Every week, we at MERRY JANE endeavor to bring you the best in weed stuff, both serious news and commentary about the state of marijuana business and legalization in America, plus some shit that we feel is chill to check out when you're stoned. Before assembling this list of ten new songs that will hopefully help your week suck a little less, I assembled a focus-group of ten very baked voluntary test subjects and played each of these songs for them. None of them yelled at me for doing this, so I think they are safe to recommend to you.
Electric Wizard – "See You in Hell"
The most stoned album cover of all time is Electric Wizard's Dopethrone, which features a damn wizard smokin' a damn bong. Well, the British metal group has a damn new song whose damn new title is "See You in Hell," and it's damn good.
Priceless da Roc – "One Time Comin'"
It's hard for a rapper to sound bad over a beat as great as MITCH's instrumental for YG's "One Time Comin'" and while Priceless da Roc –– the Bay Area rapper whose single "Yiken" helped popularize the dance of the same name a while back –– isn't as effortlessly great a rapper as YG, few people are, and that doesn't stop this minute-and-a-half rework from being fun as shit.
Mike Will Made-It f. YG – "Heart of a Lion (Adidas Commercial)"
Speaking of YG, here he is on a new Mike Will track, which I guess was made for an Adidas commercial? I have one of those Chromecasts that lets you watch the internet on your TV, so I don't watch a ton of commercials, but I would assume the phrase "Adidas Commercial" isn't in the title for kicks and giggles. Anyways, commercials are bad, but rap music is good.
Sister Ray – "Death"
Sister Ray's "Death" is about as trippy you'd expect a ten-minute song called "Death" by a band named Sister Ray would be. Which is to say, very trippy. Dubbed-out psych for the DMT burnout in all of us.
Lil Durk f. Future and Jeezy – "Goofy"
What's amazing about Lil Durk is that every time he goes into the studio with high-profile collaborators –– like, say, Future and Jeezy (see above) –– the results come out sounding like a Lil Durk song rather than, as is usually the case, a song by the more famous people that happens to feature the other, less-famous artist. In other words, if you stand in front of the mirror and repeat Lil Durk's name three times, he'll appear and rap this song for you.
Hermeto Pascoal – "Casinha Pequenina"
True fact: Whenever a member of the 1970s' Brazilian jazz scene released a 26-minute song, you literally were only allowed to listen to it if you were stoned. I might be bullshitting that super hard, but just look at that picture of Hermeto Pascoal! He definitely knows, dude. Anyways, this is from a lost Pascoal album that's getting reissued soon on Far Out Recordings, which, well, they also know.
Malcolm London f. Femdot and How to Dress Well – "House Party"
One time I saw How to Dress Well perform live and he stopped the music to yell at the crowd for cheering when he was trying to create a quiet moment of drama or something, which was stupid as shit. What's great about his appearance on Malcolm London and Femdot's "House Party" is that he does not appear in its music video (based on the movie House Party, duh), which allows you to just concentrate on his singing, which instead of being stupid as shit is angelic as shit.
Criminal Manne – "Addiction"
Memphis's Criminal Manne has been kicking around his scene for forever, and it's always welcome when he drops a new tune, especially one that keeps it as Memphis –– both in the Three 6 Mafia sense and the Stax Soul sense –– as "Addiction."
YFN Lucci and Greedy – "Bad Bitch Getter"
YFN Lucci's got one of those voices where he could sing the phonebook and it'd sound like he's making a sweeping dramatic statement about life and death. Every time he puts out a new song I love it, and today I am putting it in this round up of songs so that you can also love it.
Lorenzo Senni – "The Shape of Trance to Come"
In attempt to resuscitate the reputation of trance –– the kitchy, period-specific genre that these days is basically the rave music equivalent to Carlos Santana's "Smooth (f. Rob Thomas)" –– Lorenzo Senni has deconstructed it, reassembling its blissed-out keys into something more fit for a sweaty 5:30 AM warehouse party full of dirty hipsters than something you'd listen to while watching the sun rise in a field full of dirty hippies. It's the little differences here (5:30 in the morning instead of 6:30; hipsters instead of hippies) that make this, metaphorically speaking, 100 percent Rob Thomas-free.
Follow Drew Millard on Twitter
