About this Playlist
(Sometimes) People Are Okay…
I can say with all confidence that an overwhelming majority of the relationships with my chosen family more than likely were initiated with these words:
“Hey…wanna get high?”
And if that has not been the case, we have made future plans to rectify the situation.
Cannabis as a social lubricant is a rite of passage for some of us. Under the right circumstances, it has a beautifully magical element.
Now, when you add music as a component, you are talking about real magic there.
And if you get those rare individuals who when to talk and when to listen, you are headed to a wonderful state of being. The exchange will become addictive as hell.
But how exactly did we get here?
The Village People
This much we know; Once upon a time, some brainy mofo figured out a thing or two about the plant and began sharing that knowledge far and wide, which is how we roll.
We paid attention to the mountain goats and the plants they ate, and when we saw that it didn’t kill them, we knew those plants were copacetic.
Gradually, we came to know that cannabis had some…special qualities.
Music For The Masses
Whilst cannabis as a recreational substance has documented usage dating back as far back as 2800 BCE, it isn’t really until the 20th century do we get to witness the shift.
And that’s because of the mass production and distribution of music.
With the phonograph and radio becoming more commonplace, people could now have music on demand, and as such would have people over for listening parties, so that a more intimate social setting could be established. Because of the psychotropic effects of cannabis, particularly involving hearing, it proved to be an ideal intoxicant when enjoying the lively modern sounds of contemporary jazz musicians at the time. Musicians enjoyed it for the relaxing properties and its effectiveness in reducing stress and anxiety.
The result was a feedback loop of musicians making music that pushed creative boundaries, and listeners craving even more experimental and innovative music. With each successive decade all manner of barriers were being broken down.
Until we arrive at here.
Answering The $64,000 Question
Why?
Why do we love to get together, get high, wax rhapsodic over our fave tracks and enjoy each other’s company?
Answer: Because it feels good, silly.
Our happy little brains produce a crap ton of chemicals to assist in our day-to-day. Cannabis simply interacts with those chemicals to produce lots of feelgood chemicals (Look it up, Google is your pal), and those feelgood chemicals in turn affect all our external and internal sensory data.
Especially our hearing.
We concentrate more on the sounds, looking for (and sometimes finding) deeper meaning. What that meaning is depends on the person, their experiences, and their outlook on life. We may feel similar feelings, but believe me when I tell you, they are unique…and then they aren’t really.
A lot of the impressions we walk away with from listening, as previously stated, are unique to us as individuals, but as a collective group, many of them have common themes and ideals that we all share universally.
Love, hate, loss, laughter, sadness, redemption, glory, fury…all of the things associated with what it means to be a human making their way through life, searching for meaning in what often feels like a meaningless existence. Cannabis introduces us to ourselves, once spake the noted poet and cannabis legend Robert Nesta Marley.
What Bob meant was cannabis cuts through the anxiety and painfully awkward self-consciousness to allow our brighter, more confident selves to shine. We express ideas we were nervous about with little or no trepidation, because the individuals we chose to commune with?
They get it.
For Better Or For Worse, This Is Who We Are…
This doesn’t mean I always want to get high with a group of people and talk shop.
I wrestle daily with my misanthropic personality aspects. I like my alone time. Like a lot, a lot.
The pandemic was just Tuesday to me. I love solitude. I love the sound of it.
As Tommy Lee Jones said in Men In Black, a person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals.
Especially when it comes to toilet paper.
But the thing is, people are my strength, as well as my weakness.
They get on my last got damn nerve.
But I do like the company, given the right circumstances.
I like what they bring to the table when our minds are in a higher state, we are relaxed and focused, and we are of a similar intention.
It makes all the difference in the world.
Please enjoy the playlist associated with this article that bears the same name. It is a collection of tunes with the commonality of speaking on the joys of communing and consuming while indulging your earholes.
And as always, keep it weird…that’s where the magic happens.
Part of the Green Space Collection
Track Listing
- One Two Three (No Gravity) – Closer Musik
- My Favorite Ladies – MF DOOM
- Tadow – Extended Version – Masego
- Spark Another Owl – Cypress Hill
- I Like Marijuana – David Peel and The Lower East Side
- Puff, Puff, Pass – HOM
- Tenement Yard – Jacob Miller
- Reefer Man – Cab Calloway
- Swing – From “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” – EARTHGANG
- Pearl’s Girl – Remastered – Underworld
- Baptize (with JID & EARTHGANG feat. Ant Clemons) – Spillage Village
- The Reefer Song – Fats Waller
- Sweet Dreams – Intoxicated Demons
- The Magic Number – De La Soul
- Smoke Buddah – Redman
- Dream Girl – The Baldwin Brothers
- Cool Smoke – Don Drummond
- Jump ‘N Shout – Basement Jaxx
- Get Your Head Right – Afu-Ra
- Oh My God (feat. Busta Rhymes) – A Tribe Called Quest
- Weed Smokers’ Dream – Harlem Hamfats
- Smoke Two Joints – Sublime
- 70s 80s – Nightmares On Wax
- Trippin’ (feat. Khalid) – Buddy
- Eight Miles High – The Byrds
- Fat Ass Joint – Cujo
- Gospel For A New Century – Yves Tumor
- Mellow My Man – The Roots
- I Wanna Be Sedated – 2002 Remaster – Ramones
- Celestial Journeys – Coffe Lofi
- Chronic Break – Beat Assailant
- Sticky Green – The Pharcyde
- Are You Experienced? – Jimi Hendrix
- Zooted – Total Devastation
- Take Two And Pass – Gang Starr
- BALI – Rich Brian
- Natural Mystic – Bob Marley & The Wailers
- When I Get Low I Get High – Chick Webb
- AIGHT (feat. Shelley FKA DRAM) – WESTSIDE BOOGIE
- Crew (feat. Brent Faiyaz & Shy Glizzy) – GoldLink
- Lofi Lullaby Dreams – Coffe Lofi
- Reefer Head Woman – Jazz Gillum and His Jazz Boys
- Dread Lion – Lee “Scratch” Perry
- Deep Shit, Pt. 1 & 2 – Kruder & Dorfmeister
- I’m Gonna Get High – Tampa Red
- Subdued Tones – Coffe Lofi
- Knockin’ Myself Out – Yack Taylor
- The Green Green Grass of Homegrown – Fila Brazillia
- Funky For You – The Deadbeats
- Stereo Tonic – Thunderball
- Duke Kerb crawler – PEST
- Gotta Jazz – Remix – Count Basic
- Blazing the Crop – Rae & Christian
- On the Rhodes Again – Morcheeba
- Planetary Deadlock – Beanfield
- You – The Dining Rooms
- That Life – Unknown Mortal Orchestra
- Outta Sight – Kari Faux
- Escape – Ripstop
- Smoke Two Joints – The Toyes
- Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – Bob Dylan
- We Can Get Together – Flowers
- Welcome To The Boomtown – David & David
Playlist image GPT4
