Spring Cleaning

I was doing some spring cleaning on the weekend with my son, and we found my old art portfolio from high school. Obviously we decided to crack it open and sift through the treasures inside. I knew I had tons of old flyers, but I didn't t realize I still had most of the original artwork for them. I also discovered a collection of flyers for almost every Grasshopper show I played. The coolest thing by far though, was a hand written double sided piece of paper I'd used to keep track of EVERY Grasshopper show we ever played. Venues, the acts we played with, and most of the dates. I decided to re-write them all in this post for prosperity reasons and fond memories that I'm sure will come back as I write this list:

Thursday April 23rd, 1992 - Niagara Cafe - w/ Mudfish & Goat Dance

May 1992 - Pickering Coffee House - w/ Something For The Pain & Yet Another Posse

May 1992 - Degrassi Street house party - w/ Goat Dance

Sunday June 7th - Ozone - w/ Y.A.P.

Monday June 8th - 1150 - Elvis Monday w/ various bands

Sunday June 14th - Pickering Coffee House - w/ Stew, Goat Dance, Mudfish

Monday July 13th - Lee's Palace - w/ Y.A.P., Mudfish

Friday July 17th - 1150 - w/ Groovy Religion

Wednesday July 23rd - Sneaky Dee's - w/ Land Of Nod

Thursday July 24th - 1150 - w/ Grim Skunk, Satanatras

Monday July 28th - 1150 - Elvis Monday w/ Velcro Soul, Fibreglass Granny, Freak Brothers 

Wednesday July 30th - 1150 - Dinner is Ruined, Bryan Ruryk

Thursday July 31st - Lindsay Ontario Bingo Hall - w/ Problem Children, Velcro Soul

Friday August 1st - 1150 - w/ Dave Howard, Paul Myers

August 18th - Sneaky Dee's - w/ Land Of Nod, Mudfish

August 20th - 1150 - Benefit show w/ various artists

August 21st - 1150 - Drive Like Jehu, Snowdogs

August 23rd - Project X - w/ Yeti

September 2nd - El Mocambo - w/ Suffuse

September 5th - 1150 - w/ Don Gato, Rocktopus, Hernandez Brothers

September 10th - Sneaky Dee's - An April March, Development Site

September 12th - Pablo Cafe - w/ Dirty Bird

September 30th - Tremors - w/ Y.A.P., Demon Barf, Full

October 1st - 1150 - Book Fair w/ various artists

October 3rd - Sneaky Dee's - w/ Land Of Nod, Mudfish

October 7th - Sneaky Dee's - Graham Kirkland Project - w/ Big Sugar, Bare Naked Ladies

October 10th - Oxford party - w/ Dirty Bird, Cops For Christ

October 17th - 1150 - w/ hHead, The Coles

October 22nd - 1150 - w/ The Smalls

November 6th - 1150 - w/ Wool, Groovy Aardvark, Y.A.P.

November 10th - Lee's Palace - w/ Full, Squid, Land Of Nod

November 14th - Rotate This - w/ Sloan

November 20th - Silver Shack - w/ LandOfNod,Mudfish,GoatDance,BobDogDog,CatRocket

November 26th - 1150 - w/ Dog Pile, Mudfish

December 3rd - 1150 - w/ GoatDance, Mr.Nobody, Full, Mudfish, 2 Line Filler

December 7th - 1150 - Elvis Monday w/ various artists (New Music filmed us)

December 9th - Ozone, Oshawa - w/ Project 9

December 11th - Opera House - w/ Jesus Lizard, Arc Welder

December 12th - Godridge Ontario - w/ various artists

December 26th - 1150 - Satanatras, Mudfish, Shotgun Shack

January 2nd 1993 - Embassy Hotel - w/ various artists

January 9th - Peterborough Art Space - w/ Crumb Family Robinson, Voodoo Chick Town

