Words and Photos By:
Brendan Lee
Tuesday October 2, 2012 – Fortune Sound Club was a little hazy as B-Real, of Cypress Hill fame, played to a packed crowd last week in Vancity. The bill also included guests DJ C-Stylez, Kanabliss Tha Supaspliff, Little T, T-Funk, Eliza Smith, Mike Dudas and was hosted by Cashius Clay. Hip-hop heads and stoners alike gathered to take part in what could only be described as an amazingly crowd pleasing set by the esteemed emcee hailing from Los Angeles.
Kanabliss’ set was super chill and he also hyped up the crowd with his grimy flows over classic west coast inspired instrumentals. The crowd was definitely into his style and it was a good compliment to B-real’s set. Kanabliss did his thing and the crowd was restlessly anticipating B-real to hit the stage, as the rowdiness turned up and the DJ played a few more tracks.
B-real hit the stage through a sea of assumingly fake weed plants, a consistent haze of smoke and green lights – opening his set with his song “Ease Back,” which is his rendition of the hit Fat Joe record “Lean Back.” The energy level turned up as he proceeded to play the Cypress Hill tracks “When the Shit Goes Down” and “How I Could Just Kill A Man.”
Like I said, he played a crowd-pleasing set, which obviously consisted of the plethora of classic Cypress Hill songs you would expect. Surprisingly, he only smoked one joint his entire set but it was a pretty respectable one that I’m sure Bob Marley would approve of. He continued to pump out the Cypress classics including “Roll it up, Light it up, Smoke it up,” “Dr. Greenthumb,” “Hits From the Bong” and “Hand On The pump.”
He then went onto play a couple tracks from his collaborative album with fellow marijuana aficionado Rusko – a dubstep producer hailing from the UK. These tunes were heavily bass influenced which definitely played well into the Funktion-one sound system and had the crowd in a trance. B-real closed his set with the classic “Insane in The Membrane” and stated that he loved his time in Vancouver and will be returning with all of Cypress Hill in the near future.