Because I Got High
Encyclopedia
"Because I Got High" is a Grammy-nominated song by American rapper Afroman
from his album of the same name
. The lyrics of the song describe how cannabis
use is degrading his quality of life. The song rose from obscurity to popularity after it was circulated around the Internet and was featured on a radio show.
class (which he plans to take next semester), sold dope
, missed court
dates, had his paycheck garnished
due to missed child support
payments, gambled away his car payment, is left masturbating
after not having sex
with his girlfriend, became a paraplegic
as the result of a police chase, lost his family (including his wife and children), had messed up his "entire life", and is now homeless "because he got high" - he ultimately decides to end the song, "because he is high" and states that he is singing the whole thing wrong, "because he is high". After this, Afroman mentions his name and birthplace (East Palmdale
), says the tumbleweed he smokes is "bomb as hell" and then says he does not believe in Hitler
(this line is actually an interpolation of John Lennon
's song "God
"). The music video
was directed by Kevin Smith
and featured Jay and Silent Bob
smoking with Afroman, a cameo by 'Beer Man'
as well as a glimpse of the Quick Stop where Clerks
was filmed.
and made it to The Howard Stern Show. This song was the theme song of the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
and was later featured in the films Disturbia
and The Perfect Score
.
In December 2001, a Connecticut teenager Matthew Fournier was ordered to listen to the song and write a report about it as punishment for possession of marijuana. After the success of this single, Afroman was signed to Universal Records
.
On the album Mobilize by punk band Anti-Flag
, after several minutes of silence on the album's end track, a friend of the band called Spaz can be heard singing parts of the song with Anti-Flag.
included a Christmas-themed version, Be Claus I Got High, on the 2002 album White Trash Christmas
, the fifth in Rivers's line of Christmas parody albums.
In 2006, talk show host Randi Rhodes
introduced a parody of the song on her show
in which a singer imitating the voice of George W. Bush
sings about things that happened in Bush's life.
BBC Radio 1
DJ Chris Moyles
recorded a parody under the pseudonym
"Afro-Blair" featuring Jon Culshaw
and another impressionist signing in the guise of the serving Prime Minister Tony Blair
, then Leader of the Opposition William Hague
and former Prime Ministers John Major
and Margaret Thatcher
.
Afroman
Joseph Edgar Foreman , better known by his stage name Afroman, is an American rapper who came to prominence with his singles "Because I Got High" and "Crazy Rap". "Because I Got High" circulated around the Internet before becoming a hit worldwide...
from his album of the same name
Because I Got High (album)
Because I Got High is the second studio album by Afroman. The record was released on T-Bones Records in 2000. It is considered to be his breakthrough album, as it contained his most popular song, "Because I Got High"...
. The lyrics of the song describe how cannabis
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
use is degrading his quality of life. The song rose from obscurity to popularity after it was circulated around the Internet and was featured on a radio show.
Overview
The song explains how the author has forgotten to clean his room, failed his collegeCollege
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
class (which he plans to take next semester), sold dope
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
, missed court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
dates, had his paycheck garnished
Garnishment
A garnishment is a means of collecting a monetary judgment against a defendant by ordering a third party to pay money, otherwise owed to the defendant, directly to the plaintiff...
due to missed child support
Child support
In family law and public policy, child support is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child following the end of a marriage or other relationship...
payments, gambled away his car payment, is left masturbating
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
after not having sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
with his girlfriend, became a paraplegic
Paraplegia
Paraplegia is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek: παραπληγίη "half-striking". It is usually the result of spinal cord injury or a congenital condition such as spina bifida that affects the neural elements of the spinal canal...
as the result of a police chase, lost his family (including his wife and children), had messed up his "entire life", and is now homeless "because he got high" - he ultimately decides to end the song, "because he is high" and states that he is singing the whole thing wrong, "because he is high". After this, Afroman mentions his name and birthplace (East Palmdale
Palmdale, California
Palmdale is a city located in the center of northern Los Angeles County, California, United States.Palmdale was the first community within the Antelope Valley to incorporate as a city on August 24, 1962; 47 years later, voters approved creating a charter city in November, 2009. Palmdale is...
), says the tumbleweed he smokes is "bomb as hell" and then says he does not believe in Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
(this line is actually an interpolation of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's song "God
God (John Lennon song)
"God" is a song from John Lennon's first post-Beatles solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album was released on 11 December 1970 in the United States and the United Kingdom....
