Dope As Yola Gets Scanned Into Mixed Reality and Films a Roll Tutorial You Can Walk Around

Thomas Araujo, better known as Dope As Yola, is one of the most recognizable cannabis creators on YouTube, with more than 2 million subscribers and a catalog built on story times, longform hangouts and rolling tutorials that people treat like homework.

Now he is taking his most famous format into a new medium.

In an IgniteIt exclusive interview, Yola reveals he was scanned into a mixed reality platform called Soapbox, a project he describes as bringing concerts, comedy and performances into VR and AR, including on Meta Quest headsets.

“Soapbox is bringing concerts to VR, Meta augmented reality, the mixed universe. Basically, this is the future of entertainment.

I play VR with my brother on the Meta Quest and it’s awesome. Now imagine. It’s pretty surreal to know that I’ll be in the metaverse showing people how to roll a joint for the rest of history.”

What Soapbox is building, and why Yola got pulled in

“I have a lot of friends in the music industry. One of them recently approached me about this company called Soapbox.

So I met one of the owners, named Dream, at a restaurant in Santa Monica to talk over what we could potentially do with VR.”

From there, the pitch lands right where it is supposed to.

“Dream said, ‘Hey, I know you’re the big weed tuber. How would you like to show people how to roll a joint for the rest of history, for the rest of time?’

As soon as he said that, I automatically knew I wanted to do this.”

Soapbox is scanning talent into immersive captures, and the platform has already hosted major names.

“They’ve had comedians, rappers, the Marleys and rock bands already come and get scanned into this universe. I truly feel like this is the future of entertainment, and this is just the ground floor.

It feels like the movie Ready Player One, but in real life.”

“They get scanned into the metaverse, so they can now live forever.”

What he filmed

Yola says he recorded a “How To Roll A Joint” segment designed to be experienced in VR, not watched like a normal video. He frames it as a tutorial you can physically move around.

“People are going to be able to press pause,” he says. “They’ll be able to walk over, look right over my shoulder as if they’re in the room with me.”

The appeal, in his telling, is proximity. It is not a distant camera angle. It is up close, almost uncomfortably close, in the way real learning often is.

“You could see the pores on my face. You can walk right up to me and see the fibers of my clothes. It is that realistic. It’s just like the holograms from the movies. It’s actually mind-blowing.”

Rolling is a small-move skill. Most people miss the part that matters because the camera never lands where their eyes want to be. Yola says mixed reality fixes that.

“They will be able to zoom in and see exactly how I roll a joint. They’ll be able to see how the tuck starts. They can pause, zoom in and see exactly how I do it.

It’s like my YouTube, but highly elevated.”

The “first joint” claim, and the brand flex

Yola believes the session marks a first for this kind of mixed reality capture.

“Hey, the first joint ever rolled in VR, in the metaverse, in the AR mixed universe, ever,” he says. “This is the first time this has ever been done in history.”

IgniteIt can’t independently confirm every cannabis-related XR experiment that has ever happened, but Yola’s claim is specific to the format he describes: a lifelike, walk-around, pausable rolling tutorial captured for mixed reality.

He also makes it clear that he frames the segment around his papers.

“Because I’ve now started my rolling paper company, Proper Papers, it’s surreal to say, ‘Hey, I’m the first guy to ever roll a joint in the metaverse VR AR universe, and I’m rolling my own paper company.’ That is a cherry on top.”

The part that gets even weirder, in a good way

After the roll, Yola says he recorded a second segment: a 10-minute story time, built for mixed or augmented reality, where he can appear in someone’s actual space.

“Now people are going to be able to do mixed or augmented reality where they still see their house, but a person will pop up,” he says. “So now I can pop up in their room and tell them ‘story time’ while they smoke a joint.”

That is the point where this stops being a novelty tutorial and starts looking like a new category of creator content. Less “watching,” more “sharing a room,” even if the room is digital.

He also says he is heading into school curriculum.

Yola tells IgniteIt he is moving into education content focused on entrepreneurship and building a platform, and that he expects it to land inside school curriculum in multiple states.

“People are already requiring iPads for school. Soon, it will be the headset so people can actually be immersed inside of history class if they’re reading a book, etc.

I’m about to be in the school curriculum for four states.

I did a social media online business class, how to start a business from a platform, how to build a platform and how to build a brand in the social media age.

So this VR AR reality is crossing over into school curriculum, and I cannot believe I’m one of the first people that high school and college students will be able to learn from in this mixed reality universe.”

He describes the broader direction as schools shifting into headsets and immersive lessons, from history to hands-on learning.

“They’re starting to do VR,” he says. “They can go, ‘Hey, we’re going to go to the Spanish Civil War,’ and they’re going to put your headset on. Boom.”

He adds that Los Angeles is “not finalized yet,” but says four states are already in motion. He also mentions his co-host as part of the rollout, with a separate segment that functions like “Marketing 101.”

“Everyone knows me as a stoner, yes, but there’s more than that. I’ve built five successful businesses and continue to try more ventures. And with this aspect of the curriculum, it’s not just, ‘You’re a stoner.’

You’re an entrepreneur that happens to also be a stoner.”

What happens next

Yola says the environment itself is still flexible, because VR lets you build whatever world fits the moment.

“Maybe I’m in a forest. Maybe I’m in a giant warehouse,” he says. “Maybe someone’s holding up the tray for me. They can do anything.”

Then he zooms out to the part he seems most excited about: the time-capsule feeling.

“What’s up, guys out there in the future, whether it’s 2135 or 2350. Welcome to the Meta Quest. My name is Dope As Yola and I’m about to show you how to roll a joint.

I’m talking to the future. What an incredible project.”