Mainstream music is often more psychedelic then we first realize. Many artists today are eluding or straight-up talking about psychedelics more than ever. No longer the counter culture, check out these top hits that are psychedelic in one way or another….
1) Ego Death by Ty Dolla $ign Featuring Kanye West, FKA twigs & Skrillex
Ego death is where you find happiness
That’s the only place you find happiness
Off too many drugs, it’s so bad for us
One too many drinks and you had enough
2) Are You Even Real by James Blake
Cracking seals, guilty, no appeal
Trip down the hill, strawberry fields
Are you even real?
She said, “tell me how you feel”
Are you even real?
3) Alice by Lady Gaga
My name isn’t Alice
But I’ll keep looking, I’ll keep looking for Wonderland
My name isn’t Alice
But I’ll keep looking, I’ll keep looking for Wonderland, Wonderland
4) The Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady by Kid Cudi featuring Eminem
Yeah, it’s been a minute, but I’m back in it
Y’all ain’t dealing with the same boy
Got a little trippy, then I transitioned
New attitude mixed with that pure raw
5) Dreamland by Glass Animals
Pulling down backstreets deep in your head
Slipping through dreamland like a tourist
Pulling down backstreets deep in your head
Slipping through dreamland like a tourist
6) Chemical Party by Gavin DeGraw
Chemical-party-lover down
It’s not the walls its not this town
You’re just to high to see the point
You think your name is Pass The Joint
7) Took a pill in Ibeza by Mike Posner
I took a pill in Ibiza
To show Avicii I was cool
And when I finally got sober, felt ten years older
But fuck it, it was something to do…
8) Cokeroaches by Slang
Said it started with a crumb
Ended with a line
Eenie meine minie moe she screaming down the mine
9) On & On by Erykah Badu
Oh, my, my, my
I’m feeling high
My money’s gone
I’m all alone
Too much to see
The world keeps turnin’
Oh, what a day
10) Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles
Breathe me in, breathe me out
I don’t know if I could ever go withoutWatermelon sugar high
Watermelon sugar high
Watermelon sugar high
2 thoughts on “Psychedelic References in Mainstream Music”
Perhaps slightly less mainstream, but also Joey Bada$$ and Flatbush Zombies have plenty of references to psychedelics and related mysticism. For non-mainstream references to psychedelia check out The Underachievers, D’rok the Menace, Cambatta, Supremes of the Ohio Valley (SOTOV), and King Iso.
Very cool, thank you for sharing! Psychedelic references are practically everywhere it seems.