Stoner rap is a subgenre of Hip Hop that heavily features lyrics about cannabis and stoner culture, usually with a laid-back flow and relaxing production. While songs about smoking cannabis had been popular in hip hop since its inception (such as "Cheeba Cheeba"), Cypress Hill's debut, Cypress Hill, stands as one of the first full examples of a stoner rap album, blending psychedelic production with overt cannabis themes, which they revisited on their later albums, such as Black Sunday and III (Temples of Boom).
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Stoner rap is a subgenre of Hip Hop that heavily features lyrics about cannabis and stoner culture, usually with a laid-back flow and relaxing production. While songs about smoking cannabis had been popular in hip hop since its inception (such as "Cheeba Cheeba"), Cypress Hill's debut, Cypress Hill, stands as one of the first full examples of a stoner rap album, blending psychedelic production with overt cannabis themes, which they revisited on their later albums, such as Black Sunday and III (Temples of Boom). The year after Cypress Hill's debut, Dr. Dre's The Chronic, though not fully stoner rap, revolutionized mainstream hip hop by normalizing cannabis references and embedding them into the sonic and visual identity of West Coast Hip Hop. Snoop Doggy Dogg, one of Dr. Dre's key collaborators, expanded this foundation with Doggystyle, where songs like "Gin and Juice" fused laid-back G-Funk production with a smooth, charismatic delivery and hedonistic lyrics that came to define much of stoner rap's tone. Later, Method Man & Redman became key East Coast Hip Hop representatives of stoner rap, showcasing weed-centric themes in projects like Blackout! and tracks such as "How High."
In the 2000s, artists like Devin the Dude and Afroman advanced the subgenre with a more humorous and relatable approach. Albums such as Just Tryin' ta Live exemplified this, particularly through songs like "Doobie Ashtray," which captured the everyday realities of stoner life. As the late-2000s to early 2010s mixtape "blog era" came into fruition, new figures such as Curren$y and Wiz Khalifa redefined stoner rap for younger audiences. Curren$y's Pilot Talk series showcased a polished, Jazz Rap-influenced sound, while Wiz Khalifa's Rolling Papers and the breakout single "Young, Wild & Free" transformed stoner rap into a mainstream phenomenon. Other popular stoner rap artists of this era included Domo Genesis, Smoke DZA, and Berner.
