How is
marijuana represented in rap/reggae music videos, such as Snoop Lion’s ‘Smoke
the Weed’, and what is the effect of this on youth culture?
“There are two
kinds of people in the world those that smoke weed and those that should”
-Snoop Dogg
Despite the
controversy for the critically acclaimed Snoop Lion - Smoke the Weed, there is
a mega shift in the tone and feel of music artists especially those in the
reggae/hip-hop genre nowadays. This is particularly apparent in Snoop Dogg’s
highly commended Smoke the Weed where Snoop Dogg is represented as an iconic
figure throughout the video. In the Music Video Snoop has seemed to be really
professionally presented throughout his entire performance. Snoop
Dogg is known for raising awareness from his controversial actions and he has
also continued the reggae legacy since Bob Marley and managed to create a
fusion with hip hop, and this is very much influenced by the fans reaction.
Fans in general were influenced with the portrayal Snoop Dogg they demanded more
and more of it until Snoop Dogg net worth increased significantly then raised
recognition around the world and received a 4x
platinum title by selling more than 1 million copies in just a week
... also the use of marijuana became people’s choice of interest after
choosing to listening to his music and also due to his advertisement of
his products specially designed for users so they can enlighten their
experience with the drug. Numerous moral panics had launched in the media
which got people including parents concerned whether this type of portrayals
are really suitable for a younger demographic especially teenagers whore are
easily influenced. Clearly something about Snoop Dogg appeals to viewers,
despite his songs makes him different and unique from all other artists.
This is precisely the aim of what the essay is
trying to argue.
To begin with,
Snoops Dogg’s music videos would mainly appeal more to the youth in today’s
society, throughout the music video Snoop Dogg is presented as a cool relaxed
character as in the video he is shown to be high this is debatable in one of is
famous quotes from his songs The Gourds 1998- "Rollin
down the street, smokin indo, sippin on gin and juice / Laid back (with my mind
on my money and my money on my mind)," "Gin and Juice[1].
The scenes in "Smoke The Weed" shows the
positive representations of cannabis use. The music video starts off with
various medium shots/wide shots in order to capture the full frame action
e.g. the smoke from the joints. By analysing the first couple of seconds
of the music video the audience can clearly what the music video is going to be
about e.g. the title in the beginning basically explains what
the entire video is going to be about. The connotation is obviously cannabis
as nearly most of the shots is the music video show the use of
cannabis by different people. This video raises a lot of controversy as
the chorus is "smoke the weed everyday" The audience is
positioned to be part of the overall outcome as Snoop Dogg is directly telling
the audience to smoke weed everyday not only that but we can relate it to the
hypodermic needle model as Snoop Dogg is injecting youngsters with the idea
that smoking cannabis everyday makes you a better person.
The video
shows lots of lip syncing, this is essential for a music video because it shows
the artist singing the song as it is being played, making it appear to be live.
The video constantly references the lyrics throughout; this makes
it earlier to follow along for the audience and makes it more
memorable. one of the main iconography in this video is the weed and the
plant the plant really symbolizes how the weed is presented in the video and it
can really be distinguished and also can be identified by the audience. High-key lighting is used and aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the
scene e.g. making Snoop Dogg look more realistic to the natural light in the
scene making it look cinematic. This was originally done partly for
technological reasons, since early film and television did not deal well
with high contrast
ratios, but now is used to suggest an upbeat mood. In this part of the music
video is filmed outside so high key lighting is essential to use to reduce the
effect of exposure from the daylight and make the main protagonist stand out
more. Low-key lighting is
used in certain parts of the video e.g. when Snoop Dogg is smoking the use of
lighting really illuminates the smoke It is a necessary element in
creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting,
three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a
back light for illumination. This feature also gives the music video
a cinematic feature. As you can see in this part of the music video
they have used back lighting efficiently making the main
protagonist stand out more creating a sort of volumetric lighting as the smoke
is submerged well with the light. Throughout the music the use of slow motion is used quite often. This is essential for
a reggae genre since everything is meant to be slow paced and dramatic. The
slow motion really gives the video more professionalism as it expresses the
overall vibe as this song. The camera
angles are used effectively the video has good cinematography too e.g. there are
a lot of tracking shots and pan-over shots this creates a more
cinematic approach rather than just having a still camera focusing on the
main protagonist. The idea of camera movement is one of the top key conventions in a music
