Afroman has claimed Because I Got High was the first viral rap song, making him the first viral rapper.
The rapper had spent a long time trying to sell his CDs in the late 1990s and 2000, but a short time after giving up the song started receiving a lot of attention on Napster.
Soon Universal records were trying to get him to sign a deal, for a song that took him two minutes to write.
The song went on to be phenomenally successful, reaching number one everywhere from Australia to Ireland, and even being nominated for a Grammy in 2002.
But the heights Because I Got High reach scared Afroman.
“Them early days I’m walking around in a state of shock. I’m having fun now but… it was too big,” he told Vlad. “Sometimes I think I’m just gon’ wake up from, like, a pothead dream. It’s a beautiful thing”.
Afroman said he didn’t start smoking weed until about the age of 18, and not very much until about 23, when he relocated to Mississippi, but did say the plant had helped him through hard times.
“After I got out of high school and everything, and was out there in the real world trying to make things happen, to keep from going crazy and calming down it was – the beer and the bud really helped me out,” he said.
