http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/25/kendrick-lamar-molly_n_3335959.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/atrak/license-to-pill_b_3306753.html
http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2013/05/trinidad-james-admits-doing-drugs-is-not-right/

Soooooooo... whatchall think?

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

in the early 90's when raves and x were popular? was heroin discussed around the same time?

i don't think a-trak is the right guy to start the discussion. he is the definition of an "outsider" (white + canadian) and i don't even like that term but it applies to him. that said, he wrote a pretty thoughtful (yet unsolicited and probably unwarranted) letter that touched on some interesting points. i hope it actually creates dialogue instead of being the "hey this is probably worth discus-- oh wait kanye did something" story it seems like it will end up being

kendrick isn't really saying anything directly about it and actively avoiding actually discussing it (see: sway interview) other than saying "it's corny"

trinidad didn't really say anything either. came across a bit defensive. i don't know why xxl interviewed him

i don't know how much of a problem drug use is but then again i am about as far removed from any hip hop scene as someone not living in montana can be. there have been a shocking number of codeine OD's in the past 5-6 years (and there will be more) and we are about to enter an age where aged rappers are going to start coming down with lung cancer with alarming frequency (see: too poetic, camu, etc.). THAT is what scares me the most

I think I'm most pleased at the comments coming from inside the culture, rather than from outside. And from three relatively different lanes within the culture(s). Unfortunately there really isn't a forum for the discussion to go any further than this though, until someone from outside picks up on it and takes the criticism too far. But maybe just maybe if there is more discussion from within it can prevent that type of thing from happening. I mean it's really just a couple more high profile OD's from getting a Time magazine feature and then... *sigh*

It was pretty much that outside criticism that shut down rave culture in the 90's. Once it gets really high profile everyone starts pulling the plug.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

Reminds me of the late 80's when you had folks like Dr. Dre and LL Cool J with anti-drug messages in the music.. but in retrospect, it was all for show. I mean.. these guys can speak out against molly and lean in interviews all they want, but 13 year olds are not reading their interviews.. at least not the well-written ones in reputable publications. They are listening to the music.. the hits..

I mean, random rapper/producer #1 can appear in a campaign against violence against women, but if he has a guest verse on a Chris Brown song, is known to associate with cats who talk about smacking hoes around in their music, and has some pretty questionable lyrics in his own music (which don't necessarily promote violence or rape, but don't help the situation either), then how effective and how genuine is the campaign?

Also, the drugs aren't the problem as they were made and made available independently of any music industry, scene, or culture. It's how the drugs and other things are glorified, used as lyrical crutches through popular slang, and made trendy through repetition, oversimplification, and trivialization. Basically, the level of education and information is lacking. This runs parallel with the level of lyrical complexity the younger hip hop audience is able to process. I'm still not even convinced that Swimming Pools effectively got across the message that was originally intended. Even a grown man such as myself who knows what it means finds himself singing that chorus when I'm on my way to getting FADED.

>I'm still not even convinced that Swimming Pools
>effectively got across the message that was originally
>intended. Even a grown man such as myself who knows what it
>means finds himself singing that chorus when I'm on my way to
>getting FADED.


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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

chorus' actually being the most memorable parts of songs, as the parts that are repeated most often. meaning if you listened to the song three times, you'd get to hear the antagonists perspecitve nine times saying the same lines, which by the end of the first you could memorize, but have to actually listen and decipher the verses to even get that the chorus is an antagonistic voice not a heroic one.

not that any of this went through KL's mind in the making of it, but intentional or not, it was created to have the affect. perhaps on the subversive so that you keep listening to it, until one day it does hit you that he's talking bout....

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

where did this dogmatic refusal to ever hold a damn rapper accountable for anything come from?

drugs the way they do, honestly


until that happens, these anti-drugs messages ain't shit.

And actually I think that rap has facilitated them to be more honest about it then ever though not in every lyric. What they are less realistic about is the consequences, though perhaps still not les than any previous generation. What do you think they are not addressing about their usage?




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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

aren't honest enough about where their greed in overproducing those drugs is leading, who is consuming them, how quickly those drugs can become addictive, how expensive they make them to the consumer and where that consumer is going to go to satiate that need after they can no longer afford to buy those drugs.......which is of course on the street to cop heroin.

but... yeah.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

not an insinuation, his team is saying it was an OD

http://www.thefader.com/2014/08/07/dj-rashad-drug-overdose-autopsy/

Shit is redic man.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

Never used heroin, but pretty much everything else under the sun. Part due to peer pressure, part due to my own curiosity, part due to my own dreams being crushed against the weight of time

At times it's weak, others it's bliss, others it's just fun

I can't imagine what it's like to finally catch a break and have an addictive inclination / biology with that access

I just hope as a nation we become more honest with what drives our addictions and alternatives to helping folk deep in their struggle