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Puff, Puff, Playlist: The Best Songs About Weed

By Riddles Aug 10, 2021 2:12 AM

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bangerz and bluntz — Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images

Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images

As the walls of injustice continue to come tumbling down upon the needless criminalization of cannabis in America, it’s important to have just the right sticky icky music to help you blaze it up, pursue happiness, and vaporize the dark forces that formerly oppressed your freedom. These dank, crystallized nuggets of herb-celebrating tunes have been hydroponically engineered to flow with your bud-induced buzz like THC-soaked butter. Though the mix journeys through many genres, moods, and top-shelf hybrid strains, some super high highlights are lit up for your toking pleasure after the Spotify playlist jump.

“Acid Raindrops” by People Under The Stairs

Los Angeles’ People Under The Stairs create hip-hop bliss with a double doctorate in Life’s Lessons and Beat Making. The group dissects a vinyl record collection, removes stem cells of soul and funk, and creates new strains of life-affirming tracks, which they toss out like green confetti at a pot legalization parade. Riding an ideal cannabis-complementing groove, “Acid Raindrops” finds co-producers and MCs Thes One & Double K (plus first verse and hook provider, Camel MC) musing about relieving the stress and anxiety of life’s challenges with the greenery and good tunes.

Reefer Madness ORIGINAL TRAILER – 1936 (Not the full film)

“Pass The Kouchie” by Mighty Diamonds

The Mighty Diamonds are an OG reggae group from Kingston, Jamaica, formed in 1969. The track “Pass The Kouchie” on the 1981 album, Changes, was a hit in Jamaica and the incredibly obvious basis for “Pass The Dutchie” by the UK’s Musical Youth, which was released in 1982. Legal battles have agreed that, aside from the obvious removal of herb-related lyrics (changing “How does it feel when you got no weed” to “no food”) and changing the title from “kouchie” (slang for a pipe/bowl) to a “dutchie” (slang for a stewing pot), the Mighty Diamonds get full credit for authoring the song. Slowed down and more whimsical, this original version makes more lyrical sense.

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“John Madden (2010 Version)” by Spose & Cam Groves

Though Wells, Maine (just south of Portland) might not conjure up images of rappers laying down weed-saturated tracks on top of blunted beats, Spose and partner-in-rhyme Cam Groves bring suburban reflection and fat sacks of trees to the greater populace while putting the small coastal town on the hip-hop map. The track was originally featured on the debut album, Preposterously Dank, released locally in Maine in 2008. As the Spizzy Spose prose spreads nationally, this 2010 reworking of “John Madden” gives us some proper bass and more user-friendly production, making this 4:20 shoutout video game ode all the more ripe for the deep end herbal intake.

Chrome Sparks – Marijuana

“Marijuana” by Chrome Sparks

By sampling Idris Muhammad’s “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This” (likewise dropped by Jamie xx in his track “Loud Places”), Chrome Sparks (aka Jeremy Malvin) gets us into the mood with the slowed/screwed down rendering of the words “I feel music in your eyes/rainbows in your kiss.” Coupled with the soothing electronic tones and bass line that resemble a futuristic take on the post-ingestion results of the song’s moniker, “Marijuana” offers a unique digital direction among the endless creative paths that this once-forbidden plant provides.

“Good Shit” by Cornershop

Though not as direct and hard-hitting in referencing the dankity dank as other tracks in the mix, the “good shit” appreciated by Cornershop’s Tjinder Singh is the myriad good things all around us in life. However, when Singh notes that he’s “on fire” and requests “I want you each and all to switch on your tiny mind,” one can’t help but imagine that he very much understands and appreciates the weed terminology used to convey his larger point. Bonus: The upbeat (both in optimism and tempo) guitar-driven groove lays down a nice fuzzy shag carpet that really ties the rock ‘n roll reefer section together.

May this mix help the positive vibrations of your next smoking/dabbing/edible/vaporizing session be further augmented and amplified! Cheers!

Need some gear to celebrate 420? Our friends over at Grenco Science are offering a sweet sale between Monday, April 16 and Sunday, April 22. Use the code ‘THEMANUAL’ for an additional 5 percent off this Santa Cruz Grinder. We’re also fans of the G Pen Pro Vaporizer and the G Pen Elite Vaporizer.

Riddles is the Music Curator for The Manual. He believes that every activity we do in life could use a good soundtrack. From… Read Full Bio

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