The name Dominic Fike is likely familiar to a lot of people because of his recent contributions to both the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack as well as the Barbie soundtrack. Due to this, though I find it surprising, I believe some people may have missed his most recent release. Dominic Fike is an artist that I don’t often listen to. I have several friends who are always sending me his music when it comes out, and I always listen. Furthermore, I always end up being impressed with his projects, What Could Possibly Go Wrong in particular. He’s ambitious, creative, a skilled song-writer, and incredibly entertaining. For whatever reason however, I have yet to consistently return to his music. A few weeks ago he released Sunburn and I feel foolish for ever having been so neutral regarding his work. With only a 39 minute runtime, Sunburn is an extremely accessible listen. Such a unique and pleasant experience all begins with its opening track, “How Much Is Weed?”

This track capitalizes on nostalgia both sonically and narratively. Carried by soft and sweet guitar riffs and even more soft and sweet drums, “How Much Is Weed?” gives Dominic optimal room to shine both in vocal performance and song-writing. His catchy melodies, vocal deliveries, flawless flows, and effortless dip in and out of lullaby-like singing to belligerent rapping, all coalesce into quite an infectious song. The track was masterfully produced by Jim-E Stack, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Dominic Fike. I’d also love to give a special kudos to Mark “Spike” Stent who was the track’s mixing engineer. The mix on this song does a lot of heavy lifting in regards to capturing that strong sense of nostalgia. 

Nostalgia isn’t the only theme that “How Much Is Weed?” explores. Dominic discusses regret and personal tribulations. Such ideas are bound to come up when gazing at the past. It all starts in the first few lines of the hook, which are also the opening lines of the album. “Photo album but the color faded from it / If I could go back and tell ya how it ends, I woulda done it / Don’t look down.” The song offers such a powerful image right off the bat. An initial, captivating setting like this is absolutely brilliant for opening up your album. The past that Dominic is looking back on, is losing its beauty the longer he looks at it. He feels regret and wishes he could help change things by speaking either to his past self, or past loved ones. The verses follow Dominic as he describes his upbringing, including his mother’s personal struggles and how that affected his life and livelihood. He talks about how people underestimated his efforts and with all these things going on, he (reasonably) started losing his mind a bit. That’s all until the song has a refrain in which Fike just repeats “Juk, juk, I like to juk.” It’s a break from the tension, a moment to stop and dance. This moment (which happens twice in the track) serves as a microcosm for the album as a whole. The music contrasts the tone and the lyrics quite often. Even though so much is going on, sometimes it's all about taking a step back and just enjoying the vibe. Escapism is another prevalent theme in this way. Attempting to escape his current world by looking into the past, led Dominic to remembering how he used to escape back then: even though he’s not a dancer he liked to “juk.”

For a song that’s so short and sweet, it offers a lot to unpack regarding the depth of its content and the execution of its presentation. “How Much Is Weed?” is a wonderfully, well-crafted track and will capture any ear that’s willing to give Sunburn the listen it deserves. 

Author: Jordan

Jordan Wisniewski is a passionate writer and Hip-Hop artist from North Carolina, US.