Let’s fund more studies like this one. The Ministry of Justice and Health in a German state Schleswig-Holstein funded a study that looked into the hip hop videos that made it to the Youtube top 100 charts in 2024. Specifically, they looked into marijuana references, and found almost half of them contained some sort of reference to marijuana.
37% just referenced marijuana, and another 4% referenced marijuana and nicotine, which brings to total to 41% of rap videos. Compare that to any other genre of music, where the marijuana references totaled only 2%.
The study blames figures like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre for fundamentally connecting rap and marijuana consumption. “Historically, cannabis has been embedded in American hip-hop culture through the Afro-Caribbean and African-American subculture and is favored by widespread legalization.”
It’s a fascinating trend to put a number to. Everyone knows how much Snoop Dogg likes to smoke weed, but the ripple effect from one man’s hobby has created an entire culture.
Read the study here.
