Entertainment
Identity Change
For those millenials that were listening to the radio in 2001 and 2002, most will remember that Afroman’s cannabis anthem, “Because I Got High,” was a nearly inescapable piece of the early 21st century pop soundtrack. The song wove a humorous tale of a person who’s life fell to pieces due to laziness, procrastination and mostly cannabis, and quickly rose to the top of the charts and became the rallying cry for nearly an entire generation of new herb users. Though the song launched Afroman’s now incredibly prolific career and helped define his good time, laid-back brand of hip-hop music, the tune also drew some negative criticism for feeding the cliché of cannabis users being lazy, with some folks even going so far as to describe it as an “anti-marijuana” song. Luckily for us, Afroman recently got to set the record straight on the song by partnering with Weedmaps and NORML to re-release “Because I Got High” with a whole new set of lyrics championing the positive effects of cannabis. The new version, complete with a whole new humorous video, helps bring a whole new level of meaning to a song that was previously just a hilarious story, and helps draw new attention to the benefits of cannabis and it’s legalization in this country. CULTURE got the chance to catch up with Afroman and learn all about the ideas behind the new version of “Because I Got High,” as well as hear all about his love for cannabis.
You decided to re-record one of your biggest hits, “Because I Got High,” with all new lyrics touting the positive effects of cannabis. Where did the idea to do this come from?
Well, I wanted to help push for the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana and take that tool away from a cop to be hateful and use it to mess up somebody’s life.
So I got together with Weedmaps and NORML and tried to coordinate something that could help out the entire movement. I wanted to rewrite the song, because when I wrote it originally, I was just trying to get into the music industry and write a funny song. However, this time around I was just focusing on education for the legalization, and I didn’t mind being funny if I could.
Did any of the new lyrics come from personal experience, have you or any of your friends and family had positive effects on your mental or physical health from medical marijuana?
Yeah man, I had an auntie who was having problems with her glaucoma and it really helped her out. Personally, for me, I know it’s been great for me for patience and anger. I think that’s something humanity can definitely benefit from, a little more patience and curbing the anger. I think also, if the state legalized it and taxed it, they could do all types of positive things with money from it.
Can you tell me a bit about how the partnership with Weedmaps and NORML came about?
Well, it was kind of a joint effort where everything happened to fall in place really quickly. You know, I’m Afroman—the guy with the party that all of the smokers know. But they’re Weedmaps, they help you find different dispensaries throughout the world; and NORML, they’re fighting to legalize it. So, it was like, we’re all on the same page in different hustles and when we got together on this it was perfect, it was magic.
You’ve been advocating for cannabis for a long time, is it exciting to see legalization efforts moving forward in so many states at the moment?
You know, a lot of people aren’t killers, they’re not criminals, and when you decriminalize marijuana, most of them will just become regular citizens. There are a lot of good things, both social and financial, that can come from marijuana legalization.
