In partnership with Rock In Rio Lisbon
Cypress Hill performed at Rock In Rio Lisbon festival last night (June 21), where they received a round of applause for their treatment of an audience member who had been taken ill.
The long-running Californian hip-hop group were one song from the end of their main stage set when the situation unfolded. Rapper B-Real had instructed the crowd to crouch low, which seemed likely to precede their cover of House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’, when he spotted something happening in the crowd.
He then paused the show, telling the audience: “I’m sorry about this but we gotta make sure he or she is OK,” prompting a round of applause for his handling of the situation. The rapper directed security towards the person in question, before telling fans: “Everybody clear a path for the man in the man in the yellow.”
The audience applauded the rapper once again, even though this meant that the group had to leave the stage before performing ‘Jump Around’.
One fan summed up the general mood by posting on X: “Respect to Cypress Hill for stopping the concert at Rock in Rio because a person felt unwell in the middle of the crowd and asked everyone to make space for her and the security guards to go there.”
Elsewhere in their enthusiastically received set, the group performed 1996’s ‘Illusions’, which has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years due to its popularity on TikTok. As the track finished, B-Real chanted its lyric “some people can fuck off”, before adding that “useless politicians” can “fuck off”.
In 2024, B-Real told the news agency PA that the song’s popularity on the app proves that Cypress Hill’s music is “timeless”. He added: “As of late we’ve noticed, in the last few years, in the spot where we actually play that song ‘Illusions’, we say, ‘Make some noise if this is your first time seeing Cypress Hill,’ and about 70 per cent of the venue, who are young, are out there making that noise.
“That just goes to show that our music is being passed down through generations, much like as when we were coming up, as young kids we were all pretty much into Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but it was before our time.”
Rock In Rio Lisbon continues next weekend. Rod Stewart is due to headline on Saturday June 27, with Cyndi Lauper, Shaggy, Joss Stone and The Wailers also appearing on the bill that day. 21 Savage will headline on Sunday June 28.