Psycho Realm is a Latin political hip hop group started in 1989 by brothers Sick Jacken (Joaquin Gonzalez) and Big Duke (Gustavo Gonzalez) from the Downtown, Pico-Union area of Los Angeles. The first recorded Psycho Realm song, «Scandalous», was released on the soundtrack of the film Mi Vida Loca in 1993. That same year B-Real of the rap group Cypress Hill saw Psycho Realm performing at Olvera Street for an End Barrio Warfare concert. Their performance inspired B-Real to the point that he wanted to join the group. With this time period being the height of Cypress Hill’s career anything Cypress Hill related would get major publicity.
In 1997 Sony released the first Psycho Realm album, labeled as an addition to the Cypress Hill Family by the sticker placed on the CD case. Due to conflicts with the record label the Gonzalez brothers were dropped from Sony as Jacken explains, «the machine was just trying to censor me / Didn’t do it for Sony so they ended up releasing me / Independent, no longer locked down for an infinity / So my vicinity stays true to my identity.» The brothers then went on to form Sick Symphonies, their own record label, which lacked the big budget for promotion and distribution in chain stores along with group member B-Real, who was stuck on his contract with Sony for Cypress Hill.
On January 29, 1999 at 12:05 a.m. one month before the expected release of the second Psycho Realm album, Duke was shot in a confrontation while trying to split up a fight at Tommy’s Burger Stand at Beverly and Rampart Boulevard in Los Angeles which left him paralyzed from the neck down for life. The shooter, a 24 year old named Robert Gorcsi, who was on parole at the time of the shooting, was given a bond set at 1.6 million dollars, he was eventually jailed for attempted murder. [1] Jacken later that same year released A War Story: Book I with B-Real only appearing on one song. In 2001 the Sick Symphonies label released The Steel Storm the first album of a new group called Street Platoon. Jacken with the help of Street Platoon finished A War Story: Book II which came out at the end of 2003, which was already halfway done before the shooting of Duke.
