On a rainy Thursday in Toronto, Hip-Hop heads gathered at Coca-Cola Coliseum for an epic celebration of classic ’90s Hip-Hop. Dubbed the O’Canadabis Tour, Cypress Hill joined forces with De La Soul and The Pharcyde to bring a party only they could pull off across Canada, with endless party records, weed anthems, and nostalgic hits. Although the pairing of these three groups may look odd on paper, each having their own distinctive styles and hailing from different coasts, they collectively represent what’s often referred to as the golden age of Hip-Hip, with plenty of timeless classics between them. While their paths may not have crossed often over the years, they’re all associated with that ’90s era, delivering Hip-Hop in its purest form whenever they bless a stage, and showcasing the diversity of the culture.

With the music of these three groups aging like fine wine, the Coca-Cola Coliseum crowd would have a mix of both new fans getting their first opportunity to see them perform live, as well as old-school heads returning for that nostalgia, and even parents sharing the experience with their kids. It would be a rare opportunity to see all three of these groups perform at the same show, all at a decent price considering the most recent tour dates each of them had in Toronto: The Pharcyde last performing at The Phoenix Concert Theatre in 2023 on their 30th Anniversary Tour, De La Soul opening for the Wu-Tang Clan & Nas that same year on The N.Y. State of Mind Tour at Scotiabank Arena, and Cypress Hill rocking Bandshell Park as the headliners of the 2024 edition of Toronto’s Festival of Beer. If you couldn’t make it out to these more recent shows, this one was a must-see.

I got to the venue with plenty of time to grab a drink and make my way to the general admission section of the floor of the arena. Right on schedule, The Pharcyde would come out to start the show at 8pm sharp, with their DJ playing an intro voiced by Lil’ Jon to bring them out. While the four-man group hasn’t always been united, with member Bootie Brown currently not touring with them, the roster would be even more depleted as Imani and Slimkid3 were the only ones to grace the stage. They’d power through a couple joints off their 1995 sophomore album, Labcabincalifornia, setting things off with “Bullshit” and “Drop” before acknowledging being shorthanded – apparently Fatlip got held up at customs.

Despite being shorthanded and working with a low microphone for half their set, Imani & Slimkid3 held it down for The Pharcyde, taking the fans through several classics off their debut Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde album, including “4 Better Or 4 Worse,” “Ya Mama,” and “Oh Shit,” covering the verses of their missing members plus spitting their own. They’d of course give their biggest singles special treatment, letting a jazz record play before it transitioned into the sample for “Passin’ Me By,” and they’d do the same with the J Dilla-produced “Runnin’,” getting the crowd to sing along to the hooks. One unexpected thing they did that we didn’t see last time they were in town was play some new music, as they closed out their set with a high-energy performance of the new 2025 single “Timeless,” the beat getting the crowd to bounce. While Fatlip’s energy was sorely missed, the group still put on a show, with Slimkid3 nailing his vocals and Imani showing off his dance moves as he rapped.

Next up would be another shorthanded group, with De La Soul of course performing without the late Trugoy The Dove (RIP). Showing respect to the local Hip-Hop, Maseo would begin the set by remixing k-os’ “Superstar Pt. Zero” while shouting out other Toronto emcees like Kardinal Offishall, Choclair and Saukrates. He’d do some crowd work at the front of the stage before returning behind the turntables to bring out Posdnuos, who would kick things off with “Freedom of Speak,” and would quickly bring it back to 1988 with the throwback “Potholes In My Lawn.” Not only did they rock the classic, but they flipped it in a new way, switching the beat midway and adding an interpolation of Jay-Z’s “Ain’t No N****” for the hook. “Sucker emcees better stay at home!!!”

With De La being a timeless group, they didn’t stick to any particular era for too long, next jumping ahead to the early 2000s with “The Grind Date,” Pos jumping down to clap hands with the crowd as he rapped, and Maseo would join him at the front of the stage to help cover Trugoy and Redman’s vocals on “Ooh.” Even while missing their third member, De La Soul’s synergy and stage presence is still on point, as Mase & Pos rapped back and forth seamlessly, rocking one more 2000s joint with “Much More” before going back to the ’90s.

For those who saw De La Soul on The N.Y. State of Mind Tour in 2023, the next routine would be familiar, but it was still a hype moment for a lot of the crowd who didn’t see it coming: they’d perform the 1996 classic “Stakes Is High,” and after the first verse they’d bring out a surprise special guest to cover Trugoy’s vocals for the rest of the performance. Posdnuos would introduce him mid-song by changing the lyrics in his final bar to say “Talib Kweli got some Hip-Hop Quotables!!” Just as we saw him do last time, Talib Kweli covered Trugoy’s verse with the precision of a true student, and would go on to perform a couple of his own songs, including “The Blast” and “Get By.” Even though they did it on the last tour, it was a nice surprise to see Talib Kweli join De La Soul again, especially since we’ve seen him start doing some solo touring in 2025 (most recently performing in Mississauga three weeks before this show).

While the introduction of Talib Kweli felt familiar from last time De La Soul was in town, the next two songs they chose to close out their set were completely different, pulling out a favourite of mine with “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays’,” which got everyone dancing despite it being a Thursday. Keeping up the vibes of the disco samples, they’d end the set with a day-one classic, “Me, Myself & I,” with Kweli gracefully sharing the stage with Pos in Trugoy’s place. De La Soul’s performance did feel a bit short, with plenty of hits left off the setlist, but it was an action-packed one that brought a ton of energy out of the crowd.

