Musical High
Musical High
Drugs get a free plug in music. From rap to rock and most music genres in between, drugs are glorified. It’s not something new, either. Drugs have been sung about for years. Musicians are drugs’ biggest distributors, bringing them to every iPod, stereo in every car, home and neighborhood.
Marijuana, ecstasy, prescription drugs and other types are drugs are immortalized in music. Rapper Snoop Lion, formerly known as Snoop Dogg, loves to rap about his “Mary Jane” but he’s not the first. Even in the 1930s, Cab Calloway was singing about “Reefer Man.”
Disturbing Message with a Beat
There is a danger to singing or rapping about drugs. Aside from the promotion of substance abuse, sexual assault and other violent acts when under the influence of drugs are mentioned in many songs. Just recently, rapper Rick Ross has been in the limelight for disturbing lyrics about drugging a woman and sexually assaulting her while she is passed out.
A Call for Help?
Despite this allure and glamour that drugs are given in music, there is still a person with a substance abuse problem. Rapper Lil’ Wayne, who was recently hospitalized for seizures (possibly related to abusing codeine-based cough syrup), raps about his prescription drug abuse in his song “Feel Like Dying.”
“I can mingle with the stars and throw a party on Mars / I am a prisoner, locked up behind Xanax bars”
The title and verse speaks volumes about drug abuse. However, there isn’t much said about substance abuse treatment. The priority for many of these artists is to sell records and make money. Putting their much needed addiction treatment on the back burner.