January 13th - Tremors - w/ Demon Barf, Rund Funk

January 14th - 1150 - w/ Project 9, Edma's Cat

January 15th (my 20th birthday) - Kave in Guelph - w/ 13 Engines

January 21st - 1150 - w/ Goat Dance, Demon Barf, Marcy Playground

January 29th - Oshawa Church - w/ various artist

February 6th - The Rivoli Club - w/ Satanatras

February 11th - Silver Shack - w/ Mudfish, Full, Hash Mantis

February 12th - HMV Super Store - w/ hHead

February 18th - Project X - w/ Lock Jaw

March 2nd - Edgewater Hotel - w/ Gobble Hoof

March 5th - The Rivoli Club - w/ hHead, Green Apple

March 7th - Promise Land - w/ Boris Is Back

March 19th - Sneaky Dee's - w/ Mudfish, Goat Dance

March 20th - Edgewater Hotel - Pot Fest w/ Satanatras & various artists

March 21st - El Mocambo - w/ Demon Barf, Ice Pick Lobotomy

March 27th - The Concert Hall - 102.1 Sonic Spring w/ Acid Test, Teknicolour Raincoats, The Morganfields (our final show)

 

CHAOS A.D.

The darkest summer had finally ended, and I decided to quit my job. It seemed like the only logical solution to saving my relationship and saving my own mind from sinking further into hate, jealousy, and depression. Musically I was listening to mostly rap and hiphop these days. The metal scene was still kind of non existent due to the over saturation of the grunge scene, and to be honest I had grown tired of that quickly. I was still a huge fan of the first Nirvana album and I enjoyed Mudhoney too, but the other stuff never really did much for me. Temple of the dog, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, and all the other bands Derek played religiously just didn't appeal to me. Perhaps I didn't get it? Perhaps the music wasn't heavy enough? Needless to say I'd had my fill of Grunge music the past few years to know I was done with it.

Derek was quite ignorant towards metal music and guitar solos, so I had pretty much weened myself off of that stuff simply to appease him. Those days were done but who was really flying the flag now for metal? Slayer & Pantera were still representing. Metallica had turned to shit, and most of the 80s crossover thrash and hardcore bands were now defunct. What was a guy to do besides listen to his old records and reminisce the glory days?

I had started watching my buddy Shayne's sister after school until their father got home from work, so I got back into the swing of recording music videos off of tv. I was really only into Rap City by this point, but I'd still watch the Power Hour just to see what was going on, which wasn't much. It was either older stuff or new crap that I had absolutely no interest in. Then one day a particular video caught my eye. It was a band I had listened to once a few years back, but a band I never heavily got into. After seeing the video for a song called "Refuse/Resist" I had a new appreciation for said band. They were called Sepultura.

I'd listened to their earlier release "Beneath the Remains" a few times in the past, and although I liked it, it never really struck me as mind blowing or incredible. But now, in what I call "the dark times of metal", there was a new light shining bright and guiding the way. That light was Sepultura. I immediately went out and got ahold of their latest album entitled "Chaos A.D."

The band was from Brazil, but that didn't matter one bit. In fact it made them cooler in my eyes, and I loved the broken English within the vocals. They were fast, heavy, crushing, and their breakdowns were brutal. The type of shit that made me want to jump back in the pit and clobber fools. I hadn't felt like that in awhile. Chaos A.D. was an incredible album. As I listened through the first time doing my usual reading of the lyrics, I was surprised to discover that every song was solid. There was nothing weak about this album whatsoever, nor were there any weak songs in my opinion. It was nice to have metal back.

I had become so absolved by rap that I had kind of forgotten my roots, even though I was still a die hard fan of aggressive music, but more so the hardcore stuff. When I discovered this music in grade 9 I completely turned my back on the music that got me there in the first place, bands such as Iron Maiden & AC/DC. I even sold all those old records in Toronto at various used record stores, hell I even dumped a crate on the sidewalk of stuff nobody wanted to buy like Ratt & Twisted Sister.

Now a young man of 20 years old, I was seeng the error of my ways. These were my musical roots. If it wasn't for these bands I wouldn't be the person I am...or the person I was at this point in time, which is basically the same person I am today as I write this. I had realized the error of my ignorant ways, and the only way to fix this was to re-embrace the music I loved growing up as a child. I needed to get back to my roots, so I went right back to the beginning, the band who arguably started it all, Black Sabbath.

Shane had quite a lot of their stuff on cd, so I started exploring the albums I'd never heard before. Records such as Technical Ecstasy, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and Never Say Die. I had only owned Paranoid, Volume 4, and Live Evil, so this was a whole new world to me. I just couldn't get enough of them. Even to this day when I listen to Sabbath I can't describe the way it makes me feel. It's almost like a magical right of passage or a religious experience. Hearing those riffs that caused a ripple effect that is still rippling over 40 years later in the metal scene. I get goosebumps every time they molest my ears.