video I believe as it makes the video more interesting and alive. Snoop Dogg -
Vapors 1996 - "Can you feel it, nothing can save ya,"
"Vapors" [2] Snoop
Dogg - December 11, 2004 - "When the pimp's in the crib ma drop it
like it's hot," "Drop It Like It's Hot" [3] Snoop
Dogg - December 19, 2000 - "Niggaz got the misconception of
us / cause we so cold at what we do," "Wrong Idea" [4] In addition, the music video contains two main
protagonists American/Bermudian reggae artist known as "Collie
Buddz" who is also known for his famous song "Come Around" in
which he also supports the idea of cannabis in the whole music video
narrative. Collie Buddz challenges the stereotypes of reggae music since he is
white there has been many comments and views that his verse was better than
snoops. Dyer suggested that stereotypes are always about power well in this
video its clearly true. The video also represents the effects of cannabis such
as getting high. This is mainly the main reason why Snoop Dogg enjoys cannabis
and also wants to influence other people to smoke cannabis. The split of both genders in the
video is biased as they portray the main protagonists to be men
and the females are portrayed to just be a iconic figure in
the video. Snoop Dogg’s lyrics in the video support nature so
this could mean that he do sent only represent bad
representation but good ones as cannabis is a natural product and he also
mentions global warming. Snoop Dogg tells youngsters to look after the nature
e.g. don’t litter we need these plants to grow this is a technique Snoop Dogg
uses to back up his controversial ideologies. The audiences are amazed the fact that he is white and he’s got a really
good Jamaican accent which makes him unique. In addition, the genre that this
texts belongs to is reggae because it’s a remake of an old reggae song but they
got some ideas from it and also made it more modernized. This helps with
the idea of bringing back old music in which is a clever technique as many
older people who were familiar with the old song could recognize the same
rhythm so this might be a really effective solution. "Smoke the weed"
helps the audience to relate to the idea of the video and also we can relate it
to the hypodermic model as the text is injecting various thoughts
into the audience’s brain e.g. smoke the weed will be printed in their
brains. Society has
changed rapidly if you compare music now to music back in the early 60's the
cultural side of it is fading away e.g. many of the words used in reggae songs
are similar US and UK English speakers, as they are taken from traditional
Jamaican patois or refer to Rastafarian concepts e.g. “Jah”, meaning God. There
is heavy use of Jamaican slang, a common example being Ganja, meaning
marijuana. Cannabis is smoked as sacrament in the Rastafarian faith, as
Rastafarian's believe that smoking marijuana allows them to experience
closeness to God. This message in the songs has been open to much
misinterpretation, particularly by American youth who have used this as an excuse
to “get high in many of their music videos whereas Bob Marley used it in a
faithful way for cultural reasons. Songs such as Buffalo soldier will be a
evergreen song meaning that it will last for generations and generation since
its unique and also historical. Keyes, C. L. (2004). Rap music and street consciousness. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press. [5] Berne, E. C. (2007). Snoop Dogg. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest. [6]
Berlatsky, N. (2012). Marijuana. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven
Press. [7]Nowadays reggae is used as a relaxing/vibe
culture mainly listened to by marijuana smokers as an enjoyment for feeling
high. Music videos nowadays don't respect that smoking is a Rastafarian faith.
Social media classify it as a drug and also there are many issues whether it’s
good for you or bad for you. Going back to the topic of music Bob Marley wanted
to express the reggae genre more as there is more than just smoking. Songs such
as "no women no cry" really caused global recognition and people
wanted more demand for reggae songs. The spirit of age is drastically changing
people are now becoming more social media influenced e.g. nowadays youngsters
are influenced to smoke weed just to get high e.g. getting f***ed. After Bob
Marley died the reggae genre is not that famous as the time he was alive but
rappers such as Snoop Dogg respect Bob Marley and follows his footsteps to
further carry on reggae music to the next generations. The video and song
"Buffalo Soldier" is portrayed to be a soothing and emotional as you
can tell clearly from the lyrics itself that it’s made for love and peace.
Marley tries to portray a strong message to youngsters as in their music video
they always relate things about the relationships or affairs that they have
with other women e.g. some rap artist portray women as sexual objects and also
insult each other. What Bob Marley tries to do is bring peace. As in the newer
society there is no longer peace due to political reasons and because of the
media etc. Audiences deemed this to be
‘acceptable’ and have been like this till now. There has been a great split
during the ages where audiences can no longer handle such content which now
results in characters and themes to be only suitable for a specific genre.
Society has changed very much. Their expectations for films are defined by its
genre. They know what to expect to when they watch a comedy, or an action film.
