Cash Only’s 420 Recs: Trey Smith, Music and Marijuana Journalist

The former host of VICE’s “Smokeables” is the MacGyver of Marijuana — who else can turn a crab leg into a DIY pipe? Here, the weed lord talks bodega bud, his go-to munchies snack, and the merits of rewatching “Heat.”
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Trey Smith is perpetually chill. The writer, video host, and Twitter lord keeps it a buck and says what’s on his mind both IRL and URL in a manner that could easily be described as unruffled.

That’s not to say he’s jaded or unenthusiastic, but rather Trey is the embodiment of maintaining your composure and staying cool as ice, even when you’re chopping it up with public figures as diverse (and famous) as Michael Imperioli and Eric Andre.

For years, Trey was a defining voice at the now-sadly-defunct Noisey. The man did it all there: he used to oversee the platform’s socials, wrote countless articles, hosted the popular video show “The Noisey Questionnaire of Life,” and was the go-to talent for anything involving weed. His mellow charisma makes him ideal for starring in 420-related content, as Trey can stay lifted without missing a beat or punchline.

Some of his hazy highlights included the series “Smokables,” which featured Trey making DIY smoking contraptions, such as an ice bong in the middle of a blizzard, a potato one-hitter, and a crab leg pipe. This dude is pretty much the MacGyver of marijuana, and he did the lord’s work by teaching us how to, say, turn a Pringles can into a smoking device.

Trey is a great guy with great taste, and we’re lucky to call him a pal. The journalist recently made some time to hop on the horn and discuss his pot preferences with Cash Only, which includes his go-to bodega for buying weed, some seriously heady book recommendations, and his favorite Japanese market for satisfying the munchies.

What’s your current favorite weed strain and how do you like to consume it? 

Trey Smith: I stopped kind of paying attention to strains, especially because in New York where weed’s not regulated yet you’ve got people selling you, say, Sour Diesel, and it’s different depending on where you get it. If I’m at a dispensary out of town, I’m usually looking for some kind of haze, like something sativa-heavy.

Are you a daytime smoker?

Yes, I’m a wake-and-baker. One of the first things I do when I wake is smoke. I’m that type of smoker. Usually a spliff. One cool thing about the whole Wild West of Weed situation we have out here is that the guy at one of the spots I buy from is very, very generous. So $50 quarters, that type of thing. It’s a pretty good situation. I’m a spliff guy 90% of the time, and I eat edibles sometimes. I was just in California and got some of those infused beverages like Cann and Wunder, which are pretty great. I’ve also been getting into these STIIIZY pens, like the disposable ones. I really enjoy them, and you get at least 150 hits per pen. They cost like $30 and you can just get another when you finish one.

When you say your local guy in NYC is generous, are we talking about a bodega, an exotic snacks shop? 

It’s one of those weed bodegas, one of the ones that popped up since weed got legalized and shit. 

Have you been to one of the gifting dispensaries yet? You live pretty close to Gifted.

Yeah, I’ve checked it out. They’re a little steep with the pricing, and I don’t feel like buying an NFT just to get weed. The store is very well put together, and it looks great in there. So no disrespect, it’s just a different type of weed purchase. 

And the weed from these bodegas is sufficient; it’ll do its job. It’s a one-stop shop, man: I go get my weed, I go get my snacks, I get my beverages. I’ll pick up edibles from them, too. 

Do you have a go-to munchies snack?

Nothing particular. Just whatever the hell I’m thinking about at the time. I get weird cravings. It might be chips, it might be Korean fried chicken. Sometimes I want to crush an entire can of Pringles, you know? There’s this new Japanese grocery store in Williamsburg called Ten Ichi that I fuck with, too. That place whoops ass, man. I like those drinks that have the little ball in the bottleneck. I can’t speak or read a lick of Japanese, so I can’t tell you what’s in that shit, but I’m not mad at whatever it is. 

What activity do you like to do after you’ve gotten really stoned?

Sometimes, I’ll go rock climbing at one of those new rock climbing gyms near The Lot Radio in Brooklyn. It’s fun to be baked and try to figure out how to move your body to get to the next point on the wall. It seems like it’d be hard while you’re stoned, but climbing is mostly about doing strategy in your head and trying to figure out your next three steps ahead. And when I’m that high, my mind is racing anyway, so I may as well channel it into something good. Getting up there is the easy part, but getting yourself down is what’s tricky. They also have an outdoor wall, and when you get to the top of it, there’s a great view of the East River. The place is built for having fun. 

Can you recommend something to watch while really high?

For some reason, if I’m really high, I’ll regularly put on Heat — the Michael Mann movie. It’s a great “dudes rock” movie, you know? It’s for the boys. Like there’s that serial killer subplot that comes out of goddamn nowhere at one point. I’ve seen it at least a dozen and half times. The bank robbery scene gets me every time. 

I’m also in the middle of rewatching King of the Hill, which I’ve also seen at least a dozen times. I feel like that show never got the credit it deserves. It’s maybe the best thing Mike Judge has ever done. It’s about an All-American, flag-loving dude who you’d think would have terrible politics, but he finds out he was more left-leaning than he thought he was in pretty much every episode. There’s one where they have a girl stay at their house, and they didn’t realize she was a call girl. And then Hank defends her from her pimp and sees the humanity in her. Stuff like that. He’s got good values.

Can you recommend something to listen to while smoking?

I’ve been listening to 22GZ; he’s probably my favorite New York rapper right now. Nardo is also funny as shit. He’s from Jacksonville, Florida. Florida, in general, has a really good hip-hop scene right now. Flint and Detroit, too. Michigan rappers always have really dark senses of humor, like Sada Baby and Bfb Da Packman. Packman’s got that lyric, “Stop cappin, my dick ain’t that big.” I interviewed him once and asked about the shirt he wears in the “Free Joe Exotic” video that says “HIV Positive.” All he said was, “Don’t worry about it” [laughs]. 

I also went to Coachella for work, which led me to get back into some pop shit. I liked this guy Weiland who put out an album called Vices. I’m always curious about what’s popular on the radio. I’m mostly genre-agnostic. If I’m feeling it, I might put on some metal and shit when I’m stoned.

Can you recommend something to read once stoned? 

Right now, I’ve been checking out our former colleague Kim Kelly’s book, Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor. I was on a big nonfiction kick a few months ago, so I was reading stuff about class politics and radical movements in American history. There’s this book White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg that’s really good. Also, Blood in My Eye by George Jackson, which is an all-timer for me. 

I’ve been reading a bunch of music books, and I highly recommend Assata Shakur’s autobiography. She was a Black Panther who was accused of killing a cop, and basically had to escape prison and flee to Cuba. One more: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. That was one of the most fun reads I’ve had in a long time. It’s about a fictionalized band that’s based on Fleetwood Mac. It’s formatted like an oral history, but it’s fiction. It’s an interesting conceptual approach. It’s like 300 pages, and I got through it in like two days. 

Who’s in your dream blunt rotation?

That’s a tough one because I’m smoking when I do everything, so if you’re around me there’s a good chance you may be in my rotation. If I had to pick one person right now, I’d say Angus Cloud from Euphoria. He seems like a chill dude. He’d sit there and only talk if he had something to say — “I’m not here to bother nobody; I’m here to be cool.” I imagine he has that type of vibe. 

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  1. More useless garbage from Zach. No wonder why Vice, Merry Jane, Playboy, and Penthouse fired you. Get a real job.

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