Released: September 12, 2000

Songwriter: Afroman

Producer: Savalas Brothers Afroman

[Chorus]
Let's all get drunk tonight
I hope I don't fight with a punk tonight
Let's all get high tonight
Maybe nobody will die tonight
Let's all sell yayo tonight
I hope I don't go back to jail tonight
Let's go to the club tonight
Find a woman that wanna make love tonight
A yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

[Verse 1]
Let's get dumb, drink some rum
Make my teeth and gum feel real numb
We'll be thinking bout survivin'
While we're drinkin' and we're drivin'
Hope I don't wreck when my vision gets blurry
Sober up lookin' at an all white jury
Judge don't like no drunk like me
Punk might give me strike number three
'Cause when I'm drunk and when I'm high
I don't give a damn bout a D.U.I
Let's just get lit, dance like a nitwit
Try to talk to the women that we can't get with
Me and my staff make everybody laugh
If the beer runs out we can all go half
It's Friday night got the perfect weather
Let's get drunk together

[Chorus]
Let's all get drunk tonight
I hope I don't fight with a punk tonight
Let's all get high tonight
Maybe nobody will die tonight
Let's all sell yayo tonight
I hope I don't go back to jail tonight
Let's go to the club tonight
Find a woman that wanna make love tonight
A yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

[Verse 2]
Bacardi, Colt .45
Let's party we still alive
Tomorrow, brings pain and sorrow
But tonight, we're all right
Drink that beer till your belly can't hold it
Tell the homeboys we fittin' to get loaded
Rollin through the Ante-dope Valley out there
Hope the cops don't smell that beer on my breath
'Cause if the sheriff, catch a whiff, of that fifth
It'll probably knock him stiff
Don't look dumb if my breath on hum
Stick your hand in you're pocket please, pass some gum
So the cops can't tell my breath smell
We won't go to jail, we'll go to Palmdale
With the beautiful women and the beautiful weather
We can both get drunk together

[Chorus]
Let's all get drunk tonight
I hope I don't fight with a punk tonight
Let's all get high tonight
Maybe nobody will die tonight
Let's all sell yayo tonight
I hope I don't go back to jail tonight
Let's go to the club tonight
Find a woman that wanna make love tonight
A yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

[Verse 3]
Baby I beg your pardon
But your outfit's givin me a hardon
Maybe some way, maybe some how
You could dance with me, right here, right now
Been lookin at you all night long
That DJ's playin my favorite song
Everything's splendid, don't mean no harm
Don't get offended when I pull your arm
I ain't felt this good since I don't know when
And I might not feel this good again
It's Friday night, beautiful weather
Let's get drunk together

[Chorus]
Let's all get drunk tonight
I hope I don't fight with a punk tonight
Let's all get high tonight
Maybe nobody will die tonight
Let's all sell yayo tonight
I hope I don't go back to jail tonight
Let's go to the club tonight
Find a woman that wanna make love tonight
A yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

[Outro]
Let's all get drunk tonight
I hope I don't fight with a punk tonight
Let's all get high tonight
Maybe nobody will die tonight
Let's all sell yayo tonight
I hope I don't go back to jail tonight
Let's go to the club tonight
Find a woman that wanna make love tonight
A yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Afroman

Joseph ‘Afroman’ Foreman began writing songs and handing them out to his friends on cassette while in the eighth grade. At 25 years old, he released his first album, 1999’s Sell Your Dope. Soon after, he moved from LA to Mississippi with the mission to ‘get away from competition and sell to actual people’, releasing his sophomore album Because I Got High in 2000 on T-Bones Records. Its title track, written hastily after a friend showed up and interrupted him on an ambitious day and insisted they instead get high, was the last song he had recorded for the album. Soon after, Afroman left the music business.

At the same time, the file-sharing software Napster – heavily used at the time to share and distribute music for free – was at its peak of popularity, and the album’s title track became popular with its users. Universal Records caught wind and signed Afroman to a six album deal and released it as a single on July 6, 2001.

“Because I Got High” immediately became one of the most-requested songs across the nation, growing even larger after syndicated morning radio show host Howard Stern began airing it regularly, helping to make it ‘the most requested song on the radio in the country’. Further boosting its popularity was its inclusion in the film (and soundtrack to) Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back and MTV’s eventual agreement to air a modified, less-controversial music video for the song. It peaked at #13 in the US, and topped the charts in ten countries overseas. Its album The Good Times reached #10 in the US.