The Blunt

Whether you are a cannabis connoisseur or not, there is a big chance that you have heard the word “blunt” before.

Cannabis has been synonymous with blunts for 25 years, and if you have ever participated in a little puff session in the past, there is a big chance that you have smoked it without knowing.

Blunts are still famous. A blunt is really just a cigar wrapping filled with weed. The history around it is a bit hazy, no pun intended. 

Who made the blunt? Back in the mid-80s, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Jamaicans, and other immigrants came from the Caribbean to New York City. There is a big chance that they brought it to the US when they first came here.

In this article, you will find a brief history of the blunt and how it came about from its alleged origins all the way to modern hip hop and rap culture.

Brief History of the Blunt

Before going deep into the blunt culture, it is vital to know its history. It goes all the way back to Central Asia in 4000 BC.

There are several cultures there that started cultivating cannabis plants for their seed oils and fibers like hemp.

At this point, they were not smoking it yet, at least according to what historians found out. In 500 BC, people in Pamir Plateau, China’s Xinjiang region, started to place THC-heavy cannabis plants into incense burners, whether for holidays with their families or funeral rituals.

Cannabis started to spread through the Silk Road, and people worldwide realized that getting high has its benefits.

Cannabis plants and seeds were known to be useful too, and the use of cannabis spread from East India to Jamaica for personal use back in the mid-1800s.

This is why the Hindi term Ganja is still widely used in most Rasta cultures.

It is unclear exactly why blunts became popular in the Caribbean, but there are several theories.

One theory suggests that blunts became popular out of necessity because pipes, bongs, and rolling papers were not easily accessible.

Another suggests that Jamaicans liked cigar wrappers better, which helped to disguise the smell of weed in general.

The Rise of the Blunt

As smoking weed became more popular in the Caribbean, people were getting more creative in how they did it.

They mostly used dried tobacco or hemp leaves instead of pipes and bongs to smoke it.

It was also at the same time in the United States of America when companies like White Owl started making cigars made of one continuous rolled outer leaf with a rounded tip.

The latter gave them their name, blunts. Not long after, Phillies and Dutch Masters got in on the action for blunt-making. 

Cannabis then continued to grow in popularity for many reasons, and the government did not like it.

A lot of propaganda started popping up everywhere, and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 made weed illegal at the federal level.

The laws did not really bother people that much, and in the 1960s, there was an increase in people smoking weed.

Smoking weed became popular, and people smoked joints where they hit bowls and bongs.

They even fired up hookahs, smoked dug-outs, and made apple pies. During the 1980s, back when the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Jamaicans, and other nationalities came from the Caribbean, the first modern blunt was rolled and smoked.

It is not clear who started it or whose idea it was, or whose weed it was, but these people brought this kind of blunt to the US.

How the Blunt Came to the Hip Hop Era

Back on June 21, 1988, Big Daddy Kane, who is a Brooklyn-based rapper, released the album Long Live the Kane.

This album features a song called “Raw” that has the line, “Try to front, perpetuating a stunt, where you know that I will smoke you up like a blunt.”

The same year, a Compton rapper, King T, released an album called Act of Fool. This album features a song called “Flirt,” which tackles blunts as well.

Many rappers and artists from hip hop culture soon jumped onto the bandwagon of incorporating weed and blunt into their lyrics.

The legendary rapper and stoner Snoop Dogg smoked his first blunt back in 1993.

It might be a rumor, but the story is that he met Tupac Shakur at a Poetic Justice wrap party, and Tupac gave him his first blunt.

It came about that blunts were often associated with rappers and artists during this time, and they continued to push blunts and weed culture through the 90s.

Blunts even reached parts of America that were never thought possible as head shops started popping up all over the place, selling blunts.

Blunt brands like Daddy Rabbit and Wild Willie even started cropping up to compete with big companies like Swisher Sweets, Backwoods, Dutch Masters, and Phillies.

In the 2000s, Hollywood and the music industry started leaning into weed culture. There’s even a song, released this decade, called “How High” by Method Man and Redman.

There were also film features that involved more blunts than most people will ever smoke in their lives.

Stoners continue smoking blunts among their friends, and it is a true testament to the fact that this kind of industry is booming.

Conclusion

Overall, it might be unclear who made the blunt, but it is fair to say that it originally came from the Caribbeans immigrating to the U.S.

Amid all of the backlash that it got, the blunt industry continues to dominate regardless of restrictions.

There was a study indicating that young people imitating hip-hop culture will be drawn into blunts.

Smoking is always dangerous to your health. You should know that everything works in moderation.