Smokin' With Frank Nitt by Hayes Hemingway

{Miss J Heart and Frank Nitt} Photo by Lem Dunnigan


How were you introduced to weed?

Dank was a music nigga like us but his homeboys were drug dealers. He was in the hood like a motherfucker. He hung around some street dudes and they'd give him weed for free. Fucking purple and this years and years before people even knew what purple was. It would stink so bad, and everyone would be mad because none of us smoked. Not me, not Dilla, not T3--none of us smoked. So we'd be like "What the fuck is that smell?" So we started calling him "President Dankworth." And then one day few years later when we were like 22-23, it was Dilla who was like "Fuck that, I wanna smoke weed." And you know I was the right-hand man. I was the road dog, so wherever the party is, I got to go. Dilla goes, "Fuck that, Dank. I'm about to buy a whole bunch of weed from the hood and a whole bunch of blunts and you're going to teach me how to roll blunts." And shit, Dank sat there and taught us how to roll blunts and I dont know how many years ago that was but here we are today. Anyone who wants to complain about my Chronic, blame it on Dank.





Tell me about the first time you realized you were high.

The first time I realized I was high, I was in Dilla's crib in his basement. He and his girlfriend are off on one end of the basement and I'm on the other, spinning Dilla records. It's what I'd do to pass time while he's spending time with his girl. So his girl rolls a blunt--theyre smoking and they bring me the blunt. I hit it. I got behind the turntables and hit it again and shit just got different. Everything slowed down. I was like, "Whoa. I'm high, man." I cut that music off and sat my ass down. House Shoes used to make fun of me because everytime we'd smoke I'd leave and go watch TV. TV is just so interesting when you're blown. If you ask House Shoes, to this day, he'll still ask me, "You still gonna watch TV when you get blown, nigga?" So yeah the first time was in the basement with Dilla and his girl and it just made me go sit down and I just had to ponder about it for a while like, "Hey, that ain't bad." It was all Dilla's fault, though.


Tell us about your first time getting free weed from a fan.

The first time I got free weed from a fan? I dont even remember. It [happens] so much. I'll tell you a funny ass story about free weed. It wasn't free weed but it was basically free weed. We were in Denmark and in Denmark it's really hard to find weed. Everyone smokes hash. If you know somebody or you've got a hook up, then you can find weed. But if you look for some weed, you're not going to find any, you're just going to find hash. I'm not a big hash guy. They smoke hash with tobacco, and I don't do that. So we're off in some little city and just rocked a show. I'm at the merchandise table talking shit and this guy comes up saying "I don't have any money but I'd really like a shirt or a CD." He had a little joint in his hand. I looked at him and said, "You got weed?" He said, "Uh, yeah I got weed." I replied real excited like "Word? Okay, let me buy some from you." He goes, "Buy it? No man. I grow this behind my house. If you give me some CDs I'll give you some weed." So I said, "Oh? Well you ain't saying shit. Take one of everything." This guy pulled out a bag of weed so big it was like a small grocery bag. He said, "Take the whole thing. Have a good time. I got tons of this shit at my house." That was the happiest weed exchange of my life. Now you can't get away from it. I guess it's our fault. We talk about it in records. We're known weed-smokers. It's funny to me. I'm not sitting here saying, "This person is going to listen to that and hear what I'm saying." So it bugs me out when a motherfucker comes up to me and says, "I know you smoke, take this." Now I get so much weed, I just be giving it away.





Because of weed have you ever have any problems with the authorities outside of the United States?

Not on our last trip but the one before that, me and Dank were in Germany. We were going to Switzerland. We were driving in a van and me and Dank are real cautious about crossing borders and shit so we asked the driver, "Are there any borders coming up?" He said, "Yeah it's a little one, but they just stop you and you keep going. So don't worry about it. Smoke." We're smoking tall weed. I'm talking blunt after blunt after blunt after blunt. And we got a big ass bundle of it. So we're told we're getting close to the border and we see motherfuckers getting pulled over--getting their cars checked. So we're like 'Whoa. What the fuck?" We got all this weed on us and the whole inside of the goddamn van smells a damn clinic. I told Dank, "Don't have the weed on you. It's a rental. If anything put it somewhere and we can say we didn't know how that shit got there." Dank was like "Ok, word." and he picked up the bundle of weed and flung it side-arm. The van had a compartment under that passenger seat for supplies like oil and rags. So this weed went into this space, behind the supplies and somehow got under and behind this place that was there. Obviously they come to the van and it smells like weed and they're looking at two black dudes and a blonde dude with dreads. They were thinking, "Someone's going to jail tonight!" I'm from Detroit so dealing with the law aint nothing new. They take the German dude first. Ten minutes later they come and take Dank. I'm just sitting in the van I don't know what the fuck is going on. Ten minutes later they come get me. They bring me to the back of the border station. There's four cops sitting there like, "Get naked. LIft your sack, spread your cheeks." They're looking for this weed and I'm laughing cause there's no weed to be found. What am I gonna do, shit it out? Dank told me that they told him to take his jewelry off and that if they found weed they were going to keep his jewelry. They search us all and none of us have weed on us. They pull the bags out the van and search them. They put the bags back in the van and searched the van. Then they took the bags back out of the car and searched them again. Then they put them again back in the van and searched the van again. They're all under the seat they're looking everywhere. It was funny as hell because they sit you in front of this window so you can watch them do it. They're looking for you to be nervous. I got plausible deniability. If you find it, it aint mine. I don't know how the fuck that got there. You put that there. They searched, searched, searched and didn't find anything so they let us go. We get to the hotel in Switzerland and we're searching for 45 minutes and we cannot find this weed. I was thinking the cops took the weed. I quit. They were like "Let me check one more time." They started moving some stuff around and out fell the weed. The was the best blunt I ever smoked in my life right there. I got through by the skin of my teeth right there. Weed is a motherfucker especially if you really smoke. Motherfuckers went to jail [in Europe for weed]. Motherfuckers got banned from Europe--can't come for five years just for having weed on them. And Europe is a lot more liberal than we are in some respects. Obviously in Cali it's a different ball game. Cops are nice about weed. They dust it off. "You've got some crumbs on your shirt. Let me get that for you. Make sure you put that in the blunt next time."


Tell us a story about a time you were left feeling dumbfounded.

This aint really a weed story but I smoked a lot of weed behind it. It was us and Talib [Kweli] in Amsterdam. We opened up for him. I think it was the Paradiso, some big club. It was a good show. The crowd was packed. We did our thing. So I'm backstage chilling. Right outside the dressing room was a little space you could chill in, before the dressing room. So I'm smoking a blunt relaxing, exhausted after I just ran around for an hour on stage. Me and Dank were sitting across from each other when this dude walked up and asks "Where's Talib's room?" I'm in Amsterdam so I didn't expect to see who I saw. Dank, he's not a sports dude. I'm a sports dude. I know who he plays for and how much money he makes. Dank will always be the one asking me, "Who is that tall ass dude? Who does he play for?" He doesn't care about sports like I do. Dank was mad nonchalant about it like "Talib's room is that way, bro," on some "get lost" shit. As the athlete walks through here comes Jessica Alba walking behind him. It was bugged cause it was Baron Davis and he was looking at me like "What are you doing in Amsterdam?" and I'm looking at him wondering the same thing. Amsterdam is a place where you just have adventures. I've stayed there 2 to 3 weeks at a time.







Link ♥: http://franknittdetroitcity.blogspot.com