Weed anthems or songs about weed have been a thing for decades, especially in the reggae, jazz, rap, and rock genres. Various musicians from Bob Marley, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg, and the likes have been emblems of this plant.
Many countries have artists that represent this magical plant and all it stands for. It’s common nowadays to hear several songs about weed. Plus, it serves as an inspiration for many artists and is still influencing lots of musicians today.
The best songs on weed can set the proper mood for marijuana users while smoking their usual rolls. When you add marijuana with music appeal, you get something uniquely different.
Moreso, weed is getting more accepted by the day, as it is gradually becoming legal in many parts of the world. Although this exciting plant might not be globally legal, it’s getting more awareness, and companies are investing in its usefulness.
The 20 Greatest Songs About Weed
James “Mary Jane” (1978)
Ricine may have contributed to his plunge, there’s no denying that Rick James had a special appetite for weed. In this classical “Mary Jane,” he combines the sounds of pop, doo-wop, and rock in this masterpiece. The “Mary Jane” song is included in his “Come get it” album.
While working with music producer Art Stewart on this title track, Rick James delivers on this song. In this song, he counts on Mary Jane to put him in the mood with her love.
Rick James told Rolling Stone in 1982 that he doesn’t buy ounces of weed; instead, he buys them in large volumes. This shows his love for the magical plant, and of course, that reflects in his music.
Ray Charles, “Let’s Go Get Stoned” (1966)
Ray Charles is one of America’s greatest musicians who hit the 1960s with a storm. “Let’s Go Get Stoned” was first recorded in 1965 by the Coasters. It was written by Jo Armstead, Nickolas Ashford, and Valerie Simpson. “Let’s Go Get Stoned” got released in 1966 and went on to top the R&B charts. After this song, the people choose to buy weed online legally to uplift their mood.
Landing at number 40 on the billboard’s top 100 songs. This three-minute song topped the ranks for the US Billboard R&B singles and peaked at number 31 in the US Billboard top 100.
Snoop Dogg, “Gin and Juice” (1994)
Snoop Dogg is an African American rapper who released “Gin and Juice” as the second single in his first album – Doggystyle, in 1994. Dr. Dre produced the song, which peaked at 8th in the US Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, in Australia, “Gin and Juice” peaked at number 49. Also, the song got recognition from RIAA, and Snoop Dogg sold more than 700,000 copies.
Furthermore, “Gin and Juice” got Grammy nominations in the 1995 Grammy Awards in the Best Rap Solo Performance. Based on the words of Kevin Powell, the song was originally a hip-hop freestyle.
Missy Elliott, “Pass That Dutch” (2003)
Dutch Masters Cigars had been producing the same cigars since 1911, so the company’s employees probably didn’t know what had caused a sudden increase in sales in the mid-1980s. After White Owls and Philly blunts (which “burn way faster”) became the standard, Dutch Masters became the major alternative wrap.
Miss E and her studio mate Timbaland created “Pass That Dutch,” whose glitch rhythm bounces like a cartoon ball. Dave Myers directed the video (in a nod to Williams’ signature aesthetic) and features Busta Rhymes screaming like a dragon over footage of dancing scarecrows and a freshly trim Missy operating a truck full of man-eating BBWs.
Chance The Rapper, Featuring Future, “Smoke Break” (2016)
Chance has a way of making even the most boring things seem romantic. In the song “Smoke Break,” he thinks about his busy life and the birth of his daughter. The song “Smoke Break” came out in 2013. Chance asks her to hang out with him over a blunt.
The song’s lovely melody and angelic synthesizers will make any smoker remember when smoking was a slow and personal experience. In other words, it wasn’t simply a few discreet puffs on the best THC vape pens while standing in line. Future also has a great verse in the song, where he sings about painkillers and L rides and makes them sound like the perfect way to rekindle a flame that has gone out.
Fats Waller, “If You’re A Viper” (1937)
It is said that gypsy-jazz musician Stuff Smith wrote this song in 1937. Many other jazz artists followed suit, most notably Fats Waller, and the song is now widely known as one of the first, coolest, and best-known reefer song in jazz (though Rosetta Howard beat him to the punch).
