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The massive \u201ccannagar\u201d is practically billowing smoke as we pass it back and forth between us on the top-floor patio of a lodge in the outskirts of Seattle; roughly 12 grams of cannabis with 3 grams of rosin, all wrapped up in cured cannabis leaves \u2014\u00a0the cannagar is the perfect expression of decriminalization and the freedom that comes with it.<\/p>\n
My smoking partner \u2014 Memphis, Tennessee<\/a>-based rapper and activist Marco Pav\u00e9 \u2014 is relishing that freedom with particular gusto. The look on his face is one of awe, tinged with subtle sadness.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have anything like this back where I come from \u2014\u00a0smoking something like this would be asking for trouble,\u201d he says. \u201cI got plenty of friends who got weed charges \u2014 just weed\u00a0\u2014 and it f*cked their whole life up\u2026\u00a0it\u2019s not a moral game, it\u2019s a money game and we\u2019re keeping people in the jail.Tennessee has one of the top prison populations and it\u2019s mostly black.\u201d<\/p>\n With so much national momentum behind cannabis decriminalization, it\u2019s easy to forget that much of the U.S. is still living under full state and federal prohibition; you can pretty much put Tennessee on that list. In recent years, Nashville and Memphis both passed modest decriminalization bills<\/a> creating a civil infraction for minor possession and giving police discretion over arrests, but they\u2019ve already been all but reversed by the state legislature.<\/p>\n Suffice to say, it\u2019s far from more liberal states on the West Coast. Speaking with a true Memphis original gave me some insight into just how far.<\/p>\n Memphis-based emcee Marco Pav\u00e9 says cannabis is a crucial element of his creative process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Memphis is a city blessed and burdened with history: It possesses a rich heritage of music and culture, but in the minds of many Americans, it will always be the city where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.<\/p>\n Hip-hop \u2014\u00a0Pav\u00e9\u2019s primary form of expression \u2014\u00a0is an art form similarly weighted with social stigma; even at the age of 44 (if you count hip-hop\u2019s origin as an August 1973 high school party<\/a> in the Bronx), hip-hop bears the dicey reputation of its turbulent adolescence. How much of that negative aura is the product of the art itself and how much is a reflection of the galvanizing nature of revolutionary art in general? That type of thing always depends on where you\u2019re standing.<\/p>\n What\u2019s undeniable is that hip-hop \u2014\u00a0despite several public declarations of its death by sources of varying degrees of authority \u2014 is still a potent and vibrant expression of the American story, just not the story you hear on the nightly news or in the morning headlines. As Chuck D, the legendary frontman of Public Enemy famously told<\/a> Spin Magazine: \u201cRap is black America\u2019s TV station. It gives a whole perspective of what exists and what black life is about.\u201d<\/p>\n If that\u2019s true, then Pav\u00e9 is the man on the ground in Memphis, broadcasting his community\u2019s story from the frontline. His entire demeanor \u2014 from the polite but assertive cadence of his speech to the thick, unapologetic drawl of his words \u2014 is dripping in the culture and history of Memphis.<\/p>\n Pav\u00e9 has the quiet intensity possessed by many emcees, the quiet but lethal demeanor of a well-sighted and polished pistol, loaded and ready to fire explosive rounds at a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It was just such a pistol (a mercifully less reliable one)\u00a0that started the second act of Pav\u00e9\u2019s life and career.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2009, a friend and I were playing with a gun and it almost went off in my face,\u201d he said, pausing for just a moment to acknowledge the gravity of the statement. \u201cThat was the day; I said I\u2019m done messing around with the hood sh*it.\u00a0It pushed me into using my music to uplift my community.\u201d<\/p>\n Like most people deeply rooted in history, he\u2019s preoccupied with the future; the future of his city and his community. He says his involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement grew from his involvement in music, and that music remains his primary tool for telling stories that speak to the truth of the city he loves.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was like 13 or 14, [my music] was just real very aggressive, in your face hood, gangster type of rap,\u201d he said with a soft chuckle. \u201cIt was influenced by that lifestyle, a lot of that was happening in my neighborhood and a lot of what was going.\u201d<\/p>\n But when the 2014 death of Michael Brown<\/a> ignited the already roiling passions of the then-developing BLM movement, it also sparked the political consciousness of Pav\u00e9. Now he sees music (and teaching others about music)\u00a0as his weapon, and it\u2019s one he\u2019s got squarely aimed at the injustice he sees in his city.<\/p>\n It was also hip-hop that initially connected Pav\u00e9 with cannabis, which he says he avoided until he was in his late teens. That was until he heard the Wiz Khalifa mixtape \u201cKush & Orange Juice,\u201d which he said changed his perspective drastically.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a stance against weed as a teen, I didn\u2019t do that,\u201d he said. \u201cI was going through a lot of shit, it was just a crazy, crazy time. \u2018Kush & Orange Juice\u2019 had just come out, it dropped 2010, and I got into it, listening to the tracks and just feeling and it was very influential into how I got introduced to weed and participating in it.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that his introduction to the more \u201cconnoisseur side\u201d of the plant and culture coincided with a similar cultural expansion across his city.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Memphis, you got your southern spots where you might have some dirt weed\u2026 but then once it started becoming legal other places, it\u2019s been easier to get better quality stuff,\u201d he said in a phone call, during which he said he was smoking on some OG Kush<\/a> \u2014\u00a0the undisputed favorite in his city.<\/p>\n Having toured the country for his music, Pav\u00e9 said he\u2019s developed tastes beyond the simple OG, although he loves that as well.<\/p>\n His current favorites include Gorilla Glue #4<\/a>, Blue Dream<\/a>, Purple Haze and Grape Ape, but he says he\u2019s still experimenting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Pave added that \u2014 far from being a hindrance \u2014 cannabis is a crucial element of his creative process. \u201cIf I\u2019m really trying to be in super creative mode, I go sativa, sometimes it keeps me up too long \u2014\u00a0just 16 hours working off music getting into a writing craze and finishing like a whole project.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s also hopeful cannabis can help alleviate some of the economic pressure facing his community by creating new jobs. But until decriminalization comes to Memphis, he\u2019s not holding his breath.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe in the black community getting self-sufficient through business ownership, and cannabis decriminalization is an incredible opportunity for financial stability. I\u2019m seeing how much it does for Seattle and places like Denver,\u201d he said. \u201cWith any influx of money is going to come the opportunity of oppression, but it\u2019s definitely a possibility of ending poverty, especially in a place like Memphis.\u201d<\/p>\n Originally published in\u00a0Issue 29<\/a>\u00a0of Cannabis Now.\u00a0<\/em>LEARN MORE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> have you heard Marco Pav\u00e9\u2019s music?<\/p>\n The post Marco Pave Spreads Social Activism Through Music & Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The massive \u201ccannagar\u201d is practically billowing smoke as we pass it back and forth between us on the top-floor patio of a lodge in the outskirts of Seattle; roughly 12 grams of cannabis with 3 grams of rosin, all wrapped up in cured cannabis leaves \u2014\u00a0the cannagar is the perfectContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25631,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,99,85,3431,4039,3113,89,319,2249],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25632,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25630\/revisions\/25632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Marco](\"http:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/marco-pave-tennessee-marijuana.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Marco Pave Spreads Social Activism Through Music & Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"