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Hmmm: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Rumored Weed Smoker, Also Loves Reggae

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NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 10: New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton (C) holds up a bag of oregano to demonstrate what 25 grams of marijuana looks like at a news conference with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (L) to announce changes to New York City's marijuana policy on November 10, 2014 in New York City. The commissioner and Mayor de Blasio announced that the city will start giving out tickets (and court summons) rather than arresting people for possession of 25 grams of marijuana and under. The new guidelines for officers will result in hundreds of less arrests per year, freeing up the police to focus on other crimes. It will also free those caught with the drug from having a damaging arrest record. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

In the early days of his administration, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was dogged by the public’s idea that he loved to smoke weed. There were those perfect images of de Blaz as a curly-headed and squinty-eyed young leftist, collected here in a Gothamist post entitled “The Top 10 Most Stoned Young De Blasio Photos.” There was his persistent lateness to official functions, which he blamed once on feeling “really sluggish” after a “rough night.” (OK, buddy.) There were rumors, apparently spread intentionally by his opponents in the NYPD, that he and his wife Chirlane McCray enjoy lighting up in Gracie Mansion and their Park Slope townhouse. And there was his own admission that he smoked pot in college, though he’s also said that he’s never indulged since then.

Today, MTV News published a brief video interview between Perfect Pussy singer Meredith Graves and the mayor about his taste in music. His admission that he enjoys some of his kids’ music, like Chance the Rapper and Childish Gambino, is getting all the attention. But more revealing is his list of his own favorite artists: Bob Marley‘s band the Wailers and ’80s reggae survivors Black Uhuru and Steel Pulse. (The mayor’s own reaction to the tweet was also pretty good.)

De Blasio hasn’t talked much about his appreciation for Jamaican music in the past, but there are scattered references. As public advocate in 2012, he told one record-collecting blogger that his desert island albums are Bob Marley’s Live! and Sandinista! by the Clash, a band of fellow reggae-loving white guys. (I guess he also has a thing for records with exclamation points.) And the mayor and his wife attended a Bunny Wailer concert at B.B. King’s last year, where the mayor apparently told a reporter “Me is a Bunny Wailer fan from long time!”

Now, we’re not saying that an appreciation for groovy one-drop rhythms and earthshaking basslines automatically makes you a pothead, or that de Blasio should be ashamed about his alleged allegiance to herb. Really all we’re saying is that, if the rumors really are true, having to hide your pot habit or give it up entirely for four or eight long years would be a bummer. We feel for you, Mr. Mayor.

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