Our Song of the Day celebrates the first-year anniversary of the legalization of cannabis in Canada and features the first ever music recording to feature sounds extracted from cannabis plants. Presented by Merry Jane and Entertainment One, Toronto’s anders and acclaimed producer FrancisGotHeat team up with Los Angeles-based hitmaker, Rich the Kid for the new single “Sticky Situation.”
Scene from the “Sticky Situation” video
Peep the new Elliot Clancy Osberg-directed video for “Sticky Situation” and make sure you check out the accompanying press release for more information about this timeless collaboration. We’ve also got some behind the scenes footage in the post courtesy of Merry Jane.
You can find “Sticky Situation” on Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, and various other digital streaming platforms.
MERRY JANE and Entertainment One release first ever music recording to feature sounds extracted from Cannabis plants
Today marks the much-anticipated release of “Sticky Situation,” the first ever commercial music single to prominently feature sounds extracted from Cannabis plants. The song brings together a thrilling tag team combo of cross border (Los Angeles/Toronto) R&B and rap stars of today and tomorrow. “Sticky Situation” features Juno Award- nominated, Toronto-based R&B vocalist anders and LA-based Billboard chart-topping rapper Rich the Kid, with production by multi-platinum Toronto producer FrancisGotHeat (Drake, Bryson Tiller, Roy Woods).
Timed to coincide with the first-year anniversary of the legalization of Cannabis in Canada (Cannabis 2.0), “Sticky Situation” also marks the debut music release from MERRY JANE, an innovation-based Cannabis lifestyle content company, in partnership with global entertainment company Entertainment One (“eOne”). In addition to focusing on the physical sales, distribution and branding of flower-touching products (e.g. joints, vapes, edibles), MERRY JANE have also been busy creating new assets across multiple platforms including TV/film, apparel, home goods and now music.
“I’m very excited for people to hear this project,” says Kai Henry, Chief Strategy Officer at MERRY JANE.
“We extracted something entirely different than what most people on the planet extract from cannabis plants (i.e. THC/CBD) by extracting vibrations and bio-rhythmic sounds from our own Sticky Situation strain to create this song. MERRY JANE is proud to be the first media company in the world to release music from a cannabis plant.”
Scene from the “Sticky Situation” video
Chris Moncada, eOne’s SVP Alternative and General Manager, Last Gang, says, “We are thrilled to be partnering up with MERRY JANE and these three world-class talents to bring ‘Sticky Situation’ to the world. The track is a bonafide smash, even before the ground-breaking story behind its creation is told.”
To further commemorate its timely release, the two powerhouse entities also teamed up to release an accompanying video directed by Elliot Clancy Osberg (Roy Woods, Prime Boys) featuring the single’s collaborators anders, Rich the Kid, and FrancisGotHeat in their creative element.
To push the boundaries of contemporary music creation, MERRY JANE ideated a hyper innovative audio production style which was utilized on the track, which meant using samples created from Cannabis strains, that were then assembled and craftily mixed together by producer and multi-instrumentalist FrancisGotHeat who divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles where he is working alongside Malay (Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange”, Sam Smith).
Scene from the “Sticky Situation” video
To create this soulfully ethereal sonic landscape, the creatives at MERRY JANE utilized a special device to record a range of electrical currents flowing through a Cannabis plant, and then converted them into raw midi audio files. The recorded electrical data was then taken, converted and exported into instrument sounds that FrancisGotHeat was able to manipulate, massage and add his in-demand production magic to, to create what will be a sure-fire hit.
“The sounds and signals from the plant are very abstract so it definitely forced me to try things creatively to make it work,” says the fast-rising producer of his work on this ground-breaking single.
Likewise, lead vocalist anders, who’s genre-bending pop/R&B output has amassed a global fan base, and boasts a double platinum single “Love No More” (produced by Billboard chart-topping DJ duo Loud Luxury) reminds you why the music industry cognoscenti have picked him as ‘Next To Blow,’ filling up the song with his sensual vocal croons and a magnetic hook; “she smell the aroma, now she wanna taste it…smoking on some sticky situation, hit it you gon’ need some ventilation.”
“Francis and I always strive to push creative boundaries,” says the fashion forward 24-year-old who sold out a major Toronto venue (The Phoenix), and has racked up 100 million plus streams as an independent artist.
“This time wasn’t any different as we created this song using sounds from a plant. This process is never dull.”
Scene from the “Sticky Situation” video
By the time bonafide hitmaker Rich the Kid – whose The World Is Yours 2 sophomore album debuted at #4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 earlier this year – adds his renowned catchy and otherworldly rhyme schemes, and powerful punchlines to this trappy melodic hit, both he and anders’ loose stories of seduction, sticky green and urban blight, really sink in.
“I talk about weed in a lot of my songs,” explains Rich the Kid.
“So, when they told me they wanted FrancisGotHeat to make the beat out of sounds from their weed plant, I was with it for sure. It was dope working with Snoop, MERRY JANE and anders on making this record!”
And just as Rich’s raspy flow trails off after the hook (“got all the trees, so what you need”), he masterfully flips his flows to fit the multi-dimensional FrancisGotHeat backing track. This one-two, R&B, singer-rapper punch becomes all the more rousing as Rich’s trippy flow perfectly compliments anders silky smooth cadence. The heavy bass combined with the melancholy riffs and melodies provides the perfect backdrop for the duo to communicate their uncomfortable thoughts, break even more rules, and further lay out their vocal gifts in creating these classic and memorable soundscapes.
Leave it up to this one-time urban music Holy Trinity of anders, Rich the Kid and FrancisGotHeat to present some of the most innovative and forward-thinking audio and visual stimuli heard this year. Tune into this sick and sticky situation that will take the rap, art and Cannabis lifestyle scenes by storm.
You can follow @anders on Instagram.
