One hit wonder? No way! I am here to write In Defense of Afroman. He's multitalented and entertaining. His chronological discography tells the compelling true story of his life, his rise and fall, and (perhaps) rise again. He's much more than an insatiable party animal, although he remains persistently indulgent to this day. He raises really interesting notions of music's sense of place. I'll admit to having no prior familiarity with Afroman's repertoire beyond the two songs I heard when they first came out in 2001. I loved those songs, forgot all about this guy, then just rediscovered he's been out there doing his thing the whole damn time since then, and with relatively great results. As of today I consider myself a fan and would run, not walk, to catch any opportunity to see this man do his thing live.
I discovered Afroman the same time everyone else did: when his first and only pop single "Because I Got High" hit big in 2001. In 2001 I had a job in New Orleans with a couple friends delivering what was generously described as a "guide to gay night life." Our burned mix CDs for the weekly route to virtually every one of the city's gay bars and porn stores were usually made up of punk and metal, with some pop bubblegum thrown in. However, we had one CD that was all rap: Outkast, Lil' Kim Lil' Romeo, Lil' Bow Wow. Basically a bunch of "Lil"s plus all that No Limit and Cash Money stuff. Not only did "Because I Got High" turn up on that mix, and become one of our memorable favorites, but, "Tumblewood," another equally great Afroman song revealing a complex relationship with recreational drug use, turned up on a catch-all disc we had with a little bit of everything on it; and I still have it (as evidenced by this poor photo):
Despite many people knowing Afroman only because of "Because I got High" (improbably nominated for a GRAMMY) both that and "Tumbleweed" would eventually be eclipsed in sales and popularity by "Crazy Rap (Colt 45 and 2 Zig Zags)," which in retrospect is a deserving classic. It's so catchy that upon hearing it a mere several times as remixes and live versions while hearing the discography I could now probably rap every word of the memorable chorus, to say nothing of the outrageous tale told in the verses. I probably won't. "She Won't Let Me Fuck" is his other song that is still well- regarded and remembered; that is to say, people are still downloading/streaming it with high frequency. It's worth noting that all four of those songs appear on his first of many album.
Talk about getting in just under the wire before September 2001, "Because I Got High" should be considered a 90s rap song, regardless of the year it gets released in. As this was during the Napster days, it's not like a ton of people were physically buying his album. I didn't know that it was played on the radio much, but I guess it was: apparently by Howard Stern first and foremost. I also forgot that it showed up in several movie soundtracks that same year: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Disturbia, and The Perfect Score, which might otherwise be a completely forgotten film if not for that one famous shot of Scarlett Johansson sitting at the computer in her underwear. Was there even a video for the song? Yes, but I never remember seeing it even once. This was post-MTV-actually playing music but pre-YouTube. So he lands in that weird culturally transitional time-period, but is also arguably ahead of his time in terms of both marketing himself independently and providing true parody that tackles serious issues with humor. We can look back at Public Enemy or NWA now and realize some folks have been woke the whole damn time, but check out the dark-comedy social commentary in "Because I got High":
I was gonna run from the cops, but I was high
I was gonna pull right over and stop, but i was high
Now I'm a paraplegic, and I know why
because I got high, because I got high, because I got high
That's some nth degree satire right there! It is incredibly ironic that a guy who built a career around rap songs praising weed began his career with a song about how weed ruined every aspect of his life. And he doesn't even rap on it! Afroman is actually a pretty good singer, even if he always does so dripping with irony and cheese. It works. The man has a great sense of melody, even if the melodies are frequently lifted from old songs. ("Hush," with the great line, "I know I'm high but it sounds like Jesus is calling my name," is based on a song his grandfather used to hum, not the Deep Purple tune.) It ventures to an almost do-wop sounds with him doing plenty of his own harmonies. It's often a one man show: later it's clear that he got some kid with a laptop to program some modern beats and breaks for him, but initially the beats are thoughtless, and it doesn't matter. Nobody shows up to listen to Afroman for clever beats, and it's actually a distraction when he tries to modernize with a more glitchy sound later in his career. It just goes to show that he's survived various sounds and eras of pop music while plowing right through with his pro-malt liquor and -weed agenda. Whether its singing or even playing the guitar, this guy does his own hooks, and there's something impressive and delightful about that. You know those guitars that are, like, double guitars? He plays one of those! OK, so maybe he's no Lauryn Hill, but he's at least as good at the singing/rapping thing as someone like Kesha, which is not a knock on Kesha at all. If you enjoy scream-singing along with Biz Markie, and you somehow missed Afroman, then you are in for a consistently pleasant surprise. Explore his whole catalog. Why not.
