Luniz – I Got 5 On It

13th April 2025 · 1990s, 1995, Hip-Hop, Music

West Coast rappers Luniz had a moment in 1995 with this playful weed-smoking anthem, I Got 5 On It, a million-seller in America that also reached No.3 in the UK singles chart.

It turned the stoner duo from Oakland, California, into one-hit wonders. And off the back of the single, their album Operation Stackola knocked Michel Jackson’s album HIStory off the top of the US charts

Their signature tune, with vocals by R&B singer Michael Marshall (channelling his group Timex Social Club’s ’80s tune Thinkin’ About Ya) owes much of its appeal to sampling Kool & The Gang’s Jungle Boogie and Why You Treat Me So Bad by Club Nouveau.

Its title and chorus, as Wiki puts it, “refer to the practice of splitting the cost of a marijuana purchase and claiming five dollars’ worth of it” which the duo use to buy gin, wine, soft drinks and a cigar to convert into a blunt for their previous purchase.

Or, presumably, £5 if you’re buying it here.

The song is an example of something called Mobb Music, a sub-genre of Bay Area hip-hop that emerged in the ’90s, characterised by slow, bass-heavy funk grooves and languid vocals in reaction to more aggressive G-funk.

More generally, it’s another in the line of West Coast hip-hop anthems of the era, including Regulate (by Warren G and Nate Dogg), Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise, Snoop Dogg’s Gin And Juice and You Know How We Do It by Ice Cube.

Originally named Luni Tunz, the hip-hop duo was formed in the early ’90s by Jerold Ellis III, aka Yukmouth, and Garrick Husbands, aka Numskull.

This turned out to be the highlight of their brief career and, after two more albums flopped, they split in the early 2000s, but remain far from forgotten thanks to this tune.