I have always tried to live regret free, but I still regret getting rid of all those old records. Thankfully I kept some of the more sentimental ones, but one thing was for certain... I'd never sell a record again, and I would never turn my back again on the things that made me the person I am...

The Darkest Summer

The summer of 93' was a complete bust for me. I was working midnights full time, and it wasn't uncommon for me to work 10 days in a row due to their wacky scheduling at Loeb. The job itself wasn't bad. There was maybe a dozen of us in total working, we could listen to whatever music we wanted over the store P.A. system, and we could pretty much eat anything we wanted as long as we didn't get caught. I was constantly bringing in mix tapes to play and sneaking into the freezers for a snack.

My relationship with Tara however, was suffering greatly. While I had to goto work at 11pm every night, she would be going out drinking and parting with her friends. Being 20 years old and not trusting her friends, led me to be full of jealousy and rage every time she went out. It was quite unhealthy to say the least, as my mind was always getting the best of me. 

I'd usually take my lunch break between 2-3 am, and I'd head up to the staff lunch room for some peace and quiet. After eating alone I would head outside and partake in a doobie. From there I'd sit outside on the ground, my back against the wall, and I'd write lyrics for the remainder of my lunch break. Needless to say my pages of raps were piling up very quickly. A lot of these raps were dark and negative, I gather due to the fact I was always angry, jealous, and never saw the light of day for most of the summer.

When we weren't listening to cassette tapes during our shift, we'd usually have the radio on 102.1 The Edge. Lollapalooza was coming to town, and 102 were giving tickets away every night. Whenever you heard a band played that would be on the bill, you'd call in for a chance to win tickets. I was pretty stoked over the fact that Rage Against The Machine would be performing this year despite the fact that they were still virtually unknown and underground. I thought for sure if they played a Rage song I'd definitely be the caller to win the tickets.

As the weeks passed by I was slightly shocked and discouraged at the fact that I still hadn't heard Rage yet, so I decided to call into the station and inquire about it. I was even more shocked and slightly offended when the disc jockey told me they don't play Rage on their station. I got into it with him questioning why they wouldn't play a band who's on the bill of a show they are promoting and giving tickets away for. Apparently Rage were too hardcore for the radio station that claimed to be "alternative" I was never a big fan of 102.1 to begin with, but after this whole fiasco I vowed to always run their name through the mud whenever the chance presented itself.

I ended up becoming friends with a co-worker named Billy, so one night he and I decided to go out for some drinks together at a local pub. We were swilling pints, having a good time, and even getting attention from some young ladies. At some point one of the girls mentioned Billy had said something negative and insulting about me, so I called him out on it in drunken furious style. He ended up leaving the bar to avoid the confrontation, so I followed him out and trailed him down the street calling him on. We ended up getting into numerous scuffles but I could tell he really didn't want to fight. I ended up twisting my ankle somehow and within the next 24 hours I was on crutches and not able to work.

When I finally returned to work there was obviously tension between Bill and I, yet he wouldn't even look in my direction or come anywhere in the vicinity of me. The summer was almost over and I felt like I never got to enjoy any of it. Now having the extra bullshit at work wasn't encouraging me to want to be there, and I was sick of never getting to spend time with Tara or any of my friends. This job was definitely not having positive effects on my life, so I knew it was about time to call it quits...

Phot of Tara and I having some cold ones with 

friends before working a dreaded Loeb night shift. 

Finishing the Starter

So some of you might be wondering how I was able to get a job when I had the pending issue of the starter pistol incident I mentioned awhile back. Well I'm going to break it on down. Grasshopper was no more, unless we are counting the new bastardized version of it. Derek and I no longer spoke, but we still had to attend court for the whole starter pistol fiasco. We were both being charged with "weapons dangerous" and it ended up being quite a lengthy procedure.

During our first visit to court, Derek already had council and was ready to be over and done with this. I on the other hand, did not have a girlfriend who's mother knew the best lawyers in Brampton. In fact I didn't have any lawyer or legal council, so the judge decided to give me time to seek council and set us a new court date scheduled for a few months later.

A few months passed and since I was unemployed I clearly could not afford a lawyer, so I finally found my way to seek free legal aid in Mississauga. Once I finally managed to get there they had neglected to inform me that I needed to bring certain things with me, ie: paperwork, birth certificate, etc. So I ended up making the trip for nothing and had my second court appearance pending the following week. The only problem was the date legal aid gave me to come back was weeks later.

