Mary Jane (Rick James Song) - History - Covers, Samples, and Uses in Other Media

Covers, Samples, and Uses in Other Media

The song has been covered and sampled by numerous artists. It was sampled for the song "Weakness" by Detroit Hip Hop Group House of Krazees, off their 1995 EP Outbreed. It was sampled in the smash hit I'm Real (Murder Remix), "Jane" (1988) by EPMD, "Smoke Buddah" by Redman, "Funky Payback" (1991) by rap group O.G. Style, "Rollin' the Dice" (1992) by Master P, "Mari" by Frost, and Dj Honda feat. Beatnuts - On The Mic. Coolio sampled the song to create a hip-hop version called " Mary Jane" on the soundtrack to the film Half-Baked. It was also closely sampled along with another song written by Rick James, known as All Night Long, in Mary J. Blige's song "Mary Jane (All Night Long)." The introduction to the song is sampled in Pretty Ricky's "On the Hotline." Though the tempo has been slowed, the melody heard in Weezer's "Peace", bears resemblance to the opening riff of Mary Jane. It is believed to be the origin of the band title for the Mary Jane Girls (a popular band in the 80's) who performed on James' composition All Night Long. Mary Jane is featured in the 1995 film Friday's soundtrack, as well as the soundtrack to the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Mack 10's song On Them Thangs uses a sample from this song. Mary Jane's intro is used as the opening song of the popular Rick James skit, it can be briefly heard in the background while Charlie Murphy describes his admiration for Rick James and how much more amazed he was when he met James than all the other celebrities he had the opportunity to meet. On chapter 15 of R. Kelly's urban opera Trapped in the Closet, the song was mentioned as Twan (played by Eric Lane) was driving fast and getting high while driving.