I'm not really comparing them, but think about the way David Lynch makes great films because he doesn't just direct them; he gets involved in every aspect from directing, music, sound design, to building the freaking on-set furniture. That's what an Afroman album is like. He is an underrated musical auteur, and his prolific output makes it seem easy. Like, name something and this guy can bust a rhyme about it in no time....especially if that thing is weed or booze or low-rider cars. He can cut a record LIKE THAT. He can cut a record with like a dozen tracks most of which are pushing 5 minutes long, no problem. And I guess it's prolific if he puts out a dozen or more albums, even if they are mostly all about the same thing. He's got two Christmas albums. TWO! And they are both as consistently hilarious and insightful as the best of his other stuff.
His backstory even starts interestingly because although he's a West Coast guy, clearly steeped in NWA, Snoop Dogg, and stuff like that, at the moment his first album drops he relocates to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, of all places. Having spent some time in Hattiesburg during my New Orleans-era, I can actually imagine what that's like: surprisingly complex if not sophisticated. They can't all be racist, especially not if half the town is Creole or black and what not. Weed was undoubtedly plentiful, if not impressive in quality. His unique placement is reflected in his flow that is so West Coast, yet he's also talkin' that country grammar with references to Creoles and backwoods and other things that might arise for a West Coast rapper in the deep South. He's also still talking about California too. He's obsessed with his home turf of Palmdale, which seems interestingly situated as a more middle-class alternative to the inner-city Los Angeles he was apparently born and raised in. Thus he's bringing different perspectives to different places, singing and rapping about how someone from one region might respond to a very different place. He keeps that up throughout his later albums, continuing to hype not just Palmdale and Mississippi, but also singing the praises of the far-flung places he's toured: hilarious songs about all the women he's been with in specific cities in "Idaho" and "Kentucky" (of all places!), "Fun in Washington," and "Pumpin' Pennsylvania."
Anyway, the rest of his story goes like this: after "Because I got High" goes Platinum(!) Universal Records signs him up for a 6-records deal. Most of us first heard him on his major label debut The Good Times, which compiles his earlier recordings. Although he plays some high-profile gigs, something goes wrong because he never puts out anything else on Universal and gets dropped. I suppose we could speculate about what happened to the record deal and what went wrong...., but by 2004 he is releasing his stuff independently online. It makes me a little sad that the website he so vociferously promotes on his mid-to-later day albums, afromanmusic.com, is now dead. More specifically, the account is apparently suspended. Well, the Napster era is over anyway. "Fuck the Corporate World" as he says. Amidst his rise, his fall, and then his somewhat-rise-again he takes the whole thing to another level - claiming to embody the American Dream, explicitly at points("I am the successful failure!"), and damn if he doesn't have a point. We get those six albums and then some after all. The first one is the effortlessly named Afroholic...The Even Better Times, which has many songs about weed and beer over two discs. Then he gives us a Christmas album. His fourth album is A4fro20 or someshit; it could have been from 1999 if not for the addition of "Check out My Website." There's more. I listened to this album Fro-Rider that's not even mentioned in his wiki profile; it's expands his thematic material somewhat to include cars: weed and low-riders. I'll admit, I had to urban dictionary "hitting switches." There's another Christmas album that contains such holiday hits as "We Wish You Would Roll a New Blunt" and "Deck My Balls". In 2009 he releases FroBama: Head of State, which is less political than it sounds. His live album is hilariously amateurish: he stops songs when he gets bored of them, there is frequent feedback and other audio problems, and he's basically living in clip, but it sounds like a really fun time. I have to say - all these albums are good entertainment. Other than modernizing the beats, nothing much changes from 1998 to now. I swear he makes that crazy chicken sound on every song on every album. I'm not really complaining; it kept making me laugh
I'd like to say the whole thing came full circle with 2014's remake of "Because I Got High" that re-frames the song in the context of the now well-established medical, social, and psychological benefits of responsible, adult marijuana consumption. Sample line: "Hand me that vaporizer." It's actually an awesome song on which he talks about quitting cigarettes and booze. And it was put out in association with NORML to legit raise awareness around the issues of legalization and medical cannabis benefits. However, he was not even close to done. A year later he puts out a socially conscious EP The N-Word, the basic premise of which is summed up by the song "I'm Not the N-Word." There's three, maybe four actual songs on the EP but the album has like 15 tracks because of intros, interludes, and interviews about why he doesn't use the N-word in his song,. It's a surprisingly refreshing stance from a modern hip-hop artist.
