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As marijuana becomes legal, either for medical or recreational use, in most states around the country, it’s still a Schedule 1 narcotic according to the federal government. How did that come to be? Legendary rapper Fab 5 Freddy takes a look at how cannabis contributed to the Black music scene from the early days of jazz on forward, and how the government’s motivations for making possessing it a criminal act, in his new documentary Grass Is Greener. Read on for more…
GRASS IS GREENER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: The influence of marijuana in the Black community is immense, and Fred Brathwaite (who most of us know as Fab 5 Freddy) lays out the case in this documentary, which he directed, that much of what has been achieved by Black musicians over the past century wouldn’t be nearly as good without weed.
He starts with early-20th century jazz and interviews experts that talk about why some of the genre’s brightest stars, like Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and more, not only smoked weed but wrote songs about it. One song mentions “The Mighty Mezz”, which was the type dealt in Harlem by musician Mezz Mezzaro.
But cannabis also started being demonized during that time, and Freddy traces the roots of the federal government’s efforts to ban it on the basis that it makes people “crazy” (propaganda films like Reefer Madness tried to push this message to the masses). But it really was a way to arrest and incarcerate Black people.
As Freddy carries the tradition of cannabis and Black music through the popularization of reggae (Bob Marley’s son Damian Marley is interviewed) and the rise of hip-hop (he talks to Darryl McDaniels, Chuck D, B-Real, and — of course — Snoop Dogg, among other hip-hop legends), he also discusses how a substance that had been proven to be non-addictive and less harmful than alcohol became a Schedule 1 narcotic during the Nixon administration. And, since Nixon’s secret tapes have come out, we’ve learned as a country that the “war on drugs” that he started and Ronald Reagan accelerated was more racially motivated than anything else. Mandatory minimum sentences and three-strike laws are part of that movement.
Finally, Freddy talks about the growing movement to legalize cannabis, and how Blacks are being left behind there because many of the people who used to grow and deal pot when it was illegal end up with prison records that keep them from starting dispensary businesses. In the most poignant story, Freddy follows the case of a New York man who got 14 years in prison because he was caught with two joints and was on his third offense.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Given the fact that Snoop Dogg is featured quite a bit in this film, we can’t help but think of Reincarnated, where he changed his name to Snoop Lion and made a reggae record.
Performance Worth Watching: Snoop, of course. Remember, he’s the one who suggested that Dr. Dre call his now-classic 1992 solo album The Chronic. But Snoop is also a student of how cannabis has influenced Black culture, especially music, and he’s as trustworthy an expert as anyone about how the criminalization of weed has affected the Black community. Killer Mike is also a standout, as he lays out a logical case for why Blacks should get an opportunity to start legal cannabis businesses, given how disproportionally they’ve been arrested and convicted for possessing pot.
Memorable Dialogue: Snoop again: “You could put a thousand motherfuckers in a room who don’t like each other. You put some weed in there, them n—-s are gonna be takin’ selfies and doing all kinds of cool shit. You could 4 people in a room who don’t like each other, and one glass of fuckin’ alcohol… someone’s gonna be fuckin’ dead.”
Single Best Shot: A shot of 5 people, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland and Botham Jean. All five have been linked to weed as a way of “justifying” their suspicious deaths in the media, despite the fact that weed had nothing to do with how they died. Freddy lingers on their portraits for a long time in order to drive the message home.
Sex and Skin: Not that kind of movie.
Our Take: While it may seem that Fab 5 Freddy, who produced and directed Grass Is Greener does a bit of a bait and switch by telling us about how intertwined cannabis is with Black music history then pivots to our country’s thorny history with criminalization of weed, he does a fine job of showing that the stories are really intertwined.
As experts like Larry “Ratso” Sloman (who wrote the book Reefer Madness: The History of Marijuana in America) point out, when Harry J. Anslinger started pushing to codify anti-cannabis laws on the federal level in the 1930s, his motivations to do it were racial in nature, lest white women smoke, go to jazz clubs and end up sleeping with Black men.
Freddy makes as an effective case as any we’ve seen that legalization should be not only done on the state level but the federal level, as well. His evidence pointing out that the war on drugs was a supreme failure, and never should have been waged on cannabis to begin with, is compelling. Is it a bit one-sided? Sure. He could have had some experts come on and talk about why, for certain people, weed can get addictive and/or affect their health. But the ill effects are nowhere near what we see with even alcohol, and the fact that cannabis has been lumped in with drugs like heroin as far as the feds are concerned has always been a head scratcher.
One thing we would have also wanted to see was a bit more of a female perspective on the issue, whether its via experts or hip-hop artists. It’s not like men were the only ones smoking weed through the decades, and it would have been good to see that perspective, as well. But it’s a quibble in what’s generally an excellent documentary.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Whether you are a cannabis fan or not, Grass Is Greener will convince you that weed should be legal, for more than just a new revenue stream for states.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.
