![]() ![]() ![]() The song became one of the first songs that was made a hit not by radio (although it did have some help from Howard Stern), but by the internet - specifically Napster. The humorous rap song would go on to garner Afroman a Grammy nomination in 2002, two years after its release on Afroman’s 2000 album of the same name. But by the end of the tune the song’s character is left a crippled bum on the street with only his right hand for sexual comfort. Sure, things aren’t going so bad at the start of the song ( I was gonna clean my room until I got high / I was gonna get up and find the broom but then I got high / my room is still messed up and I know why) - a messy room isn’t the end of the world. Afroman’s 2001 cautionary musical tale about the pitfalls of toking up played out like a dark comedy with its protagonist slowly sliding into a life of despair thanks to the evil gateway drug that is marijuana. (I’m looking in your direction, Cypress Hill.) But of all the songs about weed, few became as big of a mainstream hit as Afroman’s “Because I Got High.”Ī decade ago, going within two miles of a college campus and not hearing the song from a passing car was impossible. He's a life-long musician who never stopped, who just happened to have one song that completely dwarfed the rest of his ridiculously extensive catalog.There are artists whose reputations appear to be surrounded by a near constant haze of smoke from their musical odes to marijuana. But Afroman is not, in fact, a one-hit wonder. never mind), but it's aggressively fun and surprisingly entertaining throughout given that the artist behind it is associated with a single song. It ain't high art (unless by "high" you mean. Occasionally the music gets inventive as well, as in the case of Tall Cans, which breaks to half-time halfway through and then slowly ramps up for its outro. Mostly this accomplished by just focusing on the vocals: layers and layers of half-sung, half-rapped lyrics that are doubled and harmonized with backup singing, shoutouts, and chicken noises. It's genuinely impressive that Afroman is able to take such minimal production and do such compelling things with them. Almost every single song is about getting drunk, getting high, getting laid, or failing to do one of those because of the other two. The music is so lo-fi it sounds like it assembled from the drum loop samples on a Casio keyboard. Because I Got High was considered mildly scandalous in 2001, but it's almost quaint when you put it next to She Won't Let Me F**k or Crazy Rap (Colt 45 & 2 Zig Zags). It's fun, it's laid-back, it's hilarious, and it's goddamn filthy. The Good Times was his major label debut, and is basically a greatest hits album of his prior work, some of which had already been released independently. He started recording and selling mixtapes in eighth grade. Pothead stereotypes to the contrary, this man is a workaholic. These are a mix of live, compilation, and studio records with titles like My Fro-losophy, Waiting To Inhale, Marijuana Music, and One Hit Wonder EP-a self-deprecating joke that's even funnier if you know what a one-hitter is. It might surprise you, then, to know that he's put out thirty-two albums since 1998. ![]() It's easy to disregard Afroman as a one-hit wonder for his gimmicky slow jam Because I Got High. ![]()
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