B-Real has a lot of love for Hip Hop’s young stars. During a recent conversation on HipHopDX’s Live With Steve Lobel, the Cypress Hill great identified A$AP Ferg, Wiz Khalifa and Joey Bada$$ as three newer acts that bring dope rhymes and, most importantly, originality.

“A$AP Ferg is one of my favorites,” B-Real says. “He just finds a way to come with different styles. From the look to how he spits it, he’s one of my favorites. I like Wiz. He dares to be different. I like that shit. Most rappers try to put themselves in a box to try to be the image of what Tupac and Biggie were. Mostly Pac, because Biggie’s image is hard to replicate. You have to be a certain dude to replicate the image of Biggie. Pac, they found a way to cookie-cut his image and there’s a lot of that shit out there. That’s what I like about Ferg and guys like Ferg. They do different shit. They’re not trying to be in that image. They’re trying to do different shit.

“I also like Joey Bada$$ because he’s not necessarily doing the trap shit that everyone else is doing,” he adds. “He’s doing the more traditional Hip Hop but it’s new. He sounds like right now. He’s a dope rapper, too.”

When asked by Steve Lobel what his favorite Cypress Hill song is, B-Real says “How I Could Just Kill A Man,” off the group’s 1991, platinum-selling self-titled debut, which was released on Ruffhouse/Columbia.

“The way [DJ Muggs] put the beat together on that [was special],” notes B-Real. “He actually produced me on that. It wasn’t one of those typical songs like, ‘OK, write the verses. Let’s go. Write the choruses. Let’s go.’ We actually all pieced that song together. He directed like a producer would. That’s one of my favorites.”

Take a look at the full conversation where B-Real exactly how he got his moniker and how the group decided to name itself Cypress Hill.