"). The music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
was directed by Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
and featured Jay and Silent Bob
Jay and Silent Bob
Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively, in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, a fictional universe created and used in most films, comics and television by Smith, which began in Clerks....
smoking with Afroman, a cameo by 'Beer Man'
Mark Johnson (golfer)
Mark William "Beer Man" Johnson is an American professional golfer who plays on the Champions Tour.Johnson was born in Barstow, California. He decided to forgo college and turned pro directly out of high school in 1972; he played on mini-tours around Southern California for two years, a decision...
as well as a glimpse of the Quick Stop where Clerks
Clerks
Clerks is a 1994 independent comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, who also appears in the film as Silent Bob. Starring Brian O'Halloran as Dante Hicks and Jeff Anderson as Randal Graves, it presents a day in the lives of two store clerks and their acquaintances...
was filmed.
Reception
Afroman released his album Because I Got High in 2000; he distributed it mainly through concerts. The title track was soon posted on file-sharing service NapsterNapster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
and made it to The Howard Stern Show. This song was the theme song of the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a 2001 American action adventure comedy film written, directed by, and starring Kevin Smith as Silent Bob, the fifth to be set in his View Askewniverse, a growing collection of characters and settings that developed out of his cult favorite Clerks...
and was later featured in the films Disturbia
Disturbia (film)
Disturbia is a 2007 American thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso and executive produced by Ivan Reitman. It is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window...
and The Perfect Score
The Perfect Score
The Perfect Score is a teen heist film released in 2004 and directed by Brian Robbins. It stars Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson, Darius Miles, and Leonardo Nam....
.
In December 2001, a Connecticut teenager Matthew Fournier was ordered to listen to the song and write a report about it as punishment for possession of marijuana. After the success of this single, Afroman was signed to Universal Records
Universal Records
Universal Records was a record label owned by Universal Music Group, and it is now owned by Manny Patino and Michael Jackson, and operated as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group.-History:...
.
On the album Mobilize by punk band Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988. The band is well known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band's lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth...
, after several minutes of silence on the album's end track, a friend of the band called Spaz can be heard singing parts of the song with Anti-Flag.
Track listings
Parody
Bob RiversBob Rivers
Bob Rivers is a well-known American rock and roll radio on air personality in the Pacific Northwest as well as a prolific producer of parody songs, most famous for his Christmas song parodies....
included a Christmas-themed version, Be Claus I Got High, on the 2002 album White Trash Christmas
White Trash Christmas
White Trash Christmas is the fifth Christmas album by Bob Rivers. It was released in 2002, two years after Chipmunks Roasting On an Open Fire...
, the fifth in Rivers's line of Christmas parody albums.
In 2006, talk show host Randi Rhodes
Randi Rhodes
Randi Rhodes is an American progressive talk radio personality, formerly featured on Air America Radio and Nova M Radio and now on Premiere Radio Networks. Her eponymous program, The Randi Rhodes Show, airs live Monday through Friday from 3 pm to 6 pm Eastern Time.-Early life:Rhodes was born in...
introduced a parody of the song on her show
The Randi Rhodes Show
The Randi Rhodes Show is a three-hour radio program in the United States hosted by Randi Rhodes combining live interview, call-in and commentary with a progressive bent. The show is currently syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. The show had previously aired over the now-defunct Air America Radio...
in which a singer imitating the voice of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
sings about things that happened in Bush's life.
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
DJ Chris Moyles
Chris Moyles
Christopher David Moyles is an English radio and television presenter and author, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Channel 4....
recorded a parody under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Afro-Blair" featuring Jon Culshaw
Jon Culshaw
Jonathan Peter Culshaw is an English impressionist and comedian. He was educated at St Bede's RC High School, Ormskirk and St John Rigby College, in Orrell, Wigan....
and another impressionist signing in the guise of the serving Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, then Leader of the Opposition William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
and former Prime Ministers John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
and Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
.
2009 version
Afroman rerecorded the song with new lyrics for his new album Frobama Head of State.Weekly charts
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Rap Songs Hot Rap Songs Rap Songs is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stations and sales in hip hop-focused or exclusive markets. From 1989 through 2001, it was based on how much the single... (Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... ) |
19 |
Decade-end charts
| Chart (2000–2009) | Position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
71 |
Certifications
| Coutry | Certiication |
|---|---|
| Brazil - ABPD | Platinum |