POP MUSIC REVIEW : Cypress Hill’s Performance Leaves Audience in a Daze

Cypress Hill’s concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Friday night was really a giant pot party.

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In some parts of the auditorium, the smoke was so thick that just breathing could make you light-headed. But that shouldn’t have caught anybody by surprise.

This Latino rap crew from South Gate is hip-hop’s first marijuana activist unit. Lead rapper B-Real, Sen Dog and DJ Muggs have blazed their way to the top, leaving a trail of pot smoke. On their million-selling albums, 1991’s “Cypress Hill” and this year’s “Black Sunday,” they encourage listeners to light up.

Most of the fans on hand Friday appeared to have taken them up on the invitation. Smoking weed before, during and after one of their shows is considered cool.

One of their props is a mock-up of two fingers cradling the world’s largest “blunt,” the current slang for what used to be called a joint. These guys are so serious about their weed that they even had a speaker lecture the crowd, trying to drum up support for legislation to blow away some anti-marijuana laws.

Weed also appeared to have an effect on the music. The performers were either high or doing a good imitation of guys who are--leaving the music ragged. Noisy, frenzied chaos reigned most of the way. The raps were delivered in an unintelligible, mush-mouthed style and the music was cranked to ear-drum breaking level.

But don’t think all this adds to fan dissatisfaction. Clearly the audience was so tuned in that it didn’t seem to be bothered by what normally would be considered musical mistakes.

Coherence, smoothness and clarity and crispness of sound weren’t pluses with this crowd, which seemed to be charmed by the erratic quality of Cypress Hill’s music--a quality enhanced by a surrealistic blend of B-Real’s nasally, whiny raps with the undercurrent of Sen Dog’s eerie commentary.

Scratch the playful surface of songs like “Insane in the Brain,” “Ain’t Going Out Like That” and “When the Ship Goes Down” and you tap into an eerie, menacing quality--a seething paranoia that ripples through most of Cypress Hill’s songs. They’re having fun, but they haven’t lost touch with the grim reality of urban life in the ‘90s.

The musical influence of Cypress Hill is surprisingly extensive. Other rappers, such as Chubb Rock, are already copying B-Real’s distinctive style. And Muggs is a hot producer, with Ice Cube and Beastie Boys tracks to his credit.

Like it or not, these guys are more than annoying pot-heads--and they’re not going away any time soon.

Joining Cypress Hill on what’s billed as the Soul Assassins tour were House of Pain and Funk-doobiest.

Those who still think that the late ‘80s edition of the Beastie Boys was the worst performing white rap group ever obviously have never seen House of Pain, whose leader, Everlast, serves up hoarse, amateurish rap. There wasn’t one interesting or challenging moment in the group’s whole set.

Yet House of Pain was a treat compared to Funkdoobiest, an L.A.-based multiethnic rap trio that styles itself after Cypress Hill, but has minimal performing talent and no charisma.