From rhymes about 710, to early 7/10 celebrations, to smokin’ on the 710
People who are old enough to have had a beeper in the ’80s or ’90s will likely recall the cheap thrill of having a friend page you the code “58008” which reads “BOOBS” upside-down if you have the sense of humor of a middle school hard-on.
OIL Day comes from a similar stroke of memetic numeric brilliance. Don’t overthink it, just look at the number “710” upside-down, see how it spells “OIL,” and celebrate on July 10th with the cannabis concentrate of your preference—whether that’s your everyday five-pocket vape pen, an RSO you stir into dinner recipes for extra zip, or the most dab-tastic diamonds you have ever danced with.
But how did it all start? And who gets credit? We took some leads from early explorations, ran off on a few tangents, and added local lore for those who come looking for answers about OIL Day for years to come.
The Dab Story
No matter where you ultimately give credit for the all-the-way-back origins of this high holiday, everyone can agree that the crew behind the 710 Cup deserves props for contributing early on and in a big way, having hosted their first competition in Denver in 2013. That dab stampede already featured extensive categories (shatter, wax, edible, solventless, CBD), especially for the time, and the 710 Cup team has still managed to explore new horizons in the years since, including with events throughout the year when they’re still up and running.
The Rap Story
Around 2010, TaskRok of the dab accessory brand Highly Educated started using the term 710 with friends who were also working in the concentrate market at that seminal moment. To cement the numbers, in 2011 he dropped a hip-hop project with his Salt Lake City-based duo Task & Linus that featured a track called “7:10” about dabbing. The entire cut is potent but the hook’s particularly sticky: “A million songs about weed but where the dabs at / You don’t like my dabbing songs you can kiss my ass crack / C’mon everybody drop another huge bong / 4/20 game 7/10 it’s time to move on.”
The Track Story
The 710 Interstate, mostly called the Long Beach Freeway by native Cali drivers, runs from Long Beach and Los Angeles down to Alhambra. As we understand it, the road has been known for its fair share of drug smuggling over the years, sort of like I-91 in New England. There’s no evidence that the West Coast thorofare was actually the inspiration for the similarly numbered hash holiday, but it’s certainly come to be a part of its folklore, with social media and message board mentions galore by Cali concentrate aficionados who would no doubt love to have the legacy linked to their state.
The Wax Story
While he’s not quite dabbing, here’s Warren G with a heavy 710 cannabis mention all the way back in 1997 on the song “Smokin’ Me Out” with Ron Isley: “Peepin’ them lips, hittin’ two finger sips / On the 710 freeway, I straight dips / With a fat one rolled up to puff / I’m ready to hit it and I won’t quit it until I get enough / Tokin nothing but the bomb that’s without no doubt / As she twist up another split she’s straight smokin’ me out.”
The Mass Story
While we can’t lay claim to celebrating 7/10 prior to the aforementioned torch bearers, since we’re on the topic and we cover Mass it should be noted that OIL Day was celebrated at UNregular Radio in Boston daily in the early 2010s. An early internet radio operation with original shows airing live all-day, the station was home to several cannabis-focused shows including the Boston Pot Report and Two Hotheads that effectively ushered modern dab culture into this region—as well as to a greenroom full of cats who were happy to introduce new people to the sauce. There are too many to name, but to all of them and everybody else we hope you have a safe and happy OIL Day this year and ever after.