This track had everyone wanting to have “a reefer five feet long.” However, only The Manhattan Transfer’s cover (from their debut album, Jukin’) used Smith’s original words.
A$AP Rocky, “Purple Swag” (2013)
“Purple Swag” has been easy to recognize since the beginning. In the summer of 2011, a rapper with braids brought Texas to the streets of Harlem, and the world saw for the first time a troublesome white woman with gold grills mouthing the lyrics “This is for my niggas who get high every day.”
This song is a chopped-and-screwed anthem. Not to mention that it was made by a group of New Yorkers back when Tumblr was still cool. “Purple Swag” was more than just a song about being “purple drunk” and smoking “purple cannabis.” It became a message that swagger didn’t depend on where someone lived.
A$AP In an interview with Complex in 2012, Rocky talked about the making of the song. Rocky says that they filmed the stuff in a “tiny ass closet.” To get high, if you will. “I felt as happy as a kite on a day with a lot of wind.
This weed, which has been drinking purple liquid, is yelling at the purple weed. In short, it just felt right. Christ, or Jesus. The color purple was everywhere I looked. In simple terms, I was high. Purple light was shining everywhere you looked. It was basically just a black room with purple light. There’s a lot of loud music going on. You know, stuff like that. All I can see is purple.”
Afroman, “Because I Got High” (2000)
People say that Joseph “Afroman” Foreman’s career as a promoter of the pothead, slacker lifestyle started with a two-minute write-up of a sing-along in the style of a nursery rhyme. “Because I Got High” is the West Coast MC’s only big hit to date.
It is one of the most popular pot songs of all time. Who among us hasn’t gotten high and then forgotten to do something important, like clean their room, pass a test, pay child support, etc.? Afroman told Rolling Stone in 2014, right before he updated his novelty hit for the legalization era, that he ended up on the map because of “Because I Got High”. It’s what got him a record deal, a Grammy nomination, and a household brand.
Danny Brown, “Blunt After Blunt” (2011)
The first line of the SKYWLKR song on the album XXX is one of the best ever in a song about smoking weed and best dab pens. “Blunt After Blunt” is one of the best songs on XXX, which came out in 2011 and is one of the most underrated albums of the 2010s. If you only look at the words on the page, the song’s hook can seem like nothing special.
It’s important to hear the anger in Danny’s voice as he screams the iconic lines about smoking blunt after blunt, over and over again repeatedly. Far too many songs try to mask their message behind a layer of symbology and cryptic lyricism. Not this one, though. On “Blunt After Blunt,” Danny doesn’t use language or symbols to convey his message. Instead, he’s straight to the point and just says exactly what he wants to say.
Black Sabbath, “Sweet Leaf” (1971)
The legendary opening track of Sabbath’s third album, Master Of Reality, moved the band away from esoteric themes and into more familiar ground. Ozzy Osbourne’s passionate vocal (he even shouts “I love you!” at one point) and Tony Iommi’s deathless thunder make this arguably the first stoner metal song and one of the greatest of all time. And, of course, the legendary rock and roll cough.
Let’s be honest: we’ve all felt like Tony Iommi at the beginning of “Sweet Leaf,” when he cuts away in agonized joy after landing a particularly big blow. Sabbath’s tape-looped cough is the perfect way to lead into the song’s signature sludgy riff, which everyone used. From the Beastie Boys in “Rhymin’ and Stealin'” to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in “Give It Away.”
The song’s title may have come from an Irish cigarette company’s ad for a product called “the sweet leaf.” Still, the lyrics do a better job of capturing the excitement of a young, new love that is tragically unrequited: “I love you, sweet leaf” is what he’s singing if you can’t hear him.
Busta Rhymes, “Get High Tonight” (1997)
In the late 1990s, as the turn of the century loomed, two brothers developed an unhealthy obsession with a hacked copy of William Cooper’s Behold A Pale Horse. Kids today might not fully understand what all the hype was about.
