Live, loud and with an electric atmosphere, the opening of Beat & Raw with huge American hip-hop stars Cypress Hill headlining was a night of raw energy, crossing decades and collectively bringing together all walks of life who just love music.

The unprecedented appearance from the almighty Californian giants of rap who were the first Latino group ever to have a platinum-selling disc, was a big success. The exclusive concert and first in an impressive series of world-famous names to be gracing the Space Ibiza stage this season every Friday, tapped into something glaringly obvious from the moment the doors opened – a demand for high-quality live acts in a venue with the sound capacity to give the audience a real 100% show – which is exactly what they got.

Storming on the stage in the Discoteca – hosted by Doctor Music - around 2.30am, B Real and DJ Muggs took to the front and commanded the crowd from the second they stepped on. ‘ I Ain’t Goin Out Like That’, ‘Insane in the Brain’, ‘Rock Superstar’, ‘How I could just kill a man’ were  just a few of the tracks from the full-power urban superstars and with each beat, the jam-packed dancefloor jumped up and down in unison. Judging by the general look on the sea of excited faces, the majority couldn’t quite believe they were lucky enough to get so close to their idols, and Cypress Hill, without a doubt, loved being on stage in Ibiza.

Taking it back to the 80s/90s at one point with scratch-mixing skills that rap fans went wild for, Sen Dog cut the set beautifully, followed by Eric Bobo expertly and effortlessly showing his famous percussion skills from the back of the stage. The full show lasted more than two hours and as the group just kept going with more classics incuding ‘Yo Quiero Fumar’ – which they did – ‘Roll it Up, Light It Up, Smoke it Up’ and a long list of successive hits, they fed off the explosive energy emulating from the crowd.

Rebellious, wild and refusing to come off-stage, when Cypress Hill finally did sign off, they promised to come back next year. At this point,  Allan Ramirez took over the decks in the Discoteca.

Spanish hip-hop group Violadores del Verso who performed before Cypress Hill were impressive to say the least. Making a mark on anyone who hadn’t seen them before and delighting fans who had, these guys were the perfect choice for setting the urban scene.

Even the warm-up tracks between the live acts, thanks to DJ Jekey, were huge rap hits from the 80s/90s that everyone rocked to. Over on the Sunset Terrace clubbers were going crazy for the street -sound set of hip-hop and dub-step that was being thrown down and onto the Terrace, hosted by Malaputa Rock, rocktronica took on a whole new meaning.
Eclectic, contemporary and completely unique, the electronic fusion of all genres was something to bridge oceans. The urban crowd loved it.

As a concept, Beat & Raw is brave but standing in the Discoteca surrounded by thousands of excited music lovers over the moon at getting to see their idols on stage, it was not hard to decipher that in week one alone, Beat & Raw has already gained a huge fan base.