Science & Health

Government-Funded Study Finds Marijuana Featured in More Than a Third of Rap and Hip-Hop Music Videos

on January 20, 2026

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More than a third of popular U.S. hip-hop and rap music videos referenced marijuana in 2024, according to a new government-supported study. Artists such as Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre have contributed to this trend by promoting a “chilled” lifestyle, the researchers noted.

The analysis, funded by the Ministry of Justice and Health in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, found that 37 percent of top U.S. hip-hop and rap videos from the 2024 YouTube top 100 charts featured cannabis references, while another 4 percent mentioned both marijuana and nicotine.

In total, 41 percent of leading videos in the genre include marijuana references, reflecting how art is helping to normalize the plant in popular culture.

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While 41 percent of hip hop and rap music videos talked about cannabis, the study from researchers at the German Institute for Therapy and Health Research found that only 2 percent songs in other genres originating U.S. mention marijuana.

“Cannabis has been firmly anchored in the US hip-hop scene since the 1990s and has been particularly influenced by artists from the American west coast,” the study, published in the journal Substance Use & Misuse, says. “Rappers such as Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and The Game in particular are inextricably associated with cannabis and convey a ‘chilled’ lifestyle.”

“Historically, cannabis has been embedded in American hip-hop culture through the Afro-Caribbean and African-American subculture and is favored by widespread legalization,” they said

The study also looked at depictions of cannabis and nicotine in German music videos, finding that the U.S. trends were reversed there—with nicotine being more prevalent than marijuana in videos.

Hip hop and rap has helped inform culture and policy over the years, and it will come as no surprise that Snoop Dogg’s influence in the U.S. continues to play a role in the movement.

Weldon Angelos, a cannabis activist and music producer who’s worked with major industry figures like Snoop Dogg, told Marijuana Moment that “hip hop didn’t just reflect cannabis culture—it helped normalize it.”

“I was first exposed to marijuana through artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and years later I ended up working alongside them in studios where cannabis was simply part of the creative process,” Angelos, who received a presidential pardon for a marijuana-related conviction during the first Trump administration, said.

“That visibility mattered because millions of people were watching and listening,” he said. “Long before the laws changed, hip hop helped shift public perception and move cannabis from something taboo into the mainstream—helping make reform possible.”

Beyond iconic hits like “Gin and Juice” that have cemented his place in cannabis music culture, Snoop Dogg has been steadily expanding his cannabis business ventures. Last June, the artist launched another direct-to-consumer hemp lifestyle platform under his Death Row Records label.

Snoop acquired Death Row Records in 2022 and has been using the platform to merge music culture with the cannabis industry. In 2024, he also grew his Smoke Weed Every Day (S.W.E.D.) brand with a retail platform offering hemp-derived cannabinoids, smoking supplies, and merchandise.

The platform doubles as a directory for S.W.E.D.’s physical marijuana locations, including a Los Angeles dispensary and a coffeeshop in Amsterdam.

Snoop’s contributions to cannabis culture have even been recognized on television: in 2023, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel declared October 20—the rapper’s birthday—the “new high holiday” of DoggFather’s Day.

While widely known as a cannabis user, Snoop is also an advocate for reform, including calling on the NBA to allow players to use cannabis off the court.

He said last year that he supported the reform based on the “medical side of it, the health benefits and how it could actually help ease the opioids and all the pills that they’ve been given and the injections.”

Snoop Dogg has long advocated for lenient cannabis policies in athletic organizations, highlighting that marijuana could serve as a safer, less addictive alternative to prescription opioids.

Meanwhile, a 2024 Canadian study found that cannabis may enhance the enjoyment of music, with researchers concluding that “the impact of cannabis on the auditory experience may be overall enhanced” compared to sober listening.

Another study, published in 2021, explored the role of psilocybin-assisted therapy in combination with music, challenging the conventional belief that classical music is the most effective accompaniment in these sessions.

Image courtesy of TechCrunch

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