We must also note an unfortunate incident in 2015 when he punched a fan on stage, but he did both try to explain his actions and apologize while ultimately admitting an error and seeking court-ordered anger management (and drug testing?! wonder how that all played out). The video evidence is fairly damning, except that he clearly didn't see who or what he was punching behind him...until that poor girl was out cold on the stage. I'm trying to reconcile the incident and that footage with the guy who has consistently preached positivity and nonviolence for nearly two decades of performing. While his action is inexcusable, there is no evidence of a broader pattern of such violence, and I do find his apology acceptable.
Wikipedia would have us believe it all ends there in 2015, but, having recently started following Afroman on Facebook, I assure you he is still up and running. He tours consistently, though mostly on the West Coast, and has continued to put out fresh material: 2016's Happy to be Alive, on which he both finds Jesus (more?) and continues to smoke weed, and a full album of (mostly) new material that came out in late 2017. In another full-circle moment, Snoop Dogg actually appears on a new track, alongside numerous additional remixes of his classic songs. And yes, even though he's made some questionable choices and actions (I still cannot abide by "I Drive Better Drunk" or "I Don't Want No College Degree"), is maybe past his prime, and is prone to playing meandering guitar solos, I'd still go see his show in a minute. He should at least get plenty of airplay every April 20th.
[Vape] if you got'em!
I discovered Afroman the same time everyone else did: when his first and only pop single "Because I Got High" hit big in 2001. In 2001 I had a job in New Orleans with a couple friends delivering what was generously described as a "guide to gay night life." Our burned mix CDs for the weekly route to virtually every one of the city's gay bars and porn stores were usually made up of punk and metal, with some pop bubblegum thrown in. However, we had one CD that was all rap: Outkast, Lil' Kim Lil' Romeo, Lil' Bow Wow. Basically a bunch of "Lil"s plus all that No Limit and Cash Money stuff. Not only did "Because I Got High" turn up on that mix, and become one of our memorable favorites, but, "Tumblewood," another equally great Afroman song revealing a complex relationship with recreational drug use, turned up on a catch-all disc we had with a little bit of everything on it; and I still have it (as evidenced by this poor photo):
Despite many people knowing Afroman only because of "Because I got High" (improbably nominated for a GRAMMY) both that and "Tumbleweed" would eventually be eclipsed in sales and popularity by "Crazy Rap (Colt 45 and 2 Zig Zags)," which in retrospect is a deserving classic. It's so catchy that upon hearing it a mere several times as remixes and live versions while hearing the discography I could now probably rap every word of the memorable chorus, to say nothing of the outrageous tale told in the verses. I probably won't. "She Won't Let Me Fuck" is his other song that is still well- regarded and remembered; that is to say, people are still downloading/streaming it with high frequency. It's worth noting that all four of those songs appear on his first of many album.
