Remember after Cypress Hill first dropped, and suddenly every rap album had at least one song about weed? Many of them used the tired “Mary Jane” formula, while gimmicky groups such as Total Devestation went as far as basing their entire career on the sticky-icky. High Times magazine even did a “Weed & Hip Hop” issue with Redman, Diamond D, Gangstarr and Brand Nubian features, while KRS-One was responsible for the bizarre “I Can’t Wake Up”, where he dreams that he’s a blunt being passed around from rapper to rapper. Strangely, High Times Records released the THC compilation almost ten years after the fad first started (possibly for those who missed out on the ’90s), which returned to the overly-familiar groud of girls as a metaphor for weed (“My Favourite Ladies”) and a bunch of songs about how awesome trees can be.
“So, where are those giant bongs I’ve heard so much about?”
“That big enough for ya, Yank?”
If seeing your favorite indy rapper pose with blunts, roll joints, cough up a lung and talk shit while lifted sounds like a hoot, then Too Stoned For TV will be the best thing since that last Cheech and Chong marathon. The good news – for those of us we don’t have indica bud centrefolds plastered all over our bedrooms – is that most of this flick is comprised of live show footage from Black Moon, Smif ‘N Wessun, Non-Phixion etc.
This is actually a pretty funny flick, aside from a few chessy “wow dude, I’m sooo stoned!” moments. Hopefully they’ll make a sequel called “Too Fuckin’ Drunk Too Rap” showing rappers drink themselves sick and randomly busting car windows, but until then we’ll have to make do with this. Buckshot does the epic “Shit Is Real” with a couple of thousand of his weed carriers on stage behind him. Damn that was a great song. Jeru’s old weed carrier now has his own herb holders (Perverted Monks) and does some shitty track, but things improve with the Mathmatics feature. Math sets things off correctly with blunts, booze and free mix cd’s for the crew, before proceeding to guzzle some 40′s of Old Gold. More Wu action follows with Masta Killa doing his thing at an outdoor show, rocking some uptempo song while dudes break on stage, which seems unnecessary but I guess it was a Rocksteady thing or whatever.
Math sticks to the classic “40 and a blunt” combo. Good move.
Proceedings also veer into predictable territory – Smut Peddlers and Defari go to the Weed Olympics in Amstradam, although it’s unclear whether they went for the cheeba or if that’s the only city that willing to book these guys since they most people stopped caring about boring indy rappers five years ago.
To be honest, the portion of Defari’s show when he sits down and smokes a fatty is actual more exciting than his rapping.
Rounding things off, there’s also a filmclip for MF Doom‘s “My Favorite Ladies” (no prize for guessing the concept here) and a CD of remixes and tracks that didn’t make the original THC album. The highlight is easily the remix to Mathematics “Respect Mine” from a couple of years back, which finds Rae and Meth in action over a few breaks previously heard on both of Junior MAFIA‘s old hits.
“Huh, huh…can you dudes..like…still see me? I’m invisable and shit…awesome…”
Regardless of whether or not you’re a fan of all the crews featured on here (although odds are you’ll like at least a couple of ‘em), footage of people getting wasted is always pretty funny, and seeing footage of giant bongs is also worth a chuckle, so it’s a pretty safe bet that Too Stoned For TV will keep you amused for an hour or so, which is more than I can say for a Wild ‘N Out marathon on MTV.
Mathematics featuring Raekwon & Method Man - Respect Mine (remix) [To Stoned For TV, High Times, 2005]
Rating: Three Beck’s.
Review copy supplied courtesy of Shogun Distribution.
