Who Is Steve Bloom?
CelebStoner publisher Steve Bloom started his career as a music journalist. At High Times, he featured a who’s who of weed-friendly musicians in the magazine and on the cover for nearly two decades. He’s most proud of the two Hempilation benefit albums he co-produced in the 1990s in association with Capricorn Records. Both raised money for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and featured some of the biggest names of the era: Cypress Hill, the Black Crowes, Willie Nelson, George Clinton, Sublime, 311, Blues Traveler, Ziggy Marley and many more. While compiling the albums, he became an expert on the subject of high tunes. This Weedsday Playlist is inspired by that research.
*Editor’s Note: Did you know? Steve Bloom was the first to report on “420” for the cannabis community that began with a group of friends in California who gathered at 4:20PM each week to smoke. Learn more here.
What Inspired Steve Bloom's "Stoner Song" Weedsday Playlist?
“Cannabis and music are a great combo,” Bloom says. “So much awesome music has been created under that influence, dating back to the jazz of the ‘30s and ‘40s. During the ’60s and ’70s, rock, R&B and reggae musicians brought that back into vogue. By the ’90s, rock and hip-hop groups were all challenging the status quo and calling for the end of pot prohibition. Music can usher in changes. So many years later we have legalization.”
Weezer - "Hash Pipe"
Rivers Cuomo took Weezer fans by surprise when he devoted a tune to a piece of paraphernalia on 2001’s Green Album produced by Rick Ocasek. Except for the chorus, there's no reference to the title subject. Catch Weezer this summer on their Indie Rock Road Trip.
Click here to play on Spotify!
The Toyes And Sublime - "Smoke Two Joints"
The Toyes (1983):
Sublime (1992):
This reggae-tinged number written and originally performed by the Portland, Oregon-based Toyes (Chris and Michael Kay) in 1983 humorously recommends smoking not one, but two joints on virtually all occasions, "because it makes everything all right." It was famously covered by Sublime in 1992, and also by Macy Gray and others. Sublime recently launched a line of Smoke Two Joints prerolls in California.
Click here to play on Spotify!
Rick James - "Mary Jane"
Now the world knows Rick James was a weed freak, but back in the day, the funk legend just sang about it. He called his back-up singers the Mary Jane Girls. This ode to James' favorite lady, the smokable kind, on 1978’s Come Get It, plays with double entendres. It peaked at No. 41 on the charts.
Click here to play on Spotify!
Luniz - "I Got 5 On It"
Oakland-based rappers Yukmouth and Numskull had a No. 8 hit with this ode to a dime bag on 1995’s Operation Stackola. It’s among other stony ’90s hip-hop one-hit wonders like Channel Live’s “Mad Izm” and Crucial Conflict’s “Hay.”
Click here to play on Spotify!
Cypress Hill - "Insane In The Brain"
It’s been 30 years since the Latin rap group from L.A. had a hit single. From Cypress Hill’s second album, 1993’s Black Sunday, this blast of bombast hit No. 65. “I got to get my props,” B-Real boasted. “Cops come and try to snatch my crops.”
Click here to play on Spotify!
*Editor's Note: Did you know? Music icon Rob Paine chose Cypress Hill's "I Wanna Get High" for his Weedsday Playlist. Check it out here.
Weedsday Playlist Bonus Track
Cab Calloway - "The Reefer Man (Have You Ever Met That Funny Reefer Man)"
"Have you ever met the funny reefer man?" Cab Calloway asks on this jazz classic, written by Andy Razaf and J. Russel Robinson, and recorded with Calloway’s orchestra in 1932. A year later the flamboyant singer/bandleader performed the song in the movie International House. It's the first tribute to a pot dealer, a theme Calloway returned to with "The Man from Harlem."
Click here to play on Spotify!
For more about Steve Bloom and CelebStoner, visit celebstoner.com or follow @celebstoner on Instagram.
This article has been excerpted with permission from CelebStoner's "Top 20 Stoner Songs Of All Time."
What are your favorite Weedsday tracks? Tell us about them - reach out at @honeysucklemagazine on Instagram and @HoneysuckleMag on Twitter!
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Featured image: Musical artist and cannabis mogul B-Real of Cypress Hill (left) with Steve Bloom of CelebStoner (right) (C) Cheyenne Bosco @cheyennebosco