So we were in court for our second time, Derek again with his lawyer, dreadlocks tied back, trying to appear somewhat respectable, and then there was me with no council. I explained the situation to the judge and he set up a third court date as I needed to have proper legal aid. I ended up going back to legal aid services with all the proper requirements in order, but this was simply just an application process. I still had to be approved, and they informed me it would take some time.

Back to court for visit number three. Once again we could not proceed as I was still in the waiting process for my legal aid. I explained the situation once again to the judge, and once again he set another court date for us. By now it had been almost a year since these charges had been laid against us. I could tell Derek was getting very frustrated, as he had never dealt with the judicial system before. I had dealt with it on numerous occasions, so I was completely used to the drawn out process. Deep down inside I was getting a sense of extreme satisfaction at his distraught.

I eventually got approved for legal aid. The crazy part about this whole thing was my parents had no idea what was going on. I thought my courtroom days were in the past, and those days were very disappointing for my parents, so I didn't want them catching wind of this. It was a bullshit charge to begin with, but I was an adult now and I wanted to deal with my own grown man business and beat this myself. That meant having to get the mail EVERYDAY so my folks didn't discover and documents that would expose the situation. Needless to say I was thrilled that I finally had council. I was ready for court date number four.

When the day arrived I was nervous, but I felt they wouldn't make too much of an example out of us. Anytime I was in court I'd always pay close attention to the judge just to get an idea of what they were like when dealing with other cases. I'd either feel some relief or get even more nervous. On this particular day we had a male judge who was quite up there in age. He was very loud, outspoken, and boisterous, he constantly had a miserable scowl on his face, and he may have even been suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's. I thought for sure that he'd throw the book at us.

When our case finally got called, the crown attorney started reading off the information about the charge. As soon as the crown said the words "starter pistol" the Judge cut her off and stopped her dead in her tracks, blurting out: "A starter's pistol? And you're charging them with weapons dangerous? How can it be a dangerous weapon when it doesn't actually discharge? $5000 peace bond for one year, case dismissed!" That was it! After all the waiting, legal council, and lord knows how much cash for Derek's lawyer, the case was over before it even started. All we had was the peace bond, meaning if we were caught with ANY form of weapon within the next 365 days we'd be charged with a $5000 fine. I was totally stoked, especially at the fact that I had dealt with this all by myself and proven my innocence. It felt amazing. 

I'll have you know that I upheld the bargain of the peace bond for one year, and was completely cleared, now with a clean criminal record that could never come back to haunt me. Or so I thought...

Crate Digging & Straight Living

When I returned from May 24 weekend, as suspected I had been informed upon. Tara's friends that were there had told her about Leah, and now the drama was unfolding. I had to explain the entire situation to her, and it took some convincing, but she eventually took my word for it and we patched things up. Besides, we'd only been dating a week or two so it's not like we had anything set in stone yet.

3 n' Pass was still gigging when we could and we were still writing music when it was feasible. We also still had our radio show on CHRY "the Sunday night experience" and some weeks we might of only seen each other on Sunday, but it was nice that it always brought us back together at the end of the week. Mike Chapman was really getting into DJing now, so he would tend to help himself to the record vault at CHRY. I was guilty as well, as I'd nip the odd record or cd from time to time, which always guaranteed the comment "sleaze" to slide from Mike's mouth, followed by our laughter.  

Speaking of records, I was still into collecting vinyl. I wasn't spending as much time in Toronto now, but when I was, I'd constantly hit up all the used record stores along Queen street west. My collection was growing too, I had to upgrade from an old milk carton to the new blue recycle bins that had only been around a few years now. I don't remember where I got my blue bin, but somebody somewhere was missing one.

I was finding a lot of records I used to own and re buying them, mainly oldschool thrash and hardcore. There was a brief time when I was hanging out at Phil's a lot with Craig, but after awhile I got sick of being a hermit. I wanted to get out and meet girls as well as hang around my other circles of friends. Unfortunately I had brought a lot of vinyl to Phil's in those days, and for some reason I left them all there. I'm not really sure why I did, perhaps it came back to the Grasshopper breakup. I felt like asking Phil for my records would give the impression that we were no longer friends, which wasn't the case.

