In honor of today being 4/20 — every smoker’s favorite day of the year — we’ve compiled the 25 best rap songs relating to weed. Though some may be more about bud than others, all are guaranteed to make your high all the more enjoyable. Locate your lighters.
N.O.R.E., “Married To Marijuana” Using the the analogy of weed as a girl, N.O.R.E. breaks down the relationship with his bottom bitch, Mary Jane. I know a lot of guys who spent all their money on trees instead of flowers and who relate to this song.
Redman, “How To Roll A Blunt” Blunt-rolling 101, with some humor thrown in about the many characters you may encounter in your friendly neighborhood cipher. (The skit that precedes is pretty funny, too.)
Redman, “Pick It Up” Pretty straightforward: What would you do if you were walking along the street and saw a bag of weed on the floor?
Cypress Hill, “Hits from the Bong” This beat out “I Want To Get High” by just a gram or two thanks to it being so laid-back and hazy. B Real’s nasal flow makes rapping about smoking pot sound as good as actually smoking pot.
Scarface, “Mary Jane”
A diagnosed manic-depressive, Brad Jordan has mentioned in interviews how weed helped him deal with his illness. Here then is a tribute to his “girl” Mary Jane, whose name alone makes him happy. In his rap, ‘Face highlights how she’s better than cigarettes and alcohol for relieving stress.’
Luniz, “I Got 5 On It (remix)” The original was so G! To combat the vacuum-lunged cheeba hawks and scavenger smokers, you charge anybody trying to hit your joint $5. Genius. When the Bay Area All Stars sprinkled verses on the remix, though, it became all the more potent.
Diamond D feat. Sadat X, “Never” “Hey gang! I’ve got some grass!” Like abused lovers, D and X vow to never give up their love for weed — no matter how bad she treats them. If you’ve never heard of this song, press “play” up there right now.
KRS-One, “Can’t Wake Up (I’m a Blunt)” KRS is crazy for this one. He gets creative, and everyone from Bill Clinton to Smooth B hits the blunt in the dream cipher. Good job, Kris. Now if we can just smoke enough for us to forget your appearance on Sean Hannity’s show…
Styles P, “Good TImes”
Opening bar: “Every day I need a ounce and half…” What’s left to say after that? Saint Denson and Swizzy crushed the Freda Payne sample, and the Ghost just spit diesel all on it. Could’ve done without the weak edited version (“I Get By”?) that MTV played that whole summer, but hey…
Three 6 Mafia, “Where Is The Bud?” Three 6 has loads of weed songs, so picking one was a tough choice. Almost went with “Stay High,” but for smoking purposes this is probably the song to go with. Lord Infamous keeps it simple with the wordplay, opting to spell out “blunt” and “bud” in his verses so all the stoners can rap along with minimum effort. (All jokes aside, though, where is the bud?)
Rick Ross feat. Curren$y and Wiz Khalifa, “Superhigh (remix)” Haven’t been a Ross fan since the boldfaced denial of his CO days, but he does know how to pick a beat. Probably comes from walking the beat. The smoky 16s by Spitta and Wiz complement Ne-Yo’s vocals better than the host.
The Pharcyde, “Pack The Pipe” Straight highjinx, pun intended. Booty, Imani, Tre, and Fat Lip all kick rhymes about their drug of choice and the method they employ to smoke said drug. All the verses are good, but Fat Lips’ is pretty funny. (Thank you old maaaaaaaan!)
Bobby Digital feat. Beretta 9, “Daily Routine” RZA’s alter ego gives a rundown of his daily operation. Not much about weed in the lyrics, but the hook is laced with getting bent off the bomb. Please disregard the dust reference though, kiddies.
Devin the Dude, “Motha” If I could, I would’ve given Devin at least two other entries since this weed rap stuff is his zone. Alas, we could only give him one, so we chose this multicultural tribute to smoking bud with your favorite slacker.
Mic Geronimo, “Masta IC” Whatever happened to this kid? He guy had “weedhead” written all over his sleepy face, so it wasn’t a surprise when he came out with this lil’ ditty. Features a simple, singalong hook (so the smokers don’t get tripped up rapping along) and a smooth track produced by Buckwild.
Alchemist feat. Styles P and Evidence, “Calmly Smoke” Nice eerie beat for that late-night dolo smoke session. Alchemist takes you through a laundry list of his troubles and how the weed makes it all better. Could do without the exaggerated hissing to signify a joint getting hit every few bars, though.
A$AP Rocky, “Purple Swag”
This young Harlem representative had last summer on smash with this ode to purple weed (and sizzurp). Rocky kicks his Texas Trill lyrics over a Ty Beats production.
Cam’ron, “Purple Haze”
Killa talks about his crutch via a Dorothy Moore sample. During the hook, instead of rapping he’s lamenting about simps, Tito possibly passing him some dust, and so on. With all that stress, it’s no wonder the Purp is his main lady. Luckily he kept it Spot-bilt, not Saucony.
Lil’ Kim, “Drugs” Not really about weed, but the hook is so smoky it had to make the list. Smoke to this and it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Though Biggie wrote the song, Kim made it hers.
Smif-n-Wessun, “Hellucination” As soon as someone flicks a lighter during the intro, you know Bucktown is in the building. Smif-n-Wessun have lots of songs about weed, but the surprise ending of this song is M. Night Shyamalan-worthy.
Kurupt, Devin the Dude, and Nate Dogg, “Xxplosive” So disrespectfully good. If chronic is in your system, I don’t think there’s another song you’d want to hear at the club, no? R.I.P., Nate Dogg.
Nice and Smooth, “Blunts” Smooth B and Greg Nice might be all but forgotten on the hip-hop radar, but the question they posed on this 4/20 staple still resonates: Exactly how many blunts can my lighter light? Only one way to find out.
Outkast, “Crumblin’ Urb” Message! Being the forward-thinking innovators that they are, Big Boi and Andre lure you in with a weed-friendly hook, only to sneak in some jewels about the state of the world. “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” was a good fit too, but ultimately this track exemplifies ‘Kast’s penchant for making smart, easily digestible music.
Method Man & Redman, “How High”
Before Wiz and Spitta, there were Meth & Red. This song worked so well, the duo parlayed it into a movie and a short-lived UPN show. Excuse me as I kiss the sky…
Method Man, “Tical” Meth’s entire first album should be here, but we’re just going to go with the spacey, RZA-produced title track, which puts you in the perfect mindset for blasting off into outer space.