Picture yourself on the train back to Brooklyn from 125th Street, where you just purchased a copy. You dive headfirst into Cooper’s language and are astounded by his wacky ideas about New World Order governments, Illuminati control, and the impending catastrophe.
Hip-hop artists like Busta, Tricky, and RZA were big fans of the book because they looked for answers and were big fans of The X-Files and The Matrix. The cats’ end-of-the-world hysteria might have something to do with them constantly smoking weed.
The song, produced by DJ Scratch (who deserves more credit), appeared on Busta’s second solo album, “When Disaster Strikes.” It would have been awesome if filmmaker Hype Williams had captured Busta’s booming style, which writer Matt Diehl called “linguistic pyrotechnics.”
Amy Winehouse, “Addicted” (2006)
Admit it. We’ve all stolen a bud or two from a roommate, but it’s basic manners to put back what you took. Amy Winehouse made it quite plain that she wasn’t messing around when she sang, “When you smoke all my weed man/You gots to call the green man.”
On the extra track “Addicted” from the deluxe editions of her album Back to Black from 2006. In 2007, the late singer admitted he smoked weed in an interview with Rolling Stone.
If you have an addictive personality, you’ll likely cycle through many poisons. Four years later, Winehouse was discovered dead in her home from alcohol poisoning (her BAC was over five times the legal limit). Perhaps she would still be alive today if she had stuck to cannabis.
The Mighty Diamonds, “Pass The Kouchie” (1981)
The Jamaican harmony group Mighty Diamonds was the first to record “Pass the Kouchie.” In 1982, the British kiddie-reggae band Musical Youth made it famous by playing it on MTV as “Pass the Dutchie.” In a later copyright case, the judge said that “Kouchie” meant a “pot where people kept marijuana,” while “Dutchie” was Jamaican patois for “Dutch stewing pot.”
They changed the title to remove any reference to marijuana. They also changed the lyrics to get rid of any references to marijuana. For example, they changed “How does it feel when you don’t have any herb?
” To “How does it feel when you don’t have any food?” So what do we get? Success on a global scale. Fitzroy “Bunny” Simpson, the lead singer for the Mighty Diamonds, said, “Before Musical Youth put it out, they called to tell us that they had done a re-version of “Pass the Kouchie.” Because they said they would do what was right, and then they did.
Bob Dylan, “Rainy Day Women #12 And 35” (1966)
Bob Dylan once declared at London’s Royal Albert Hall in May 1966 that he never had and never would compose a song about doing drugs. Despite that, the title tune from Blonde on Blonde has become an anthem for generations of pot users. It also topped the Billboard Singles charts at #2 in the spring of 1966.
Many attribute this to the song’s hazy chorus of “Everybody must get stoned!” They also cite the idea that “rainy day lady” is old-school slang for a joint, common among those who smoke weed. But some new-school stoners will also do well to remember that the product of 12 and 35 is 420. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Bob Dylan knew what he was getting at.
However, the Great Zimm is certain that the stoning the song refers to is the biblical kind, not herbal remedies. He told Rolling Stone in 2012 that it doesn’t surprise him that some people would interpret it that way. “But these aren’t folks who have read the Book of Acts,” he added.
Tom Petty, “You Don’t Know How It Feels” (1994)
If you thought Petty’s 1993 hit with the Heartbreakers, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” was his farewell to pot, you’re dead wrong. The first single from his 1994 solo album, Wildflowers, will set you straight. “You Don’t Know How It Feels” [to smoke marijuana, we assume]. The song unambiguously states, “Let me get to the point. Let’s roll another joint.”
Even though the message made some at MTV uncomfortable, the network didn’t pull the song’s video but instead aired a version in which they played the word “joint” backward.
Tom Petty told an audience in 1997 on VH1 Storytellers, “Imagine my amazement when this music plays on TV, and they say, ‘Let’s roll another noojh.'” Which seemed much worse than the word “joint” to me. As in, “Because, I dunno if you’ve ever eaten a noojh, but that sounds pretty nasty.
