(April 19, 2024) If someone had told the people who started celebrating 420 back in the 1970s and 80s that people would be able to openly smoke without facing legal repercussions in many American cities, those cannabis pioneers would have thought that person had some really good weed.
Well, here we are. Half of the states in our nation have fully legalized recreational use of marijuana and a handful of other states have at least legalized CBD oil.
The artists were far ahead of the political and legal process in the idealization of marijuana and support for its legalization. That’s why many memorable songs about cannabis were released during an era when law enforcement waged war against the drug, resulting in generations of mostly nonviolent dealers and users going to jail.
(April 19, 2024) If someone had told the people who started celebrating 420 back in the 1970s and 80s that people would be able to openly smoke without facing legal repercussions in many American cities, those cannabis pioneers would have thought that person had some really good weed.
Well, here we are. Half of the states in our nation have fully legalized recreational use of marijuana and a handful of other states have at least legalized CBD oil.
The artists were far ahead of the political and legal process in the idealization of marijuana and support for its legalization. That’s why many memorable songs about cannabis were released during an era when law enforcement waged war against the drug, resulting in generations of mostly nonviolent dealers and users going to jail.
Nicolay of The Foreign Exchange drops his new song “Roll Up (I Can’t Lose My High) on Saturday, 4/20, and it comes out in a changed cultural and political environment. Nicolay realizes that cannabis users hold a different status than they held when Rick James dropped “Mary Jane” in 1978. That’s why guest vocalist Creative Theory sings at one point “if you do it all night/it’s alright,” a line that makes it clear that marijuana is not the legal and cultural forbidden fruit that it once was.
The song fuses techno EDM and jazz, and that choice also comes across as being intentional. Both genres place a premium on creative freedom of expression. Check out Nicolay’s “Roll Up (I Can’t Lose My High) here.
By Howard Dukes
Nicolay ft. Creative Theory
"Roll Up (I Can't Lose My High)"