It was now time for the headliners, with DJ Lord coming out first to warm up the crowd for Cypress Hill. He’d chop up some rock and metal records on the turntables to get the energy up, with covers on stage being lifted to unveil Cypress Hill’s banner and drum set just as the beat from Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” dropped. After crushing it with the rock samples for a few minutes, DJ Lord next brought out Eric Bobo on drums, followed by emcees B-Real and Sen Dog, and they’d get the show started with a day-one throwback, “The Phuncky Feel One.”

Besides the opening track, much of Cypress Hill’s setlist would be similar to what we saw less than a year ago at Beer Fest, but they rocked the crowd nonetheless, performing “Hand On The Pump” over the beat from Method Man & Redman’s “Da Rockwilder,” followed by some Black Sunday classics “A To The K” and “When The Shit Goes Down.” They’d also throw in some rare joints like “Lowrider,” and B-Real would join Eric Bobo on the drums as they performed their Travis Barker collab “The Beat Goes On,” giving Sen Dog full control over the front of the stage. Adding in the 2000s joints was a dope change of pace, but the crowd was most turned up when Cypress Hill took it back to the ’90s, as the energy picked up when they performed another Black Sunday cut “Lick A Shot,” with a second drummer joining Eric Bobo behind the double drum set and performing a drum solo with him mid-song.

After a rare performance of “Tequila Sunrise,” B-Real would announce a smoke break and lit up a joint, that being the queue for all the smokers in the crowd to light up as well. This would of course lead into a seemingly never ending string of weed anthems that got the crowd vibing in the smoke cloud, starting with 1995’s “Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up,” and going on into “I Wanna Get High.” After having the spotlight on his own for a few joints, B-Real would be joined by Sen Dog again, who brought the funky flow with his show-stealing verse on the faster paced “Cisco Kid,” and they would continue on into the B-Real-led “Dr. Greenthumb.” Keeping that bounce, DJ Lord switched up to a reggae beat for B-Real to spit the second verse of “Greenthumb” to, and would also lace him with Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre’s “The Next Episode” beat midway through “Hits From The Bong.”

While B-Real had a joint between his fingers while holding the microphone and rapping, taking a few puffs between songs, now would be the time he’d actually take a smoke break. He’d talk to the crowd, getting fans to cheer to see how many were at their first Cypress Hill concert and how many were returning after having seen them before, getting a good mix of both. Him and Sen Dog would then head backstage and give the spotlight to DJ Lord and Eric Bobo, who would get into a groovy mix on the turntables and drums.

After turning the crowd up with the drum and turntable interlude, Cypress Hill would bring back B-Real and Sen Dog, and they’d get into a couple joints off their Temples of Boom album, getting the crowd to rap along to “Illusions” and “Boom Biddy Bye Bye.” They’d then start to take it old-school, the crowd turning up as soon as they recognized the start of the beat from “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That,” which of course was an epic, high-energy performance. Instead of going all the way in with more hits, Cypress Hill did an energy check with the crowd, getting the left and right sides to do some call-and-response with them before turning up to Black Sheep’s “The Choice Is Yours.” This would then turn into a performance of their biggest hits, next rocking “How I Could Just Kill A Man,” complete with a hard rock-style build-up on the drums to make the last hook more epic, and getting the crowd to jump to “Insane In The Brain.”

Closing out the setlist would of course be the epic rock-rap mashup from 2000, “Rock Superstar,” which had a ton of added energy from the live drums with at least one mosh pit breaking out in the crowd. DJ Lord would give the track even more energy by flipping the beat to the guitar riff from Slayer’s “Angel of Death” on the third verse (also sampled by M.O.P. on “Raise Hell”), giving the song more of a metal feel to it. This would have been an epic closer on its own, but as we saw Cypress Hill do at Beer Fest last year, they’d bring out all the artists who previously blessed the stage and got everyone to crouch down in anticipation. DJ Lord would play House of Pain’s “Jump Around” and at the same time, once the beat dropped, Cypress Hill, De La Soul, The Pharcyde and everyone in the crowd jumped to the track as B-Real & Sen Dog performed the cover. After that last burst of energy and pure Hip-Hop fun, the artists on stage all thanked the crowd and embraced each other to celebrate the last show of the tour.

Overall, this was an epic display of the wide range of diversity and creativity that co-existed in the ’90s Hip-Hop landscape. You had The Pharcyde fusing the mid-west’s ear for soul and jazz samples with their west-coast roots, De La Soul of course representing the conscious yet fun style of rap they and Native Tongues brought to east-coast Hip-Hop, and Cypress Hill fusing the ’90s west-coast sound with their Latin roots and taste for hard rock music. Having been to the most recent shows each of these groups had in Toronto within the past couple years, it was cool seeing the small nuances in the setlists and how the artists each approached the performance differently while still maintaining the core song selection. Things like Cypress Hill swapping out Nas’ “Hate Me Now” for Slayer’s “Angel of Death” for the tail end of “Rock Superstar,” or De La Soul closing out with the “Saturday” and “Me, Myself & I” combo instead of “Rock Co. Kane Flow” made enough of a difference for this show to stand out compared to past shows.

And for those who hadn’t seen these artists perform in a long time, or were seeing them for the first time, this must have been an epic experience.

Cypress Hill are set to embark on a European tour through June and July, and will be joined by The Pharcyde again (plus Atmosphere and Lupe Fiasco) for a USA tour in August. Tour dates and tickets can be found here!

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