Dre featuring Snoop Dogg And Nate Dogg, “The Next Episode” (1999)
No list of songs about smoking weed would be complete without multiple appearances of Snoop Dogg. Dr. Dre, Snoop, and Nate Dogg took inspiration from the ominous “The Edge” sample by David McCallum and David Axelrod. Using that, they took the world to new heights (or highs) with their song “California love, this California bud.”
The hit song was already quite gangsta, but the Paul Hunter-directed video took the theme of gunfights to a whole new level. Some people are still guessing what Snoop was on when he showed up to the set with a black Barbie haircut, which evokes a “money, bitches, and perms” look.
Peter Tosh, “Legalize It” (1976)
“What am I without herb, and what is herb without me?” Peter Tosh asked this question as a joke in 1981. In the 1970s and 1980s, no reggae artist was a bigger supporter of marijuana than the former Wailer. In 1975, this legalization chant was the first song he released as a solo artist. The line in the song that “ganja helps TB” was decades ahead of its time.
The fact that a marijuana distributor funded the album provided Peter Tosh with a ton of street cred among stoners. In an interview with NPR in 2011, reggae historian Roger Steffens said, “He asked a cannabis dealer in Miami to put money into the record, and the dealer agreed.
” “What are you going to call it?” he asked. Peter then said, “I’m calling it Legalize It.” “No, man! You’re going to put me out of business!” said a frustrated dealer. But he changed his mind and gave Peter the money in the end.
Neil Young, “Roll Another Number (for the Road)” (1975)
Neil Young recorded Tonight’s the Night after the deaths of Dan Whitten and Bruce Berry. The two men were the guitarist for Crazy Horse and the roadie, respectively.
The song captures the sound of a man and a band in the throes of chemically and alcohol-assisted misery. In 1975, Neil Young responded to a question about the album’s creation by saying, “I’m not an addict.” But we’d get jacked, drink tons of tequila, and live dangerously.
Young tries to start his vehicle and proclaims himself “a million miles gone” from the hippie days of Woodstock on “Roll Another Number,” which sounds like someone added some weed to the proceedings in addition to the alcohol. The Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot said it best when he compared the song’s tone to “a drunken Irish wake.”
Cypress Hill, “Hits From The Bong” (1993)
“Hits From the Bong” by Cypress Hill is a famous stoner song because it is so complete with details that it could serve as a bong owner’s manual. DJ Muggs’ rhythm, which is based on a slow guitar sample from “Son of a Preacher Man” by Dusty Springfield, creates a cozy, smokey atmosphere where B-seasoned Real’s advice
(Don’t waste bong water, keep your screen clean, etc.) is given with confidence and charm. Even though bongs have never been a particularly common way for hip-hop people to smoke weed, Cypress Hill makes a strong case for them in this song.a
Method Man, “Tical” (1994)
Tical was the first solo album by a Wu member, and it came out in the gloomy fall of 1994. The hit song from this album was “Method Man.” Tracy E. Hopkins of Entertainment Weekly, describes Method Man’s lyrics as captivating lyrics that sneak out of the shadows and hold listeners hostage.
Even though the song doesn’t say anything directly about marijuana, the sounds of smoking and the opening quote from Hendrix give it away. Then, how many sober people would think to listen to “Fly, Robin, Fly” by Silver Convention? Even without the buzzing of killer bees, “Iron Lung” was scary and sounded like dirty fog, rough and muffled.
Conclusion: Best Songs About Weed
Good music is euphoric enough, and weed is even more euphoric. When you combine both of them, the result is a unique sort of bliss. There you have it. We’ve delivered twenty of the most iconic songs about pot for those who enjoy a good joint.
There are many more that we couldn’t fit into our list. They range from “Dooo It” by Miley Cyrus to “Still Blazin'” by Wiz Khalifa. Now you have something to listen to that can match your mood the next time you hit the blunt.
