B-Real (Photo by Estevan Oriol)

B-Real, best known for his time with Cypress Hill, is serving as half of the headlining act for the current Unite The Mic Tour. Deciding to team up with Bizzy Bone, the other half of this equation, was a simple decision, "I got a lot of mutual respect for Bizzy with the work that he's done for Bone Thugs. This tour is from two artists that got a lot of raw music -- a lot of music [that] people know. So, we figured, let's team up, let's go out there and get them," states B-Real.

The tour has a seventeen-city schedule and projected dates traversing the Midwest, the Southwest and the West Coast. Standing on his two feet, B-Real shares his solo work from Smoke N' Mirrors, as well as chronicling through Cypress Hill classics. Aiming to have fun and entertain he interjects, "We're trying to entertain people with our music -- and bring that vibe back. A little bit of the raw hip-hop vibe is gone. It's still there, but we gotta help bring it back." Pleased with the subterranean success of Smoke N' Mirrors, the hip-hop vet expounds on his premiere solo effort, "I meant to make a good hip-hop album with a lot of substance, with a lot of rawness energy and content. Whoever gravitates to it when they hear it -- whether it's the word of mouth, whether it's the promotion -- and they see us playing and they're like, 'Man, I like that song, I'm going to go buy that album.' That's the purpose I made it for."

A thrilling set list has been perfected and it is stimulating its spectators. "In the beginning of the tour, you vary it [the set list] because you're trying to find the right flow. What you want to do is take people on a roller coaster ride, you have your mellow moments, you have your wild moments, [and] you have your energetic moments. Then you take them down and take them back up to the crazy sh** again. So, we structure it like that. It's a roller coaster ride," claims the West Coast MC.

Acknowledging budgetary constraints, B-Real believes that attending a show will be a rewarding escape. "We're like a get away. You got all this sh** going on in your head, you got all this stress coming down on you -- come to the show. Let us take those problems away from you for a couple of hours. Between me and Bizzy Bone, we're making you feel good. We're bringing you back to those moments, you know, when you first heard those songs. It makes you feel good, you know, take you away from that drama. That's what we're here to do..."

This microphone maven continues, "That's what an artist is, that's what music is. It's to soothe your mind, make you think, make you relate or have something that people can relate to. It makes you feel good; it makes you think, all of those things. So, if you want to get your mind away from your troubles, your stress; come to the show. Go to any show, it doesn't matter. It doesn't even have to be ours, just go and have a good time."

B-Real (Photo by Estevan Oriol)

Even though Cypress Hill has sold over 18 million records worldwide; B-Real's voracious love for hip-hop has yet to be completely satisfied. With his light brown eyes narrowing to slits he contends, "I just love making music ... For me, at the end of the day, it's all about what kind of music we're making, what we're trying to say to people, how we're trying to make people feel. When you go do a show and you got thousands of people bouncing to your sh**, they know the words, they're screaming along with you, there's no feeling like that. So, I do it for the love of what I do and the feeling I get from the fans based on the feeling they get. It's like they give me energy and I try to give it right back to them. There's no high there's no nothing that can replace that."

In August, the Unite The Mic tour will experience a temporary hiatus, as B-Real will rejoin Cypress Hill for their scheduled date of the Rock The Bells International Festival Series. If provoked to join a lyrical battle, B-Real contends, "I'll kill anybody, man, let's do it. I respect and I love all those artists. Only if I had to battle I would. I wouldn't just go out there and start some sh**; because, I love everybody on that bill. A lot of them cats are family. They're all dope enough to where if you're actually up for the challenge, that you want to battle those guys, you know what I mean? But I'd have to have one of them set it off on me first. So, I would just say it like this, anyone who sets it off on me I'll battle the f*** out of them. I got mad respect for everybody on that bill."

The last confirmed date for the Unite The Mic Tour will be on September, 4th in Hollywood, CA. B-Real confides to BallerStatus.com that in October the latest, yet to be titled, Cypress Hill album will be released. "We're going to be doing our Cypress Hill Smoke Out in October to coincide with our record release."

The accomplished yet appreciative MC closes with, "I'd like to say for the support throughout the years. Come to a show. For those who knows that my record is out, thank you for supporting that. If you don't know now you do, go buy that record. Stay tuned for the next Cypress Hill record!"