Tiki Taane has improvised a new song called 'Legalise It' about the upcoming cannabis referendum, with lyrics like: "It's all a mess until you vote yes."
The former Salmonella Dub member picked up his guitar at the end of an interview with Stephen McDowell, AKA The Buzzy Kiwi, an Instagram influencer campaigning for legalisation in Aotearoa.
In the clip on McDowell's social media, Taane strums along while singing lines like "If you want to make change to the system, you got to vote 'yes' at the referendum".
"Politicians smoke it, Prime Ministers smoke it, Presidents smoke it... even the police smoke it," Taane sings.
In his post, McDowell said he and Taane were "creating history" with their interview, set to be released at 4.20pm on Sunday.
Earlier this month, Taane hit back at anti-cannabis campaign group Say Nope To Dope after they used his personal history with drug use as "clickbait".
A Facebook post by the group featured a 2016 interview with Taane in which he revealed he started smoking marijuana at 13 before moving on to stronger substances. In the article, Taane explained he wanted to warn the youth of Aotearoa about the physical, mental and spiritual repercussions of using drugs.
In the caption of the post, Say Nope To Dope said that Taane "went down the drug path and knows how marijuana can be a gateway to harder drugs", including a quote from the article that said the singer became "involved in the gang scene" following his introduction to smoking cannabis.
"I appreciate you trying to use me as clickbait, I'm very flattered," Taane replied in a comment.
"But just so you all know I will 100 percent be voting YES to legalising cannabis."
Say Nope to Dope spokesperson Aaron Ironside said the group was happy to delete the post, but "rejected the idea" that it twisted Taane's words. They accepted their additional commentary "pointed to an alternative of his personal history with cannabis".