Talk about getting in just under the wire before September 2001, "Because I Got High" should be considered a 90s rap song, regardless of the year it gets released in. As this was during the Napster days, it's not like a ton of people were physically buying his album. I didn't know that it was played on the radio much, but I guess it was: apparently by Howard Stern first and foremost. I also forgot that it showed up in several movie soundtracks that same year: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Disturbia, and The Perfect Score, which might otherwise be a completely forgotten film if not for that one famous shot of Scarlett Johansson sitting at the computer in her underwear. Was there even a video for the song? Yes, but I never remember seeing it even once. This was post-MTV-actually playing music but pre-YouTube. So he lands in that weird culturally transitional time-period, but is also arguably ahead of his time in terms of both marketing himself independently and providing true parody that tackles serious issues with humor. We can look back at Public Enemy or NWA now and realize some folks have been woke the whole damn time, but check out the dark-comedy social commentary in "Because I got High":
I was gonna run from the cops, but I was high
I was gonna pull right over and stop, but i was high
Now I'm a paraplegic, and I know why
because I got high, because I got high, because I got high
That's some nth degree satire right there! It is incredibly ironic that a guy who built a career around rap songs praising weed began his career with a song about how weed ruined every aspect of his life. And he doesn't even rap on it! Afroman is actually a pretty good singer, even if he always does so dripping with irony and cheese. It works. The man has a great sense of melody, even if the melodies are frequently lifted from old songs. ("Hush," with the great line, "I know I'm high but it sounds like Jesus is calling my name," is based on a song his grandfather used to hum, not the Deep Purple tune.) It ventures to an almost do-wop sounds with him doing plenty of his own harmonies. It's often a one man show: later it's clear that he got some kid with a laptop to program some modern beats and breaks for him, but initially the beats are thoughtless, and it doesn't matter. Nobody shows up to listen to Afroman for clever beats, and it's actually a distraction when he tries to modernize with a more glitchy sound later in his career. It just goes to show that he's survived various sounds and eras of pop music while plowing right through with his pro-malt liquor and -weed agenda. Whether its singing or even playing the guitar, this guy does his own hooks, and there's something impressive and delightful about that. You know those guitars that are, like, double guitars? He plays one of those! OK, so maybe he's no Lauryn Hill, but he's at least as good at the singing/rapping thing as someone like Kesha, which is not a knock on Kesha at all. If you enjoy scream-singing along with Biz Markie, and you somehow missed Afroman, then you are in for a consistently pleasant surprise. Explore his whole catalog. Why not.
I'm not really comparing them, but think about the way David Lynch makes great films because he doesn't just direct them; he gets involved in every aspect from directing, music, sound design, to building the freaking on-set furniture. That's what an Afroman album is like. He is an underrated musical auteur, and his prolific output makes it seem easy. Like, name something and this guy can bust a rhyme about it in no time....especially if that thing is weed or booze or low-rider cars. He can cut a record LIKE THAT. He can cut a record with like a dozen tracks most of which are pushing 5 minutes long, no problem. And I guess it's prolific if he puts out a dozen or more albums, even if they are mostly all about the same thing. He's got two Christmas albums. TWO! And they are both as consistently hilarious and insightful as the best of his other stuff.
His backstory even starts interestingly because although he's a West Coast guy, clearly steeped in NWA, Snoop Dogg, and stuff like that, at the moment his first album drops he relocates to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, of all places. Having spent some time in Hattiesburg during my New Orleans-era, I can actually imagine what that's like: surprisingly complex if not sophisticated. They can't all be racist, especially not if half the town is Creole or black and what not. Weed was undoubtedly plentiful, if not impressive in quality. His unique placement is reflected in his flow that is so West Coast, yet he's also talkin' that country grammar with references to Creoles and backwoods and other things that might arise for a West Coast rapper in the deep South. He's also still talking about California too. He's obsessed with his home turf of Palmdale, which seems interestingly situated as a more middle-class alternative to the inner-city Los Angeles he was apparently born and raised in. Thus he's bringing different perspectives to different places, singing and rapping about how someone from one region might respond to a very different place. He keeps that up throughout his later albums, continuing to hype not just Palmdale and Mississippi, but also singing the praises of the far-flung places he's toured: hilarious songs about all the women he's been with in specific cities in "Idaho" and "Kentucky" (of all places!), "Fun in Washington," and "Pumpin' Pennsylvania."
