“Touch it” remains KiDi’s biggest chart-topping single yet arguably one of the most successful songs by a Ghanaian artist in the last decade. The song currently features American rapper Tyga on the remix. Since its official release, the song has accumulated almost 19 million views on YouTube, both the official song and the remix combined. The song debuted on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales at #20 and eventually peaked at #16 On Billboard Top Triller Global Chart.

The song released on May 5 2021, the third track on his critically acclaimed Golden Boy album which remains the most-streamed album of all time by a Ghanaian artist on Spotify with a whopping 37.7 million and counting streams became an internet sensation topping so many charts. With over one billion TikTok views globally on the popular social media site and even earning him his first NAACP nominee, the first of its kind in Ghana in the last decade!

With the commercial success the song has received, what really is the meaning behind the song “Touch It”, and why do people enjoy it so much? Why did it kick up fuss and critique? Could there be cryptic messages embedded in the song?

In quest for answers Hunukane news had to decipher the song to bring your mind to a few things you might have missed while jamming.

First off, “Touch It” is about marijuana as many might have missed that in the first two lines of the lyrics.

“Puff puff pass, my Mary Jane,
I’m high on life wanna meditate”

The history of ‘Puff puff pass is somewhat murky but has been accepted as the universal pot-circle etiquette.
The common phrase is a golden rule for pot-smokers, which simply means to take two hits of the blunt, then pass it to the next person counterclockwise.

“Mary Jane”

There have been suggestions about what the name “Mary Jane” really means. Nonetheless, it has commonly been a marijuana reference. The name, coined by Mexicans and Spaniards who were already using it long before the name Cannabis became popularly known in the early 1930s. Marijuana, broken into two words becomes “Mari + Juana”. Which is quite similar to the traditional Spanish names “Maria + Juana”. In a sense, “Mary Jane” is said to be the english version of the two words. The name being one of the dozens of slang synonyms of Marijuana has since earned lines in songs from great Musicians like Rick James, Collie Buddz and Marlon Asher.

In the ” Touch It” video, a wheel spinner is shown indicating other slang terms for marijuana.
In no order it reads Cannabis, Dutchie, Spliff, Mari J, Puff and also how Ghanaians dubbed the substance “Ntampe” in Twi(most widely spoken language in Ghana).

“Pass make e touch it” Pass me the Dutchie,

“Dutchie” a quintessential West Indies word for a large, heavy cooking pot but also a slang that means cannabis blunt rolled inside a Dutch Masters Cigar. The line was picked from the popular song “Pass the Kutchie” by the Musical Youth, The song that inspired Kidi to write Touch it in just 30 mins after a friend sent him the sample via a YouTube link, produced by Toney Owens from Kingston and the British Jamaican reggae band Musical Youth, taken from their debut studio album, The Youth of Today circa 1982. The reggae song was a major hit, peaking at number one on the UK Singles Chart. Outside the United Kingdom, it peaked within the top ten of the charts in the United States and sold over five million copies worldwide.

For the cover version, the song’s title was bowdlerised to “Pass the Dutchie”, the new word being a patois term for a Dutch oven, a type of cooking pot. All obvious drug references were removed from the lyrics; e.g., instead of the original “How does it feel when you got no herb?”, the cover version refers to “food” instead. “Dutchie” has since become a drug reference, denoting a blunt stuffed with marijuana and rolled in a wrapper from a Dutch Masters’ cigar, since American, Australian and British listeners assumed that the term was a drug reference.

“Touch It” lyrics as well raised questions about legal status precluding it from being played on some radio stations. Critics have since asked that KiDi comes up openly with a clean version to clear his name as a bona fide artist.

One common experience shared by pot users is how it stimulates sexual experiences and acts as an aphrodisiac.

KiDi narrates this in the lyrics the sexual explicitly scenes under the influence of marijuana. The song includes phrases like…

“Pretty gyal, come whine pon di cocky
Ten toes, gwan gyal, make you touch it”

Away from that, here are some other concept you might have missed from the video, Costumes and setup.

Arguably KiDi’s biggest single “Touch it” also comes with a cinematic music video shot by Rex with a distinct style and eye-catching visual. Sporting a flashy long tail coat embroidered with stones, with shimmering sunglasses, a beaver hat inspired by Hugh Jackman’s look from the movie The Greatest Showman(in italics). A fictious movie which was premiered on December 8, 2017 and grossed $435 million worldwide, making it the fifth-highest-grossing musical of all time. The music video also took inspiration from the circus vogue makeover and set design of the film with mesmerising costumes, colors, choreography, characters and art.

With all these revelations, here’s a quick one.
Why is “Touch It” still a banger amidst all the controversies and critique?
“Touch It”, It’s catchy, We’ll give it that much! Could it the Caribbean/Dancehall dance beat that really makes it easy to shake your booty to? Or is it KiDi’s melodic style of singing, how he delivers the repetitive lyrics and drills them into the heads of listeners? Or is it the bouncy up-tempo instrumental which prompts listeners to get ecstatic and have a good time? Or maybe a blend of everything?

Whatever the magic is, ignore the critics, listen it with an open mind and enjoy this masterpiece!