Released: September 12, 2000

Songwriter: Afroman

Producer: Afroman

Afro (Afro) Afroman (Afroman)
Afro (Afro) Afroman (Afroman)
Afro (Afro) Afroman (Afroman)
Can I sell my dope? (Yes ya can)
Let me floss my flow, floss my ho
Run my own campaign like I'm Ross Perot
As the turntables spin easily
I reminisce on Easy-E

When I first started bangin
Jheri curl started hangin
9mm rangin
If you wasn't playin Cube, or Sir Too Short
The homeboys might grab you by your motherfuckin throat
And choke yo ass, choke yo ass
Drag you round the corner and try to smoke yo ass
But anyway
I'd like to thank all my cluckheads that contributed
My rap tape just got distributed

Can a get a quarter? (Quarter)
From all the Mexicans down on the border (Border)
I oughta get me a pound (Pound)
Even if its on the wrong side of town
Is you down?
Get a gallon a water (Water)
So I can smoke a loopstick with ya daughter (I oughta)
Get me a 40 (40)
Get drunk befo I get to the party (Oh lawdy lawdy)

I can't wait till I get my welfare check
So I put me a fat sack of yay on deck
Make a run for the border in my blue Caprice
And order me a quarter piece
Mafucka!
East side ruler known well cause I thump
Let my system bump
While I wait for the chump
They put the dope on the scale
This bomb ass yayo
I know it's gonna sell
Back in Palmdale

I ain't afraid, it's time to get paid
Pass me the baggies and a razor blade
Ladie, dadie, I chop the rocks just like karate
Punk ya better ask somebody
Stop bitching cause I'm able
Put the dope on the kitchen table
And watch me hook it up like cable
Wham! Bam! Baseheads like Goooooood damn!
Buy yo dope from me!

If you a loner or a stoner
My rocks way bigger than them low budget niggas round the corner
And they won't give you no love
If you don't buy a dime, dub, or above
So come to me when you need a fat nickle
And you can hit the pipe in my stolen vehicle
They don't want yo pennies? That's alright, I want em
I even take the pennies with the green spots on em


For the East Palmdaler being a dope seller is hard
I accept your credit and your Versateller card
AFDC, your food stamps too
I'm a baller but bitch I gotta eat like you
You think I'm smokin, but I ain't jokin
You can get a fat rock for a gang of bus tokens
How you doin baby? I need a soulmate
Your cuz told me you had Section 8

I know you ain't got no money in your pouch
Take a piece of this yay, and let me sleep on the couch
Bitch I'm for real, I'll go half on a bill
Your garage just right for my Coupe de Ville
Tell your badass kids, them hoodrat bitches
Don't be jumpin in my car and fuckin with my switches
Hip, hop, chop the rock
Let the beat stop, it's time to re-cop

We can go to Compton, we can go to Watts
We can go to Long Beach I know a gang of dope spots
I'm neutral, from the old school
I be buying dope from a different gang of fools
Buy my drip from my Crip, pound of bud from my Blood
Then I buy some yay, from my ese
On my way back to Palmdale
Got stopped by the sheriff but I'm calm as hell

They pulled out heat
Put me face down in the street
Handcuffed me, threw me in the back seat
They searched my car with a microscope
Stupid ass white boys couldn't find the dope
They took the handcuffs off but you know they still hate me
Racial remarks just to intimidate me
Write a ticket since I can't go to jail
Whatever they didn't find the yayo, uh!
I don't Blood, I just Crip
I don't tag I put the rocks in a Ziploc bag
I'm lookin too shady, me and JD
Hit you with the .380
So gimme gimme what you got
Hangin at the dope spot
Try to jack and get got
Fuck around and get shot (In the parking lot)
Be cool, fool, don't be uptight
Money first, dope second, everything's alright

I don't have the mentality of some fool in a gang
It's the principality of the whole thing
If you wanna get high, get high
But don't fuck around and die
Mafucka!
I just wanna sell a rock, I don't wanna pull the Glock
And lose the clientele on my block
Mad cause I shoulda been more selective
Hiding in the bushes from the homicide detective
Trigger finger itchin on me
All my homeboys snitchin on me
Everybody that's a friend of me lookin like the enemy
Now I need to change my identity
Afro mothafuckin m-a-n bucaaaaw!
Yeah! If you just bought this tape cuz you made the right choice mafuuucka

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.