The plus side was it didn't cost much to replace a lot of the records as I was buying them used. Originally I had paid 10-15 dollars per album, but now I was getting them for 1-5 dollars. Some of them were even variant releases that included lyrics, which my original albums never had, so that was a bonus too. Asides from the hardcore stuff, I was stumbling upon various Beastie Boys 12 inch singles, and I now owned almost everything they had ever released with the exception of the elusive "Rock Hard EP" which was almost impossible to find.

Jerry and I were still going on our Sunday drives when we could, a tradition we'd been upholding since he first got his license. Sometimes we'd goto Square One shopping centre in Mississauga, where we always seemed to discover something new. It was there that I found a Beastie's 12" I'd never seen before, it was entitled "An exciting evening at home with Shadrach Meshach and Abednago" I was broke at the time, but Jerry being the best friend that he is was willing to foot the bill until I could pay him back at a later date. This ended up being my favourite Beastie release I had heard to date. I'm pretty sure this took place before Check Your Head was released, as the single contained remixes from Paul's Boutique. I feel it was worthy of mentioning as it was and still is such an important record in my life.

During this excursion we decided to check out some of the music they had available at the listening centre. We collectively agreed to check out a band we had never heard of before, they were called Shadowfax. I really didn't even know what to categorize this music as, but we were totally digging it. Jerry decided to buy the cassette, and we listened to it for the entire ride home. Shadowfax was a blend of new age, jazz, and electronica, which was a far cry from what we'd normally listen to. Despite that, we really dug it and it was nice to open our minds to something new. I told Jer I'd like to borrow it sometime so I could dub it, but now looking back I don't think I ever actually did. Decades later I'd learn the band's name came from Lord of the Rings, it was actually the name of Gandalf's horse. 

Life was peachy. I had a great group of friends, I was still making music, and I had a new love interest. I had been graduated for exactly two years now and I hadn't worked a single job, which in turn saw my parents constantly breathing down my neck. I guess you can't really blame them. I was just too enamored with enjoying life and living the rockstar lifestyle, the only downfall being it wasn't making me any money. My mom decided to throw me in the car with her and drive around Brampton applying for jobs. 

I tried a few things out, usually through temp agencies, but most of those jobs were serious hard labour while only making half the money I should have been making. I never lasted long at these jobs, usually anywhere from a day to a week. Finally I got a call from Loeb, a brand new grocery store that was opening. I had an interview, and before I knew it I had a full time job working midnight shift in the bakery. Summer had just begun, but your narrator wasn't going to have much involvement with it...

UPDATE 04/16/2015

I haven't done a current update in awhile, so I figured now would be the perfect time. First and foremost I am pleased to announce that my new collaboration project "Tribes of the Moon" is complete and ready to hit the streets next Monday April 20th, 2015. This has been a very rewarding venture and I don't mean financially. It's been a great honour and pleasure to work with everyone who offered submissions. I was hoping to get a few big name producers on this, but unfortunately they wanted money, and this is a non profit production. I was willing to spend some cash for the cause, but unfortunately I was not financially stable enough to do so. Perhaps in the future I can release a volume 2 and work with some of these people, but as it stands this will be a free release. Here is the track listing:

1. Friends In High Places-produced by Prince Pauly (3:48)

2. White-produced by AKstyleZ (3:29)

3. If You Wanna​-​produced by Kuato Lives! (4:01)

4. UglyBack-produced by UpperKutt (2:50)

5. Fact & Fiction-produced by Alex P. Keaton (2:49)

6. Just Don't(f.MachSpitz)-produced by BWC Gerg & Kuato Lives! (4:40)

7. Ain't No Stoppin' Me(f.TankDiggs&Lil'G) (4:15)

8. Disco Christ Walker-produced by Error144 (3:42)

9. Never Grow Up-produced by C.L.D.Peeps (2:24)

10. Am I-produced by The Night Owls (3:44)

11. Who Got Balls?-produced by GROG (2:37)

12. Puff Puff Pass-produced by Mister P (2:38)

13. Come to Daddy-produced by Double D (4:11)

14. Seven Thirty-produced by YU-C Beats (3:32)

15. All Wrong(f.Tank Diggs)-produced by Tank Diggs (3:40)

16. Run! - produced by BWC Gerg (2:59)

17. Live In Our World-produced by Mokbeatz (7:40)

You can find Tribes of the Moon available for free digital download and streaming next Monday via www.kabal.bandamp.com

In other news I'm happy to announce that after a 7 year hiatus, the man known as Osiris, co-founder of UWA Hardcore Wrestling, is back in action with a new promotion "Wrestling Abaddon" and they will be holding their first show this Sunday in Toronto. Hope to see you all there...

