Songoftheday 11/29/22 - Now I'm sleepin' on the side walk and I know why...

 

 

"Because I Got High" - Afroman

from the album The Good Times (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 6

 

Today's song comes from rapper/singer Afroman, who grew up Joseph Foreman in Los Angeles. Foreman released an album on his own, My Fro-losophy, which didn't get any notice outside his home. Moving to Mississippi, he was signed under the indie label T-Bones owned by producer Tim Ramenofsky. There he released his first "true" set Because I Got High in the summer of 2000, followed very quickly by Sell Your Dope that fall. On the buzz from the title track from the first set, which appeared on various TV, radio, and movie soundtracks, Afroman was picked up by Universal Records, who picked and chose from his two records on T-Bone to release a major-label debut The Good Times. With the "Because You Got High" getting major exposure on the Howard Stern radio show and in the movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, he found himself with a viral hit. Written by Afroman and produced by Ramenofsky (as "Headfridge"), the song is definitely a puerile novelty, with him sing-songing his way into blaming everything he does (and mostly doesn't) do on being stoned. The record isn't breaking any musical barriers, but the target audience for this was met, and Afroman got his first and biggest success...

 

 "Because I Got High" became Afroman's first and only hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 pop chart in September of 2001, though it spent a paltry ten weeks on the list, while peaking at #40 on their R&B Singles chart and #19 on the Rap Songs list (even though he sings on the entire record). On the radio, the track made it to #25 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #33 on the R&B/Hip-Hop list, #6 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format, and even made the Alternative Rock radio tally at #17 (a nod to the white stoners). Internationally, the single was even more massive, topping the charts in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and New Zealand, and reaching the top ten in France (#2), Portugal (#2), Switzerland (#2), Croatia (#2), the Netherlands (#3), Sweden (#3), Finland (#6), and Italy (#9), proving America isn't the only one making bad decisions. The Good Times album, released in August of 2001, crested at #10 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, as well as #9 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Because I Got High" for some ungodly reason got nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance (again, for a record where he sings the whole thing), losing out to Missy Elliott for her "Get Ur Freak On". 

Afroman's follow-up single from The Good Times, "Crazy Rap", came from the indie Sell Your Dope album, and tried to ride the wacky wave up the charts. Although this did not work in the U.S., where it stiffed, it did much better overseas, reaching the top ten in Ireland (#7) and the UK (#10), and hitting the top-40 in Belgium (#11W/#39F), Norway (#13), and Germany (#37). 

Although he was supposedly signed to a multi-disc deal with Universal, that didn't happen, and it wasn't until 2004 when Afroman came back with his next indie record Afroholic...The Even Better Times on the Hungry Hustler label, which popped on to the Billboard R&B Albums chart for a week at #99. Since then, he's released about a dozen more studio albums, most recently Lemon Pound Cake in September of 2022. Proving he hasn't matured, that set has songs like "Sign My Titties" and "Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera".

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Here's Afroman performing the song on Top Of The Pops in the UK as he hit #1 there...

And lastly, live in a room full of beigery that same year (give him props for the guitar playing)...

Up tomorrow: R&B singer discusses contrasts.