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With his work in the pioneering hip-hop group Cypress Hill, rapper B Real
became something of a hip-hop legend for several reasons. Most immediately, his
trademark rhyming style, featuring an exaggeratedly nasal whine and a jazz
singer's skill at staying just behind DJ Muggs' already sluggish beats, was one
of the most instantly recognizable flows of the 1990s. Furthermore, B Real and
his partners Sen Dog and DJ Muggs were the first Latino hip-hop stars, ushering
in a richly varied subgenre of hip-hop that thrives to this day. Finally,
Cypress Hill's fervent proselytizing on the subject of marijuana legalization
both brought the subject to its highest public awareness since the days of
Cheech & Chong and paved the way for a generation of weed-happy middle-class
high school kids to discover and identify with hip-hop to an even greater degree
than before. However, that B Real therefore is indirectly responsible in part
for Kevin Federline should not be held against him.
Born Louis Freese in Los Angeles on June 2, 1970, Freese met Mellow Man Ace (Ulpiano
Sergio Reyes) and his brother Sen Dog (%Senen Reyes) in high school in the mid-'80s,
forming the trio that would eventually become Cypress Hill (named after a local
hangout in their South Gate hood) after Mellow Man Ace left to pursue a
successful solo career and DJ Muggs (Lawrence Muggerud) came in as producer and
DJ. During this period, B Real and Sen Dog were involved in a local branch of
notorious street gang the Bloods; B Real was shot in a drug-related incident in
1988, leading both men to get out of the thug life. However, those experiences
formed the narrative of the group's first album, 1991's Cypress Hill.
One of the first commercially successful gangsta rap albums, the album was
controversial despite the trio's attempts not to glamorize gang life. 1993's
Black Sunday was an instant hit due to the weirdly catchy single "Insane in the
Brain," and the same year, the trio's contribution to the pioneering rap-rock
soundtrack Judgment Night found them working with fellow marijuana enthusiasts
Sonic Youth, with whom Cypress Hill also guest-starred in a classic
Lollapalooza-parody episode of The Simpsons. Playing the actual Lollapalooza
tour in 1994 and 1995, the band added percussionist Eric Bobo (the son of
legendary salsa drummer Willie Bobo) and pursued an increasingly rock-oriented
style on their evermore infrequent albums.
During this period, B Real also created a hardcore gangsta side project, the
Psycho Realm, releasing two albums, 1997's The Psycho Realm and 2000's A War
Story. B Real even teamed back up with Mellow Man Ace for the short-lived Serial
Rhyme Killers, which released one 12" single in 2002. Finally embarking on a
solo career, B Real released two reggaeton-influenced collaborative mixtapes,
The Gunslinger and The Gunslinger, Pt. 2: A Fistful of Dollars, in 2006
Took part in recording "Believe Me"
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Eric Bobo |
