Planet Ill: What have you learned on the road touring and seeing the world?
B Real: Well you have to be patient for one thing. Patient with what it is you’re doing out there. Not letting being away from home for so long get to you. And you have to have fun while you’re doing it to maintain your sanity because you go from city to city every day on that grind. You might have a couple days off here and there but basically you’re at it pretty much everyday or every other day and it can be a grind. If you’re not having fun it can be really fucked up but you have to maintain the “have fun” and connect with people out there.
Some people are not people persons and they don’t know how to deal with people so when all these fans come up, they don’t really know how to deal with it and it makes it fucked up for them but if you just have patience and learn how to deal with it and take it for what it is and give that little but of yourself to your fans that shit goes a long way in the end. There are a lot of different things but you definitely have to be having fun out there and don’t waste yourself too early on. A lot of rookies get out there and try to go hard the first week of the tour and then by the second week their voice is shot out, they’re fucking tired, they wanna go home, they have to cancel the tour and that’s not how you obtain longevity.
You have to be able to finish the tour and rock these people and build fans as you’re playing and solidify the fan base you have while you’re playing. It’s an opportunity to sell your records basically, sell yourself, sell your merchandise, sell your band and if you have a great show, people will always come see it whether you have a new record out or not. It’s a whole bunch of things. The road is a different monster than just recording and putting out records. It’s one of the most pivotal things to keep you going and make a career. You have to get out on the road and play your music. God willing people like it.
Planet Ill: Is there that you have left in this world of music that you haven’t accomplished?
B Real: I don’t know. I never think about what I haven’t accomplished. I just think about making the music and letting the music speak for itself and let’s go from there because we’ve sold a lot of records; we’ve done that. And that wasn’t even one of our goals, it just happened that way and we were fortunate to be blessed with fans that loved what we were doing. So I never got into it with any particular goal in mind I just wanted to make music that people were fucking into. Now obviously all these years later (we’re) definitely more goal oriented because you see what you’ve done, what you’ve been able to do and what you keep doing but we’re the type of dudes that we’re very competitive and never satisfied so even though we’ve sold all these records we’re still hungry to go at it because we look at this shit like a sport.
There’re the top teams that make it in the playoffs every year to go for that championship and there’re the scrub teams and we always look at ourselves like a championship team so we’re always to be in it to win it and that’s pretty much what keeps us going and we want the legacy of Cypress Hill to be that we put out the best albums possible and to influence people to whatever degree we influenced them to whether it was we provoked a thought to inspire them to pursue music or to follow a dream they had through whatever they heard from us. That’s basically the goal to keep that going.
Planet Ill: What do you think was your best lyrical performance?
B Real: My best lyrical performance on what? A record?
Planet Ill: Period. The one that you’re most proud of, you sit back and go damn I fucked that up.
B Real: Ooh shit. I don’t know. That’s a good one because I do so many and I rarely get to hear them after because once I do them they’re gone unless we happen to perform them. Then you know then I’ll know it but hmm, I dunno, that’s a good one. I think I have yet to do that. I think that everything I have done is pretty good but I don’t think I have hit something where I would say yunno what that was my absolute best because I know I am still capable of better even though what I’ve done has been successful. I know that I am capable of much more so it’s really hard to answer that one. I would say “Rock Superstar” was probably my best lyrical thing because it was saying something about the game that we’re in and really not too many people had addressed that at that point. I always thought that the lyrics and the concept of that song was one of the best that I’ve put out there in a long time.
Planet Ill: Are you still on the contract with Cypress Hill? Is the group still on the contract with the label or are you guys putting out independently?
B Real: We’re actually doing a new deal with Priority EMI. They’re re-launching Priority so that’s where our new home will be.
Planet Ill: If you could sell your soul to make one thing happen, what would that thing be?
B Real: (Chuckles) Shit. I don’t know man. My soul is worth too much to make one thing happen.
Planet Ill: Good answer. Is there anything you want to get out there?
B Real: I just wanna say thanks for the support throughout the years and thank you to Duck Down for taking a chance on my solo shit and keep your ears open for the next Cypress Hill record coming out March 23rd called Rise Up.
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B-Real of Cypress Hill is set to perform at Sullens 10 Year Anniversary Party.