There are many amongst the Ibiza faithful (although typically the younger crowd) who hate the idea of acts like Snoop Dog, 50 Cent and now Cypress Hill having a presence on the island of Ibiza. Call them the purists or whatever, but in my opinion there is more to the island than dance music. This island should be for all music, not just dance music. Events like Beat & Raw offer something out of the ordinary, and that's good, right? Well, I'll agree not always, not all alternative music has worked on this island in the past, and not all will work in the future. But Cypress Hill, live, at Space, to a predominantly Spanish crowd worked! And if it's all an experiment then I'll happily be a part of it.
The group rap between the lines of English and Spanish in their tracks, all with a heavy underlying message of getting high and having all the fun. Which I have reason to suspect all of the Cypress Hill posse were in full compliance with as they shouted, "are you high right now!? Me too!", shortly followed by the track 'Cisco Kid' with it's weed smoking lyrical focus. Not that we agree with that sort of thing, of course.
There were some real classics in there, with 'Dr Greenthumb', 'I Ain't Goin Out Like That', and probably the most anticipated track of the night 'Insane In The Membrane' all pounding out to the packed out Discoteca. But it was cool to hear for the first time (for me at least) some new tracks from Cypress Hill. Clearly intent on keeping their music current, they have joined up with Rusko on a new EP titled 'Cypress X Rusko' to lay down some bass heavy dubstep tracks, one of which was a monster called 'Shots Go Off' (out on 28th June), and then unleashing the obviously Rage Against The Machine influenced 'Rise Up', with Tom Morello the man to thank for that one.
One of the best thing to take away from this gig though, blippity-blippity-blap raps aside, is the promise from the boys to make the gig in Ibiza an annual thing. At first mention I passed it off as some in the moment promise, but after saying it a good two or three times more I think we can all look forward to at least one quality hip-hop night next season, and the season after that. "It's our first ever time in Ibiza. It's beautiful here! We're gonna' do this show every year!". There you have it.
