Mary Jane – Rick James
The King of Punk Funk wrote this salacious ode to his true love for his debut LP “Come Get It”. The song charted at the top 5 on the US R&B charts in 1978 and went on to become one of his most notable sons. A cookout and corner staple, “Mary Jane” is a true stoner’s classic and a beautiful piece of music. – GC
Space Cowboy – Jamiroquai
This funky spaced-out ditty centered around the sticky doja was the lead-off single for Jamiroquai’s second album, “Return of the Space Cowboy”. The song not only raised their visibility in the States but solidified them as a group; gaining them their first #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. The video, complete with JK’s slithery dance moves, was also really cool to watch while smoking a spliff. – GC
Legalize It – Peter Tosh
This is the definitive weed anthem penned and performed by arguably the greatest reggae musician of all time. Mixing equal parts declaration and defiance, Tosh produced a masterpiece of a tune aimed at dismantling and educating folks on the archaic beliefs fueling the harsh anti-cannabis laws in Jamaica at the time. A groundbreaking song and album. – GC
I Want to Get High – Cypress Hill
Outside of the aforementioned “Legalize It”, no other weed song best encapsulates the deep affection and reverence stoners have towards the sacred herb like track # 1 on Cypress’ “Black Sunday” album. Here, B-Real is at his blunted best, picking up where Tosh left off and schooling the non-believers on the mental and medicinal value of ganja. This may be one of Cypress Hill’s best songs and that’s saying a lot. – GC
Krippy Kush – Farruko, Bad Bunny, & Rvssian
Latin Trap God Bad Bunny and Farruko opened doors in a big way for their genre with 2017’s hypnotic ode to a particularly banging hybrid Indica/Sativa strain. The song had a stranglehold on cars and clubs from Spanish Harlem to Santurce and helped to usher in the new wave of dominant Latin music on the market. The smell from this loud was so strong that even Nicki Minaj and Travis Scott jumped on remixes to spread the smoke farther and wider. The video also gets an honorable mention for the copious amounts of eye candy and brain food. – GC
Bob Marley – Kaya
From the album of the same name, “Kaya” was Bob Marley’s ode to bud. Specifically, it’s a song about being high and staying that way. It uses the repetition of the phrase “Got to have Kaya now” to drive home his single mindedness. The song and album represented a more laid-back approach in stark contrast with the militant tone he often struck on previous albums. At the time, he received a fair amount of criticism for “going soft.” – BR
Parquet Courts – Stoned and Starving
A stoner anthem if there ever was one (even though the song isn’t anthemic in its normal definition). Driving beat captures the urgency of the stoner frantically looking to feed those munchies while the looping baseline provides that wait-what-was-I-just-doing absentmindedness of a bud-clouded mind. Sparse, repetitive lyrics just adds to the mental Groundhog Day feel. The Parquet Courts may well have written the ultimate stoner sentence as well. “I was reading all the ingredients/Asking myself should I eat this?/I was so/Stoned and Starving.” Yeah we’ve all been there. – BR
Cab Callaway – Reefer Man
A nice reminder that people have been sparking up for a long time, probably for thousands of years. Here, the King of Swing pokes fun at those of us who can’t handle our bud and struggle to hold it together. Callaway’s voice is majestic regardless of what he’s singing.
Bob Dylan – Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35
Off the album, Blonde on Blonde, the song features Dylan railing against his critics (at that point mostly his own fans who hated his shift to an electric guitar) with the recurring phrase “the’ll stone you.” The song’s famous refrain is a double entendre: “Everybody must get stoned.” It’s about the indiscriminate and unjustified criticism he’s received and it’s also about the solution to those people. They need to lighten up. Relax. And how do you do that? “Everybody must get stoned.”
Missy Elliot – Pass That Dutch
Missy Elliot released this song in 2003. It’s a testament to her collaboration with Timbaland and their joint vision that it still sounds fresher than tomorrow’s milk. While not ostensibly about weed itself, the title of the song and its refrain reference the bodega-ready cigars that burned smoother and slower than the ubiquitous Philly blunts most popular at the time.
Got suggestions of songs you think should be included? Pop it in the comment section and we’ll add it to our Spotify playlist.
WORDS: GregCee, Brice