PRO-POT OR NOT, IT'S A BIG HIT

'Because I Got High' Stirs Controversy, Lines Rapper Afroman's Pockets

The summer's hottest radio hit is a celebration of the joys of smoking pot,
an ode to the tokers and the doobie smokers. Or it's an anti-drug screed
hidden beneath a head-bobbing bass line, a hip-hop admonition about the
danger of drugs.

Or maybe it's a little of both.

Make of it what you will, there's no denying that Hattiesburg, Miss.,
rapper Afroman's "Because I Got High" is the single of the moment. The song
- - essentially a list of things that befell the narrator because, well, he
got high - recently entered the Top 40 and has been in heavy rotation at
stations across the country.

"It's the No. 1 request at the station - with a bullet," said Victor Starr,
program director at WZMX-FM (93.7) in Farmington, Conn. "It's so far out in
front of the other songs it's ridiculous. Every couple of years we have a
song like this that just completely goes through the roof and buries
everything else out there. It's such a novelty-type song that everybody's
talking about it.

"We're playing it between seven and eight times a day right now."

Absent another incident of violence that might be blamed on heavy-metal
lyrics, "Because I Got High" has also been the summer's most controversial
song. (The song is on the soundtrack to the new movie "Jay and Silent Bob
Strike Back" and also on Afroman's album, "The Good Times," which will be
in stores Tuesday.)

MTV recently decided not to play the video for "Because I Got High" during
daytime hours, and any song with such lyrics as "I was gonna go to class
before I got high" is surely annoying and unsettling to parents across the
nation.

It is the second time in recent months that the network has taken a stand
of sorts against a song about drugs. Rock band Weezer's song "Hash Pipe"
was changed to "Pipe" this summer to assuage MTV's standards department.

The decision caused some to wonder why videos with writhing, largely naked
teen-age girls get a pass, but those with references to drugs don't. MTV
did not return calls seeking comment.

Looking deeper, could it be that Afroman has written an anti-drug song?
After all, the fully baked narrator of "Because I Got High" is forced to
repeat a semester in school, is badly injured after a police chase and,
ultimately, is homeless.

Said Starr, "As a parent myself, I see it as a huge anti-drug song. I look
at all these things this guy missed out on because he got high. Whether he
meant for it be interpreted that way, I don't know."

Afroman could not be reached for comment Friday but one of his
representatives, Jerry Brown, said, "It's not a pro-pot song, and it's not
an anti-drug song. It's just a fun little song that he wrote for his
friends. If you listen to the lyrics you will see that nothing good happens
to him from smoking pot."