The hip-hop genre has many talented artists who discuss important social issues, such as poverty, racism, and violence… Afroman is not one of those artists! He is known as a “one-hit wonder” because he became famous for only one song that he wrote in 2000. “Because I Got High” is a story about a man whose life becomes miserable because he smokes too much marijuana, which is an illegal drug in many countries. The song was very obscure when Afroman released it, but it became very popular the following year in 2001.
I was going to clean my room
but then I got high.
I was going to get up and find the broom
but then I got high.
My room is still messed up, and I know why.
Because I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high.
high (adjective) — If you are high or stoned, you have taken drugs and are intoxicated. If you drink too much alcohol, you are drunk.
Grammar: The Future in the Past
Afroman says, “I was going to…” many times in this song. We can say, “I am going to… You are going to… He is going to…” for future plans, but what exactly does “was going to” mean? This is known as the future in the past.
Imagine that you talked to your friend yesterday.
YESTERDAY:
You: “What are you going to do today?”
Your Friend: “I am going to watch a movie in the evening.”
Your friend made future plans. He wanted to watch a movie later that evening.
TODAY:
You: “How was the movie that you watched yesterday?”
Your Friend: “I was going to watch a movie at the the theater yesterday, but I didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket.”
So your friend made plans to watch a movie at the theater yesterday, but he didn’t watch a movie because he could not buy a ticket. His plans did not work!
Subject + was/were + going to + verb.
Subject + was/were + not + going to + verb.
Was/were + subject + going to + verb?
Afroman made many plans in the past. He made plans to clean his room, go to school, and do many other things, but he smoked weed and got high!
Vocabulary
- blunt (idiom) — a very big and thick marijuana cigarette, rolled with brown cigar paper
- messed up (adjective) — to be dirty and untidy; to spoil and make worse
- child support (noun) — money paid to young children who no longer live with their mothers or fathers, usually ordered by a legal court system
- pull over (verb) — to stop driving a car and park on the side of the road
- paraplegic (noun) — a person who has suffered an injury and cannot feel his/her lower body
- make love (verb) — to have sex
- jack off (verb) — to masturbate
2014 Positive Remix
ESLhiphop.com will not condone or condemn using marijuana because it is a personal choice, just like using alcohol or tobacco. Using marijuana is a controversial issue, especially in the United States, so it is only fair to present both sides of the issue. “Because I Got High” shows the negative consequences of using the drug, but a positive remix of the song was released in 2014 highlighting the health and legal benefits of the drug.
Writing Practice
What are your thoughts about drugs and alcohol? Do you think all drugs should be illegal? Do “soft drugs” such as marijuana pose a threat to society, or is it harmless like a glass of wine? Please write your ideas in the comments below!