily Music Editor

It's a half-hour before Cypress Hill takes the stage at Detroit's State Theatre. The sold-out crowd is eagerly awaiting the band's lively performance on the triple bill with 311 and the Pharcyde, but Cypress has locked itself on the band's tour bus, and isn't ready to come out quite yet.

"What could be going on in there?" you might ask yourself as thoughts of marijuana and groupies fill your brain.

Inside the bus, it's quite a different story. Cypress' mouthpiece, the stalwart B-Real, is locked in a head-to-head duel with the group's percussionist, Bobo. But this isn't your typical rock'n'roll band battle royal -- it's a game of strategy, of intelligence and skill -- it's a game of chess.

"It helps me think a little bit," lead rapper B-Real said in his laid back speaking voice, a far cry from his nasal rapping that graces Cypress Hill's genre-busting rap records.

"It started coming around the last couple of tours, you know. Some people were closet chess players."

"Yeah, I think we all were," B-Real admitted.

"Everybody came out and said, `Oh, you play chess?' and then the shit talking began," Bobo said.

"This is the most competitive game, because it's all strategy," B-Real said. "It's your move, genius, so make it."

Enthralled in their game of chess, B-Real, Bobo and Cypress' substitute turntable artist, DJ Scandalous are sitting around, with no blunt or bowl in sight. The bus has only a faint smell of pot, surprising for Cypress, who is almost as famous for their pro-marijuana position as for their music. On the stereo is the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "My Friends" from the Chili's latest record, "One Hot Minute."

"So you like the Chili Peppers?"

"Whose CD is this anyway?" B-Real asked his two partners in crime. A big "I don't know" chorused the room as all three tried to pass the disc off as someone else's.

"If I like that group for any reason, it's because of Flea and the rest of those guys. I don't really care for Anthony too much," B-Real said.

"What about the two who kiss?" Bobo asked.

"I don't know that guy," B-Real responded. "If he wants to get freaky with his homeboy like that, then that's his business. Personally, I don't swing like that but you know, hey."

There's something missing from the Cypress bus other than flaming herb. Two-thirds of Cypress' original line up is absent. B-Real said DJ Scandalous (who has performed with the group since Cypress Hill played Lollapalooza last summer) is filling the shoes of DJ Muggs, who was forced to stay home this tour, finishing up work on two albums he is producing. The second missing member was B-Real's co-rapper, Sen Dog, who left the group mid-tour in February of this year.

"Sen Dog's left the group and we've just been trying to fill the void," B-Real said. "It's a hard thing, but we're dealing with it.

"He just felt like he wanted to be doing something else besides rap," he continued. "We can understand that, you know? He has the right to do whatever he wants to do. So, that was it."

"Has he left for good?"

"Basically," B-Real said. "We've considered it that he's left. We don't want to try and change his mind, because if it's something he really feels that he has to do, then we have to respect it and not try to convince him otherwise."

"You can never force anybody to do something they don't really want to do if they don't feel it anymore for whatever reason," Bobo added. "You know, we love the guy, and there's no hard feelings, but there is disappointment, and that's something we've got to deal with. The show has got to go on. We're not going to stop to change it while we're on the road. The most important thing is to still be able to give a good show to the fans so they don't feel disappointed, so they don't feel cheated, even though Sen Dog was a big part of the group. So that's the big challenge for us, but I think we've been doing a hell of a good job."

"We've got to make up for what's not there," B-Real said. "It's hard, but we've been doing good, so we can't let it get us down."

While they've replaced Sen Dog for the tour, Cypress hasn't decided who Sen Dog's permanent replacement will be.

The group's latest album, "III (Temples of Boom)" will be the last in a long line of hit records to feature Sen Dog. Cypress Hill's 1991 self-titled debut and their 1993 release, "Black Sunday" both sold millions of copies and had the smash hits "Hits From the Bong," "Insane In the Brain," "Ain't Going Out Like That" and numerous others. For "Temples of Boom," Cypress continued with their trippy crossover rap, appealing to both rap and rock audiences.

"We had a lot of time to work on (the record) and think about what we wanted to do," B-Real said. "But we didn't force it, the main thing of all. We just let everything flow and it ended up being cool. We're satisfied with it. We had no complaints this time around -- not from ourselves at least."

B-Real also said "Temples of Boom" features fewer songs about pot than the last two records. Even though the band has made their love for marijuana very clear with songs like "Light Another" and having a 10-foot smoking bong on stage at its shows, they said Cypress Hill doesn't want to be known as a pot band.

"There's less. Definitely less," B-Real said, wearing a black T-shirt with "smoke pot" in big white letters written across the front. "We're not trying to get away from it. We're just trying to show people that there's more to us than just being a fucking pot band, you know. Most of all, music is the most important thing to us, because if our music ain't good, then we can't represent any form of message, no matter what it is. People are thinking that without the weed, where would Cypress Hill be? Fuck that. We'd still be making good records, so we cut it down a bit."

Even though they're trying to move away from pot in their music, don't worry about the band going straight. Bobo just finished packing the band's classy purple ceramic bowl with a fresh batch of weed, and proceeded to take a hit.

B-Real said the group's newer songs are more concerned with awareness and teaching kids about the paths in life.

"More or less awareness, to be aware of the things around you and what could happen if you choose to take certain roads," B-Real said after sucking a casual hit off the lit bowl and passing it to silent Scandalous. "If you go down a certain road, then this is the way to get to either a positive side of life or a negative. I choose to go positive, because for a long time I went negative.

"I got into (weed) when I was 15," he continued. "It all depends on where the kid's head's at, because most kids know what time it is. If you speak to them with respect and are giving them respect, they'll show you respect, they'll listen to what you've got to say. If you're talking to them like you know it all and you've got all the answers, then you're talking around them and fucking watering it down and hiding shit from 'em, they don't respect you. They go, `This motherfucker, who does he think he's fooling?' Kids can make decisions. They know what time it is. So we put it to 'em blunt so they understand. I got faith in the kids today, unlike their parents and unlike everybody else who downs them and criticizes. I've got faith in them.

"Parents show no support. They don't teach them, they don't give them reality or talk reality to them. It's all fantasy bullshit. How can a kid respect his or her father or mother if they're steady lying to them?"

The bowl went around again, and each member took another drag on the purple contraption. It's just about time to go on, and B-Real, Bobo and DJ Scandalous are almost ready to begin their show.

"Checkmate, motherfucker," B-Real cracked to Bobo with a sense of satisfaction. Now Cypress Hill could begin.