Remember when rappers used to just talk about smoking weed? Or we can go back even further to a time when they urged people not to do drugs. Somethings changed, and it hasn't been a good change. Rap music is perhaps the most influential genre of music in America today. While Taylor Swift or Katy Perry may move more units, it's really the rappers who influence our culture the most. They go hand in hand with our royal family, the Kardashians, who frequently publicly date or befriend these artists, furthering their influence and giving them new demographics to hit.
When hip hop was birthed, the artists pioneering the sound would oftentimes urge the listener to stay away from drugs. Shit, in "express yourself" by N.W.A. Dr Dre himself, one of the godfathers of weed rap said that he doesn't smoke "weed or sess" because it slows you down. He then went on to meet Snoop Dogg and release The Chronic, and the rest is history. So that was the 80s, then the 90s came around. Suddenly artists were rapping about dealing drugs, they weren't necessarily glorifying this lifestyle (Though some were, I'm generalizing), they simply portrayed it as them doing what they have to do in order to survive. With cuts like Biggies "10 Crack Commandments" giving a hard look into the lifestyle. While tracks like Nas' "One Love" explore the consequences of it. The most rappers would boast about doing was smoking a bit of weed, looking at you Snoop. Then came the next century...
Fast forward to the 2000s and it's a different story. Rappers glorified drug dealing, toting it as the cool thing to do, and boasting how much more money they make than all the people with actual jobs. Aside from this, this era saw the birth of "Lean" the drug which took the lives of many talented artists such as Pimp C of UGK. At the tail end of the decade the hype around the drug died down a bit, in part because of the tragic deaths it caused. However, once the 2010s came, drug use in hip hop came back with a vengeance. Though this decade saw the rise of many more conscientious artists, such as Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Chance the Rapper etc. It also began championing the usage of drugs such as lean and xanax. This has inspired a whole generation of kids who look up to these artists to chug down bottles of cough syrup, and take massive doses of benzos, because Future and Young Thug glorify it in their music. Other trends came and went, such as MDMA, however with the genres current climate, it's apparent that these substances are here to stay. Even after modern day tragedies such as the passing of Asap Yams. When one of the most popular songs in the country goes "percocets, molly percocets, percocets, molly percocets" There's an issue.
Something needs to change, as this is hurting the minds of the young impressionable people who listen. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to someone about sipping lean and they'll turn their nose down on someone who takes prescription pills, when they're literally just taking a weaker opiate with more negative side effects. Not only is this music inspiring people in my age group everywhere to smoke weed all day everyday (Weed is great, just not 24/7), sip lean, and take xanax. It's also damaging the public perception of the genre, and as a result, blacks in America. This was partly inspired by a video by Crank Lucas,
I'd encourage any hip hop fans to check him out, he's hilarious and can rap his ass off.
Thanks for this refreshing perspective.
More to come
I mean, just like the world in general evolves (Drug-wise) ; most subcultures(like rap) will too. Things like lean have been around longer than rap itself, however only have recently made its way to the mainstream.