This new herb was a game-changer, accord-
ing to BiggA. “As things progressed, we wanted
to fi nd more of the bionic, … that’s we called it.
Others called it sinsemilla, but we called it bionic
… We didn’t want anything to do with any prod-
uct that had seeds,” he says with a laugh before
continuing,“ You know, you needed a little money
to get that high quality sinsemilla.”
Then, he explains how Dr. Dre coined the
phrase, “the chronic,” essentially evolving from
the bionic to the chronic. “We were done with
crack,” says BiggA. “We were done with angel
dust, we was done with smoking that embalming
fl uid. We were out of the dark ages and we had
become … stoners.” Chronic changed the hip
hop scene from then on out. “It was cool to have
that big bag of that chronic,” he says. “Matter of
fact, catch you bringing something less than that
to the studio, and you might get your ass kicked!”
Over time, chronic became a part of the real-
ity that infl uenced the West Coast rap scene. “We
were putting reality into our music,” says BiggA,
“and once Dr. Dre and some of the others put the
weed smoking in the music, it became cool to be
a part of that.” This doesn’t really surprise BiggA,
who points back to the historical connection of
cannabis to music in general. “If you looked back
to 60’s … with the hippies, it was cool to smoke
-- at least, until the acid trip thing hit them,” he
says with a grin. “But it still goes back to a deep
connection of music and smoking cannabis.”
12 NUGL Magazine
BiggA makes a specifi c point about local
cannabis at the time, saying, “One thing to know
is, the West Coast was known for the quality of
its weed. We would have people coming from the
East Coast just to get that chronic.” He describes
Compton in particular as a community that em-
braced marijuana in the wake of the destruction
caused by the hard drugs of the 80s. Public con-
sciousness shifted, and cannabis became the fa-
vored drug of choice, displacing hard drugs.
This late 90’s was a period of healing within
the Compton community. “We were done with
that hard stuff,” he says with a bit more gravity.
“We were done with those chemical agents. If
you were dealing with that stuff and came around
us you were dealt with accordingly. If you was
hangin with us you were drinkin’ gin and juice
or Hennessey and smoking that chronic,” said
BiggA. He also acknowledges that medical use
of cannabis was growing back then. “Even back
as early as the late 90’s people were using can-
nabis for medicinal purposes,” he says.
… next issue will talk to BiggA about the rap
music industry and how cannabis has a very long
and important connection to it.
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