Cypress Hill’s B-Real Talks Celebrating Cultural Pride and Spirituality on ‘Dios Bendiga’ LP

Though he’s known for his laconic aura, B-Real is visibly excited. It’s a July afternoon in the dog days of summer, and despite the humid weather, the Cypress Hill member is riding high. However, the veteran lyricist’s lifted vibes can’t be attributed only to cannabis fumes. Last week, the 56-year-old and his groupmates released their eleventh studio album, Dios Bendiga, a body of work that doubles as a creative achievement and homage to their cultural roots. It marks Cypress Hill‘s first full-length Spanish-language album since their 1999 compilation Los Grandes Exitos En Español, which saw B-Real, Sen Dog, DJ Muggs, and Eric Bobo recording their greatest hits and fan favorites in their ethnic tongue.

Released amid a growing wave of Latino artists dominating the music charts, Los Grandes Exitos En Español was B-Real and crew bridging the gap between their audience of English and Spanish-speaking fans. The trend was one Cypress Hill themselves helped set with their double-platinum certified debut album in 1991. Yet, Dios Bendiga is also a show of civic pride and solidarity with fellow Latinos in light of sociopolitical efforts to criminalize, marginalize, and deport illegal immigrants, many of whom hail from Latin countries and have built a life for themselves in America.

“This was our stance,” B-Real tells VIBE when asked of the revolutionary overtone of Spanish hip-hop in recent times. “Taking up the stance at this time when you have ICE fucking with people all over the place, and immigration is all over the place. We’re doing a Spanish album, letting you know that we stand with these folks, ‘cause we are these folks. I think any community that’s come out of struggle can relate to one another.”

He continued, “It sort of helps band us together in certain ways because we can relate to each other’s struggles one way or another. I think that’s what ties it all together. This is us standing on ours and speaking our minds and educating people and lighting them up and entertaining them as well.” Recorded in late 2025, what initially was slated as a quick-strike project was extended past that deadline, a pivot B-Real is adamant was key to the curation and musicality of Dios Bendiga.

“We work fast,” the Los Angeles native said of he and his groupmates, who kicked off the Dios Bendiga sessions with the album’s opening track “Wacha Trucha.” “We’re not dudes who drag ass in the studio. We get in there, and we work, but we’re also realistic with ourselves. If the shit ain’t got the goods, then we put it to the side and go to the next. You can’t put an album together in two weeks. We’re going to need a month to two months. That’s what we took and just fine-tuned it throughout.”

That intention and dedication to the art has served Cypress Hill well throughout their decades-long career, as the group has built a legacy as pioneers and trailblazers while continuing to break barriers, creatively, professionally, and personally. 

You and the group recently released your album Dios Bendiga. How has the reception been so far?B-Real: It’s been good. We didn’t anticipate the love we’ve been getting because it’s been like 30 years since we released a Spanish record.

It’s been incredibly positive. It’s all original songs. It’s not like the last one, where it was a translation of our existing songs that were our bigger pieces. This one was all original.

This is your first full-length album in Spanish in decades. What led to the decision?We know throughout our history, we built a bunch of different fan bases, from our hip-hop base to alternative punk and metal, but we also have a very strong Latin base of Spanish-speaking fans.

And when we popped it off with the Los Grandes Exitos En Español record, we sort of lit it up for Latin fans out there who enjoyed hip-hop and got a chance to hear it in their language. It was important for us to get back to it and give our Latin fans, our Spanish-speaking Latin fans, something that they’ve asked us for a long time. Plus, as artists, we like a challenge. We know that since we dropped that 30-some-odd years ago, now there is a robust culture of Spanish hip-hop. Related Content Tango and Dembow? Only Trueno Could Make This Las Vegas’ Sick New World Meets the Metal Moment Santa Fe Klan Unleashes Cumbia Album 'Baile Cholo': 'My Life in Songs' Gorillaz Enlist Trueno and Late D12 Rapper Proof for New Song ‘The Manifesto’

There have been a lot of emcees, styles, and lyrics. This has evolved throughout that time, and now the game is filled with a lot of great talent out there. So it’s competing with that, too. We like to challenge ourselves to see how we snap in with all these newer hip-hop artists out there that are killing it. They’re spitting bars. That was the motivation. A promise to our fans and challenging ourselves as artists.

Who are some of the artists rapping in Spanish who are on your radar?Santa Fe Klan is a really dope guy. We tried to have him on the album, but his schedule was crazy. Alemán, who I’ve had a chance to work with a few times. We got him on the record ’cause he is crazy with the bars.

Yusak from La Santa Grifa is another one. There are so many out there right now who are spitting and fucking fire in Spanish. American styles, American cadences, but with a Spanish flip on it. It’s incredible to hear these guys doing that shit because, primarily, we used to just hear dudes flipping the Spanish raps on reggaeton. But now you’re hearing it on dope ass hip-hop beats.

And I love reggaeton, but there is a culture of real MCs that get down on this hip-hop shit. I’ve been afforded a chance to go around the world for many years and hear the different talents that pop up in different places, and when we get a chance to work with some of these guys who we think are the shit and we respect, it’s great. That’s why Trueno coming on, I thought he was really dope. I had a chance to work with them on something that he was doing, and he had bars.

I’ve seen growth from that time 30 years ago to now in how the MCs have evolved. I listen, and the ones who catch my ear, who I think are really spitting that shit, those are the guys I want to get down with. Those are the guys I want to be creative with and do collaborations with ’cause iron sharpens iron.

We’re in a historic era for Latin rap. How does it feel to see the seeds that you and others plant blossom after all these years?It’s great to see that. It’s great to know that we were a part of it. Think about it like this. It was us and Control Machete that sort of pioneered it in the early days in terms of Spanish rap shit. And for us to be an American-based group … I mean, we’re all of Latin culture. Sen Dog was originally born in Cuba, but migrated over to the States early on in his life at 5. Eric Bobo, who was Puerto Rican, Latino, Nuyorican, and Muggs, he’s Italian and all that, but they’re practically Latin to us. We have had that, but we’re from America. To know that an American-based hip-hop group, we’re a part of putting the seeds out for Spanish rap, that’s history in itself. Control Machete was right there with us, doing their thing, and they’re pioneers in it as well. Now, you’ve got an influx of many dope artists.

I’ll be honest, there are some shitty artists, too, but that’s in English and Spanish. Any language. It’s the yin and yang of artistry. Some are really dope, and some aren’t so great. That’s the reality of it.

But the guys that we’ve been hearing as of late are really fucking great, from the trap side of it in Spanish. Fucking crazy bars. The freestyle, battle rap shit. Motherfuckers got bars and the songwriting. Like really writing dope hip-hop songs. Some guys are killing it out there. It’s incredible to see and to have been a part of the beginning is an honor.

This is also Cypress Hill’s first full-length project in over four years. What was the reason for the hiatus?We do a lot of road work, man. What a lot of people don’t realize, and I think even new artists don’t realize, is that when you put out records, you tend to tour off those records for a long time until someone from the label or your management says, “Hey, we’ve got to put out a new fucking record.” Back when we were on Sony, you were on a schedule so you put out a record, you supported that record, and you toured. It was mostly like a two-and-a-half-year span, and then they want you to get back in the studio to pop off another record.