Don’t miss your chance to see Wrestling Abaddon LIVE!

Lithuanian House, 1573 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Sunday, April 19th, 2015. Doors open at 6:00p.m. Bell time 7:00p.m.

Featuring 7 NEVER SEEN BEFORE wrestling matches.

Main Event:

Carter Roth@#%$! vs. The BLK Jesus (JAPW and CZW Champion)

Azrieal vs. Chase Owens

Joker vs. Danny Havoc (Loser is suspended until 2016)

Pinkie vs. ‘The Warrior Wizard’ Jason Kincaid

Octavio vs. ‘Bad Boy’ Joey Janela

Dave V4.0 vs. Lucky ‘The Bartender Beefcake’

Bandido Jr. vs. Lan-Doe (Formerly known as Lionel Knight)

possibly featuring an appearance by Psycho Mike

…and top the night off with an ABADDON BURRITO!

www.abaddon.ca

The Blackest Sunday

May was through, the summer was approaching, and 3 n' Pass was transitioning from a rap group into a live rap band. Shortly before we made the decision to change things up, we were producing new mixes for some of our old songs. Our self titled song needed new life, so I headed into my lab and did the old record pause trick to create some loops using the song "The Wizard" by Black Sabbath. It brought a whole new dimension and incredible energy to the song, plus we were sticking with a trend nobody else was really doing in rap with the exception of a few, sampling metal and rock songs.

Navy & Shelly, two of the top skate dogs on Team Scam in Brampton, had also started a rap project called "Team Scam" and they were doing some pretty cool stuff production wise. It was original and they definitely had their own vibe going on. We were happy to have them open for us, so we rocked a few shows together at Tremors in Brampton.

As far as I knew we were the only kids in town that had a rap band, so it was nice to see other people expressing theirselves through this wonderful art from. Paul from Demon Barf had told me about a friend who lived on his street named Kevin, and he had started a rap group as well called "Endangered Elements" It was really cool knowing that we weren't alone in our plight.

I had made plans to hook up with Pauly one day and hang out. I was at the Bramalea City Centre bumming about, so Paul came to meet me there when he got off work. While waiting for him I decided to peruse the record stores as I often did, and I was totally surprised to see Cypress Hill had a new album out called "Black Sunday" I immediately bought it and couldn't wait for Paul to show up so we could bump it in his car. Needless to say when he arrived he was pretty stoked with the surprise I had waiting for him.

We popped the cd in the stereo and the first song kicked in entitled "I wanna get high" I immediately recognized the chorus which was obviously inspired by Rita Marley's one hit wonder, but the music was really slow and blunted. I was used to Cypress being so hype and upbeat, but the lyrical content made up for the low beats per minute. When the second song "I ain't going out like that" started up, I thought "this is the Cypress I know" it was more upbeat and in your face. I was really digging the song a lot, and then it came to a break in the middle of the song. My jaw hit the floor when my ears heard the harmonica from Sabbath's "The Wizard" I couldn't believe it! I blurted out "Cypress ripped us off!!!" I was absolutely furious.

Within a weeks time I was shocked to learn that Cypress had used another sound in one of their new songs that Team Scam had already used in one of their tracks, and if that wasn't enough, Paul later heard from his buddy Kev that there was another sound in another Cypress song that Endangered Elements had previously used in one of their tunes. My mind was blown. It just seemed too coincidental that three bands from Brampton had been jacked by Cypress. There was clearly no way they had heard any of our music, but I was convinced there was some kind of conspiracy going on. We had all worked hard to bring original ideas to the stage, and now Cypress had just stripped that from us. People would naturally assume that  we all ripped off Cypress Hill, not vice versa.

This hit me like a low blow, one that makes you reevaluate yourself and what you are doing. When your originality is stripped from you in one swoop what are you to do? The answer seemed simple enough, we had to come more original. So when the guys suggested transitioning into a live band I was totally on board, as nobody in rap was doing such. 

It was time once again to bring something new to the game that had never been done before...