However, during the 20th century, there were different aspects of many genres
in the music industry. Snoop Lion. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2016, from
https://snooplion.com/ [8]
“The original Snoop
Dogg G Pen was and, still is, the top-selling portable vaporizer pen of all
time,” [9]
“We started Merry Jane with an
all-female design team, for two reasons,” [10]
Likewise, Reefer
Madness is one of the oldest films about marijuana. The films show what smoking
marijuana was like back in 1930's since it was still being discovered. The film
really symbolizes the public harm and use of marijuana and shows how it became
a major addiction. The fact that the drug wasn't that harmful to the body but
the movie shows how it can change a person’s behaviour. It’s still dangerous as
people those days would panic extremely if they got really high whereas
nowadays people know what to expect. We enjoyed watching the film as it really
shows the way society has changed over the years and how marijuana usage
has become more controlled and in some cases people don't respond to it as
becoming violent. Since its meant to make you relaxed it actually reduces the
effects of public violence and crime as marijuana is a mild
stimulant/hallucinogen it won’t cause anger issues of any sort whereas other
drugs such as cocaine, heroin can cause serious mental breakdowns and can make
you more aggressive which tends to make you more eager to be violent and commit
certain crimes but back in 1930's people used to panic as they were
hallucinating and also guns was legal at that time period so it was actually
more dangerous e.g. if someone hallucinates they going to start to panic and the
access of guns were easier at that time. e.g. in the film the guy was about to
rape the women and there was a fight between the two guys and then another guy
came with a revolver and accidentally thought fighting shot the women who was
Innocent but she was really high too. This shows how drugs can be dangerous if
you’re not in the right environment or you take a higher dosage that your mind is completely separated from
your body and you have no control over your actions so these things will
tend to happen. Snoop Dogg Launches
Media Platform For All Things Marijuana. - By Parker, Ryan - Hollywood
Reporter. 9/22/2015, p18-18. 1p. [11] "We're providing the industry with something that's void right
now," [13]
"We are the information hotline for cannabis. We are what's
missing." SNOOP.-
by Halperin Shirly - Hollywood Reporter 10/5/2012, issue 34, p58-63. 6p "I
have no regrets for what I've done. It's just when you know better, you do
better. Back in my early days, I didn't know no better. But I was raised right
and with a conscience. I know I can't make up for the wrongs that I did, I'm
just trying to do more right than wrong." "Like Bob
Marley and Willie Nelson, Snoop is
a stoner symbol who has long espoused marijuana's positive uses as they pertain
to health, creativity and recreation, Sept. 19." "For Snoop, it's all about equity," [12] Snoop Dogg. -
By Anderson, Kyle - Entertainment Weekly. 5/15/2015, issue 1363, p56-56.
1p. 2 Color Photographs. "No rapper has aged better than Snoop Dogg,
possibly because he never really changes [18][13] The texts very much reflects the time period it
was created in. The use of the props and speech is something that is carried
over to the film and not necessarily a significant part of the film. The
creation and widespread of marijuana all over America was something that
Americans were very excited of, as they have previously been used to seeing
such people involved in smoking. The film was essentially
mirroring society’s fears and also shows how drugs can create a lot of
serious issues and can cause a lot of moral panics. Society has changed very
much. Their expectations for films are defined by its genre. They know what to
expect to when they watch a comedy, or an action film. However, during the 20th
century, there were different aspects of many genres in one film. Audiences
deemed this to be ‘acceptable’ and have been like this till now. There has been
a great split during the ages where audiences can no longer handle such content
which now results in characters and themes to be only suitable for a specific
genre.
Word Count: 2,696
1. Snoop Lion- (2013)
Reincarnated
3.
Parker Ryan – (2015) p18-18
4.
Anderson
Kyle – (2015) p56-56
5.
Doggystyle
records (1995)
6.
Keyes, C. L. (2004)
7.
Berne, E. C. (2007)
8.
Berlatsky, N. (2012
9. Ibid
10. Reefer
Madness (1930)
11. Bob
Marley
Works consulted
Books/Journals
Berne, E. C. (2007). Snoop Dogg. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest.
Berlatsky, N. (2012). Marijuana. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.
Brunning, B. (1999). Reggae. New York: P. Bedrick Books.
Moving Texts
Doggystyle records (1995)
Reefer Madness (1930)
Snoop Lion- (2013) Reincarnated
Dogg, S., Dogg, S., T., W., Alvi, S., Chung, T., & Capper, A. (2013). Snoop Dogg reincarnated. NY, NY: Rizzoli.
Keyes, C. L. (2004). Rap music and street consciousness. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
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