Keepin’ it Real

Kickin’ it with B-Real on his Dr. Greenthumb show.

If you’ve been to any of our last three Cannabis Cups in San Bernardino, you might’ve noticed the foxy babe spinning onstage during the award shows. That babe is Crystal Ellis—a world-class celebrity DJ and international Playboy Playmate who also happens to be our former Miss High Times 2007 runner-up. More recently, she’s also become the host of her own show on B-Real TV called Tits and Tacos. While she and I were working out her contract for this year’s performance, Crystal invited me to be a guest on her show while I was in town.

Excited, I told my pal Adam Ill (the host of B-Real TV’s Getting High With Adam) that I’d be swinging by their studios the Monday after the Cup. That’s when he gave me the bad news.

“Monday? You won’t be able to do Crystal’s show if you’re coming on Monday,” he said. “Her show airs on Tuesdays.”

“Really? I didn’t realize,” I replied. “Damn, that’s sucks—I was excited about coming on.”

“Well, then we should get just you on the Dr. Greenthumb show instead. Let me talk to B today and get it official.”

Wait—so instead of being on Crystal’s show, I was going to be a guest of the man himself, B-Real? As Adam notoriously exclaims: Whaaaaaaaat?!?

Now I’ll be honest—generally speaking, I’m not the biggest fan of hip-hop. But Cypress Hill is in a league all their own: I’ve always loved their mellow, smoke-drenched grooves and had mad respect for B-Real. I first met him back in 1999, when Cypress played the High Times 25th-anniversary party at Irving Plaza in New York. Over the years, our paths have crossed at numerous Cypress shows and pot events, including HT’s Cup in Seattle last September, where I got to interview B on camera for the first time. Now, the sneaker would be on the other foot.

I arrived at the studio in downtown LA just before 4 p.m. and was welcomed by Adam, B and their crew. Within minutes, we were settled in comfortably on the set and the cameras were rolling. Over a few fat hash joints, we discussed the history of High Times and the Cannabis Cup, as well as the legal, economic and cultural strides that marijuana has made in recent years and its inevitable expansion in California—of which B intends to play an integral role. Just days earlier, he’d won a government lottery granting him one of only six dispensary licenses in Orange County (paving the way for him to open his first Dr. Greenthumb shop), and the night before he’d won two awards at the Cup. Since he’d been too busy working his booth to claim the awards onstage, I now had the pleasure of presenting them to him live on the show.

“You guys took home two awards last night, one of which was second place for Best Booth,” I said as I handed him the plaque. “And even more impressive than that one, we have this bronze medal for third-place Best Sativa.”

“What was it?” asked Adam, referring to the winning strain.

“The Dr. Greenthumb Tangie,” B-Real beamed.

After the show—and a few dabs and photos—B gave me his personal number and told me I was welcome back on the show anytime. After nearly 20 years of being little more than casual acquaintances, I could finally now say that B-Real and I had become homies.

Whaaaaaaaat!?!

See Crystal, Adam and B in action at breal.tv.