AARP Hearing Center
![B-Real performs with Cypress Hill on Day 1 of the Osheaga Music and Art Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau on July 29, 2016 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Mark Horton/WireImage) B-Real performs with Cypress Hill on Day 1 of the Osheaga Music and Art Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau on July 29, 2016 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Mark Horton/WireImage)](https://cdn.aarp.net/content/dam/aarpe/en/home/entertainment/music/info-2019/hip-hop-b-real/_jcr_content/root/container_main/container_body_main/container_body1/container_body_cf/container_image/articlecontentfragment/cfimage.coreimg.50.932.jpeg/content/dam/aarp/entertainment/music/2019/11/1140-b-real.jpg)
Part of the AARP Hip-Hop at Middle Age series
Set the picture as you would in the intro sequence of the movie. It goes into your childhood home: What are we hearing, what are we seeing?
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As a kid, I spent more time running around in the streets than I did at home, running around aimlessly with my friends and stuff like that, and getting into all sort of mischief, if you will.
But you know, my mother would listen to classic rock and salsa music; she was from Cuba, and so the salsa music came with her. My father would listen to more doo-wop stuff. Music was something that was always close to me. Every night before I knocked out, I turned the radio on and would fall asleep to the music.
What is your first hip-hop memory?
Hip-hop is like any other music, and it’s ageless. You can do hip-hop no matter how old you are. It’s about relating to people, and the older artists have something to teach.
I think it was on 1580 KDAY; it was an AM station, and they were the only ones playing hip-hop music on the radio in Los Angeles, maybe anywhere at the time. They played Run-DMC: “Here We Go,” I think it was. Previously, I was into more metal music, rock music and stuff like that — stuff that my mother and father, my brothers and sisters listened to. When I heard Run-DMC, I thought, What is this? This is dope. I mean, well I didn’t even know the slang at that time. As someone who was being exposed to hip-hop, I thought it was cool. Run-DMC — yeah, that was the first thing that like punched me in the face and got my attention.
I’ve heard you say that music has saved your life.
I was more so driven by making the music, rather than being on the street. And you know, that definitely saved my life because the trajectory in the gang — you know, you’re either going to prison or in the grave. Or you’re getting paralyzed by gunshots. So yeah, music pretty much saved my life.
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