The 15 Greatest Stoner Songs
In honor of 4/20, here are our picks for the best stoner songs ever recorded. The artists included are a diverse lot, but most every song on the list has two things in common: A mellow vibe and a deep, passionate love for marijuana – and ganja, pot, cannabis, grass, weed, kaya…
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Broken Bells, “Vaporize”
Image Credit: Rob Verhorst/Redferns
A cautionary tale that never mentions cannabis specifically. But the title suggests a stealthier, possibly healthier mode of weed consumption. And the lyrics — about being lost and time slipping away — seem a good note to end on.Listen to the Greatest Stoner Songs Playlist:
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Birdman and Lil Wayne (feat. Daz and Kurupt), “Cali Dro”
Image Credit: Ben Rose/WireImage Respect to Ludacris' "Blueberry Yum Yum," Outkast's "Crumblin' 'Erb," Mac Dre's "I Need an Eighth," Andre Nickatina's "Smoke Dope & Rap" and the entire Dre/Snoop catalog. But these guys are even stoneder than y'all.
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S.E. Rogie, “Dead Men Don’t Smoke Marijuana”
Image Credit: David Corio/Redferns/Getty Best bud song title ever, cut by the great Sierra Leone highlife guitarist just before he, um, died. Three minutes of African guitar lines curling around each other like smoke rings, then a few incomprehensible lyrics, like someone finally reminded dude to use his vocal mic.
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Cypress Hill, “I Wanna Get High”
Image Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Stoner rap was born with these dudes, who high-jack Rita Marley's ganja anthem "One Draw" while stapled to the couch.
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Fountains of Wayne, “Planet of Weed”
Image Credit: Nicky J. Sims/Redferns/Getty "There's no hatred and no greed/ Here on the Planet of Weed/Everyone gets along/ It's quite pleasant indeed." Like, EXACTLY, bro. Wait: Aren't those lines from a Dr. Seuss book?
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Kid Cudi, “Marijuana”
Image Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty Imagine a precocious kid showing up to his piano lesson high as a satellite and freestyling a tender ballad to "pre-pre-pretty green bud/All in my blunt." Then an angelic choir and some Funkadelic guitar sweeps in, and it's like "duuuuuuuuude."
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Wayne Smith, “Under Me Sleng Teng”
Image Credit: David Corio/Redferns/Getty Like Eskimos and snow, Jamaicans have many words for weed; "sleng teng" is a spliff — a "slim thing" — but also a lithe babe. Built from a deliciously stupefying pre-set on a Casio MT-40 keyboard, the track pretty much invented dancehall reggae and creates a near-instant contact high. Shouted out by Robyn on "Dancehall Queen" because, well, she down like that.
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Brewer & Shipley, “One Toke Over The Line”
Image Credit: GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty The only song on this list to make the Top 10 is also one of the few drug anthems to address Jesus. Make of that what you will.
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Dillard Hartford Dillard, “Two Hits and the Joint Turned Brown”
A bluegrass reggae gospel WTF by John Hartford, the late folkie scholar and prankster. "Tryin to light the roach while I'm weavin' down the street/ It's too small to smoke and too big to eat," he laments. Later revived by spiritual offspring the Yonder Mountain String Band, who also cover his "Granny Wontcha Smoke Some Marijuana."
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Little Feat, “Don’t Bogart That Joint, My Friend”
Image Credit: Michael Putland/Hulton Archive/Getty The original, by Sixties psychedelic country-rockers the Fraternity of Man, is a pedal-steely honky-tonk head trip. This minute-long live version, replicated by Phish and countless other bro-downing bud fans, is the stoner "Auld Lang Syne."
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Ben Harper, “Burn One Down”
Image Credit: Charley Gallay/Getty A folksy cross between "Kaya" and "Redemption Song," with Nyabinghi-style hand drums driving a chilled-out beat, presenting cannabis smoking as both a bonding ritual and a declaration of personal freedom. "This Land Is Your Land" for potheads, basically.
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Black Sabbath, “Sweet Leaf”
Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty "You introduced me to my mind!" wheezes Ozzy over one of the most indelibly stoned riffs in heavy metal history. It also launched the weed song tradition of coughing on mic. (See also Nas' "Smokin'," etc.)
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Fats Waller, “You’re a Viper”
Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty The jazz piano innovator and singer was burning trees when Marley was still a seed. Here Waller dreams "of a reefer five feet long" and feeds his munchies with peppermint candy (FYI, viper = stoner).
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Peter Tosh, “Legalize It”
Image Credit: Anne Fishbein / Michael Ochs Archive / Getty Not coded at all. The ex-Wailer makes his pitch and calls out the hyprocrites: "Judges smoke it/ Even the lawyers, too."
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• Listen: Peter Tosh's Pro-Weed Classic, 'Legalize It' -
Bob Marley & The Wailers, “Kaya”
Image Credit: Tom Hill/WireImage It's coded, sure. But that's part of its charm. A simple song about getting high on a rainy day.
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