This week the truly iconic Cypress Hill joins People’s Party with Talib Kweli sharing their incomparable journey in hip-hop and beyond. Cypress Hill broke ground lyrically and culturally with their unique flows, groundbreaking beats and weed-laced rhymes. Their formula catapulted them into global stardom almost instantly and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

One of the band’s biggest initial hits was “Hand on the Pump.” On this episode of People’s Party, B-Real tells Kweli that the violence expressed on the song had authentic roots but its impact was unexpected.

“We didn’t know that this song was going to have such an impact on people when we play it,” he notes. “It became the blow-up song,”

Reflecting on the dangerous mix of rap life and thug life in LA at the time he tells Kweli, “That’s who we were. We had those pistols on us. We had the pumps on us. It wasn’t uncommon for us to go party out with like fifteen cars and everybody has got weapons in the cars.”

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