As stoners around the country are no doubt only too aware, it’s 4/20 today, which means it’s time to smoke yourself into a coma in solidarity with fellow ganja-lovers around the world. For the last couple of years we’ve amused ourselves composing 4/20 mixtapes to soundtrack your smoking efforts, but this year we thought we’d do something different. We came across High Times‘ “Best 25 Pot Songs of All Time” recently, and we couldn’t help but notice they were all from before the turn of the millennium — mostly from the ’60s, predictably enough. We don’t buy stoner conservatism any more than any other sort of conservatism, so we thought we’d put together a list of 21st-century stoner anthems. Did we miss anything? Let us know before you descend into oblivion.
Zomby — “Spliff Dub”
The 21st century’s seen dubstep give reggae a real run for its money as far as sheer volume of songs inspired by and/or about marijuana goes, so choosing one is really a matter of personal preference. We’ve always been partial to this particular tune — as far as anthemic choruses go, “One spliff a day/ Keep the evil away” is ambivalent at best, but this track has always mirrored our personal experience of marijuana, which is less blissful and more creepily paranoid.
Kid Cudi — “Marijuana”
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s Kid Cudi’s ode to the sort of touchy-feely bakedness that seems to come naturally to those kids at school who were always slipping away to smoke cones at lunchtime. We’ve always found the image of “pretty green bud/ All in my blood” singularly disconcerting, but hey, maybe that’s just us.
Tacocat — “Volcano”
As you might expect from a band who recorded an EP called Take Me to Your Dealer, Tacocat aren’t averse to the demon weed. This song — the final track from said EP — is an ode to the titular Volcano, which clued-in stoners will know to be a brand of vaporizer. By the sounds of this track, Tacocat are clearly fans of this form of consumption. The only problem? Those damn things are expensive! “Even though I’ll probably never have you for my own,” sings Emily Noces wistfully during the verse, “That one night in your arms, I knew you’d never do me harm…”
Method Man — “4:20”
Cometh the hour, cometh the song.
Toby Keith — “I’ll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again”
Country music knucklehead Toby Keith is probably best known outside country circles for his flag-totin’ anthem “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” but while we’d happily never hear that particular piece of nationalist rabble-rousing again, we’ve always been rather amused by this track, which recounts smoking weed with Willie Nelson. The moral of the story? Do not smoke weed with Willie Nelson. Schoolboy error.
Nas — “Smokin'”
While we’re on marijuana morality, the moral of the story as far as this song goes appears to be: don’t trust anyone you don’t smoke with. Who knows? Maybe Nas is right. But for all we admire his music, and we wouldn’t say no to his bank balance, we’re glad we’re not living his life.
Family Guy — “A Bag of Weed”
Now here’s a 4:20 anthem for the ages! “Everything is better with a bag of weed,” opines precocious Stewie Griffin and faithful hound Brian during the chorus of this pro-marijuana ditty from The Family Guy’s 2009 “4:20” episode. The song itself might be a bit too up-tempo for your post-4:20 daze, but the sentiment is bang on point.
Mammoth Mammoth — “Work to Buy Weed”
Possessed of arguably the best adjective/noun band name ever, Australian pub rock lunatics Mammoth Mammoth do a fine line in silly but thoroughly enjoyable hard rock tunes. Amongst said songs is this stoner anthem, which is about exactly what its title suggests — sucking up the hours at a shitty desk job and blowing all the resultant cash on weed. Rawk.
Wavves, generally
Behold: the man who’s made an entire career out of, like, really liking weed, dude. We’re not going to pretend to be fans of Nathan Williams, but this track isn’t bad, and in any case, his music may well be relevant to your 4/20 interests. See also: Best Coast, Kottonmouth Kings, etc etc.
Sleep — “Dopesmoker”
Or, of course, you could just play “Dopesmoker” — all one hour and three minutes of it — pack the bucket bong, and absent yourself from reality for the rest of the day. See you on the other side, etc.