B-Real Hearts Paintball

After East Coast-based Ruffhouse Records launched his L.A. crew into rap stardom in the early 90’s, Cypress Hill frontman B-Real went solo from New York. One of the latest additions to NYC indie Duck Down Records’ expanding roster of well-respected lyricists, Louis Freese, 38, made his official debut in February after releasing three Gunslinger mixtapes. B-Real produced three tracks on Smoke N Mirrors, and with a new Cypress Hill album tentatively set for summer, he aimed to create a project that’s distinctly his own.

Bill: How would you describe your first solo album?

B-Real: I didn’t try to do like the glamour, bling-bling type of shit. … Not like real candy cane type shit. It’s all pretty much raw and gritty, and that’s the kind of an album I wanted to deliver.

Does the smoke in Smoke N Mirrors have anything to do with weed smoke?

The whole meaning behind it is ‘Not everything is what it seems’. This business is like a big magic trick. You see the videos where dudes are fucking whipping around in expensive cars and they’re shooting videos in a huge ass mansion with all these fucking hot broads, and you know it’s only like that for some.

Sen Dog is on one song, but DJ Muggs’ production is absent. What’s up?

I didn’t want to recycle the Cypress sound or anything like that, so I wanted to try to put this all on my back and do something different. … We have a certain formula, and it’s undeniable, so when we make a record it sounds like a Cypress record. I didn’t necessarily want that because I didn’t want to use that sound for my deal.

What was it like receiving VH1’s Hip Hop Honors last year?

It was great. A lot of people, when they do these interviews, they ask you “What’s the highlight of your career? … For me Woodstock (1994) and Saturday Night Live were the two biggest things that stood out to me in our career…. The Hip Hop Honors pretty much is right there at the top of those three now because it was something that was unexpected.

In 1993, you told Bill Clinton “to go and inhale”. Are you surprised about how open Barack Obama’s been about experimenting with drugs?

Yeah, I mean finally somebody is just being damn fucking honest. You can’t completely believe every politician and what they say. So even though he was honest, I’m still skeptical about a lot of other things. But we all love Bill Clinton, and I wasn’t saying that to diss him. I was just saying “Hey, come on admit it. You’re a fucking stoner like the rest of us.”

You have a professional paintball team, the Stoned Assassins. Do you ever play stoned?

We used to play stoned all the time. Our coach did not like that. We eventually made a pact to, when we do tournaments, not to smoke before the tournament. We’ll smoke after we’re done.

B-Real feat. Young De & Tekneek – ‘6 Minutes’