“Jenny From the Block” was the lead single from Jennifer Lopez’s third album This Is Me… Then. The sample-heavy hip-hop track produced by Trackmasters pays tribute to Lopez childhood growing up in the Bronx.

The single reached the Top 10 of pop charts in numerous countries (#2 in Canada, #3 in the US x 3 weeks), and with that, “Jenny From the Block” has since become yet another affectionate nickname Lopez answers to.

The epitome of a one-hit wonder, this song will be chanted, hummed and sung by stoners everywhere.

The song was written on a day when Afroman was feeling ambitious, but a friend showed up and insisted they smoke marijuana instead, which killed that drive.

Afroman wrote a song about the experience that day and it became the last one recorded for his sophomore album Because I Got High, released in 2000. Soon after, Afroman left the music business.

The file-sharing software Napster – heavily used at the time to share and distribute music for free – was at its peak of popularity, and the track became popular with its users:

It was grassroots, and it started with … selling it to a whole bunch of people, and then the music started to sell itself and they started playing it and, next thing you know, like, some other little kid helped me out and put it out on Napster, and they gave me publicity that I couldn’t pay for … And next thing you know, I guess Universal Records had Napster, too.

Universal Records signed Afroman to a six album deal on the popularity “Because I Got High” had attained through Napster and released it as a single on July 6, 2001.

The track immediately became one of the most-requested songs on US radio, including rock stations like New York’s WXRK FM, DC’s WWDC FM and LA’s KROQ FM despite it not being a rock song.

On July 23, a caller to syndicated morning show host Howard Stern suggested he play the song, which he then did regularly for several weeks, thereby exposing it to millions of morning commuters. On August 22, Stern had Afroman in his studio for an interview.

On August 25, the track had become ‘the most requested song on the radio in the country’. It entered the top 40 in the US and had the ‘biggest gain in airplay’ of all songs that week.

Further boosting the song’s popularity, Universal Records had also given “Because I Got High” to director Kevin Smith earlier in the year because they believed it fit well in their upcoming film Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. When the film’s soundtrack was released in late August, it further boosted the song’s popularity.

Also, MTV finally agreed to air a modified, less-controversial music video for the song, featuring Jay and Silent Bob, in late August, giving it even more exposure.

“Because I Got High” eventually peaked at #13 in the US in September, hit #1 in the UK in October, and reached #1 in nine more countries (plus reaching the top 10 in several others) in late 2001. The song was nominated for the Grammy for Best Solo Rap Performance in early 2002.

Afroman had a hit with his follow-up single “Crazy Rap” in the UK and a few other countries, but has yet to score another hit in the US, thereby earning him the label of one-hit wonder there.

He has recorded two alternate versions of “Because I Got High” throughout his career. 2009’s Frobama: Head Of State features “Because I Got High 2009”, an ‘easy listening’ remake of the song with different lyrics. And in 2014, Afroman was living in Ohio and released “Because I Got High (Positive Remix)” in association with NORML about the pro-legalization of marijuana in anticipation of an upcoming vote regarding making the drug legal in the state. That year, the remix was included on an EP titled One Hit Wonder.