Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, Too $hort and E-40 fully repped the West Coast on Tuesday (April 19) when they descended on the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado for the annual pre-420 On The Rocks show.
With clouds of weed smoke creating a cannabis canopy over the entire venue, the nearly sold-out crowd was treated to dozens of Hip Hop classics such as Cube’s “Friday” and “Check Yo Self” to E-40’s “Sprinkle Me” and Cypress Hill’s “How I Could Just Kill A Man.”
HipHopDX was on stage during Ice Cube’s explosive headlining set when he took a few moments to educate those who perhaps had never seen him before and reminded them he “started this gangsta shit.” He also included a tribute to his late N.W.A partner-in-rhyme Eazy-E.
“I wrote my first hit song when I was 16 years old called ‘Boyz N Tha Hood’ with my partner Eazy muthafuckin’ E,” he told the audience. “Rest in peace! Now how many people out there, this is your first time coming to see your boy Ice Cube? How many people have seen Ice Cube a few times? Appreciate y’all.
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Method Man & Redman To Headline Annual '420 On The Rocks' Show At Historic Colorado Amphitheatre
“To all my first timers, I bet what you was thinking when you bought your ticket, you said, ‘Hey this ticket costs a lot of money and I hope this muthafucka still can rap and shit. I hope he ain’t all movie’d out. He could be worrying about Big 3 basketball. No. I just wanna reassure you I started this gangsta shiiiiit. I got one thing to say to you — you better check yo’ self before you wreck yourself.” From there, of course, he and W.C. proceeded to do a flawless live rendition of “Check Yo Self” from 1992’s The Predator.
Elsewhere in Ice Cube’s set, he performed “Friday” and included a snippet from the 1995 cult film. “Whenever you see Ice Cube anywhere in life, it’s a muthafuckin’ Friday!” he said before going into the track. “And you know what we do on Fridays, right?”
As for Cypress Hill, B-Real, Sen Dog, Eric Bobo and DJ Lord electrified the primarily stoned audience with songs such as “I Wanna Get High” and “Hits From The Bong,” certainly appropriate choices for the occasion at hand. Backstage, B-Real — who never took his sunglasses off (does he ever?) — was caught dancing along to “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang as he waited to make his entrance.
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Red Rocks is preparing to do it all over again on Wednesday night (April 20) when they welcome Method Man, Redman, Pepper, The Underachievers and more for the official 420 On The Rocks celebration. Find tickets here.