Anyway, the rest of his story goes like this: after "Because I got High" goes Platinum(!) Universal Records signs him up for a 6-records deal. Most of us first heard him on his major label debut The Good Times, which compiles his earlier recordings. Although he plays some high-profile gigs, something goes wrong because he never puts out anything else on Universal and gets dropped. I suppose we could speculate about what happened to the record deal and what went wrong...., but by 2004 he is releasing his stuff independently online. It makes me a little sad that the website he so vociferously promotes on his mid-to-later day albums, afromanmusic.com, is now dead. More specifically, the account is apparently suspended. Well, the Napster era is over anyway. "Fuck the Corporate World" as he says. Amidst his rise, his fall, and then his somewhat-rise-again he takes the whole thing to another level - claiming to embody the American Dream, explicitly at points("I am the successful failure!"), and damn if he doesn't have a point. We get those six albums and then some after all. The first one is the effortlessly named Afroholic...The Even Better Times, which has many songs about weed and beer over two discs. Then he gives us a Christmas album. His fourth album is A4fro20 or someshit; it could have been from 1999 if not for the addition of "Check out My Website." There's more. I listened to this album Fro-Rider that's not even mentioned in his wiki profile; it's expands his thematic material somewhat to include cars: weed and low-riders. I'll admit, I had to urban dictionary "hitting switches." There's another Christmas album that contains such holiday hits as "We Wish You Would Roll a New Blunt" and "Deck My Balls". In 2009 he releases FroBama: Head of State, which is less political than it sounds. His live album is hilariously amateurish: he stops songs when he gets bored of them, there is frequent feedback and other audio problems, and he's basically living in clip, but it sounds like a really fun time. I have to say - all these albums are good entertainment. Other than modernizing the beats, nothing much changes from 1998 to now. I swear he makes that crazy chicken sound on every song on every album. I'm not really complaining; it kept making me laugh
I'd like to say the whole thing came full circle with 2014's remake of "Because I Got High" that re-frames the song in the context of the now well-established medical, social, and psychological benefits of responsible, adult marijuana consumption. Sample line: "Hand me that vaporizer." It's actually an awesome song on which he talks about quitting cigarettes and booze. And it was put out in association with NORML to legit raise awareness around the issues of legalization and medical cannabis benefits. However, he was not even close to done. A year later he puts out a socially conscious EP The N-Word, the basic premise of which is summed up by the song "I'm Not the N-Word." There's three, maybe four actual songs on the EP but the album has like 15 tracks because of intros, interludes, and interviews about why he doesn't use the N-word in his song,. It's a surprisingly refreshing stance from a modern hip-hop artist.
We must also note an unfortunate incident in 2015 when he punched a fan on stage, but he did both try to explain his actions and apologize while ultimately admitting an error and seeking court-ordered anger management (and drug testing?! wonder how that all played out). The video evidence is fairly damning, except that he clearly didn't see who or what he was punching behind him...until that poor girl was out cold on the stage. I'm trying to reconcile the incident and that footage with the guy who has consistently preached positivity and nonviolence for nearly two decades of performing. While his action is inexcusable, there is no evidence of a broader pattern of such violence, and I do find his apology acceptable.
Wikipedia would have us believe it all ends there in 2015, but, having recently started following Afroman on Facebook, I assure you he is still up and running. He tours consistently, though mostly on the West Coast, and has continued to put out fresh material: 2016's Happy to be Alive, on which he both finds Jesus (more?) and continues to smoke weed, and a full album of (mostly) new material that came out in late 2017. In another full-circle moment, Snoop Dogg actually appears on a new track, alongside numerous additional remixes of his classic songs. And yes, even though he's made some questionable choices and actions (I still cannot abide by "I Drive Better Drunk" or "I Don't Want No College Degree"), is maybe past his prime, and is prone to playing meandering guitar solos, I'd still go see his show in a minute. He should at least get plenty of airplay every April 20th.
[Vape] if you got'em!
