Why hip-hop needs to kick the syrup habit
OPINION - This is hip-hop's Studio 54 era. The real test of the culture will be how it comes out on the other end, or frankly, who makes it to the other side...
Hip-hop’s drug de jour isn’t a new phenomenon, but its prominence is indelibly linked with the South’s ascent to hip-hop’s forefront since the early 2000’s.
Houston’s DJ Screw, best known as the creator of the chopped-and-screwed sound, died in 2000 from an overdose of the prescription-only, codeine-containing cough medicine Promethazine.
Ironically, the same year the term sizzurp was thrust into the national lexicon when Three 6 Mafia released “Sippin’ on Some Syrup” (complete with a video featuring baby bottles filled with brown liquid) and ‘lean’ made ears perk up on Jay-Z and UGK’s smash hit “Big Pimpin’.”
In the 13 years since, many things about the drug have evolved and its availability has risen.
The image of double-stacked Styrofoam cups has become any international symbol for “sippin’ lean,” but despite major deaths like the late Pimp C of UGK and health other scares, hip-hop seems no more deterred from the recreational intoxicant and if anything, the allure is growing.
Nearly a decade ago, the University of Texas found that 8.3 percent of secondary school students in Texas had taken codeine syrup to get high.
A unscientific poll today would show that since then, the notoriety of “lean culture” and it’s widespread acceptance in hip-hop circles has ballooned.
The lean generation has entered the mainstream. Rappers like A$AP Rocky have grown up in the thick of it, and despite being from Harlem, Houston’s influence permeates his style and music.
Spawned from DJ Screw’s sound, the drug’s staying power has proven to be just as strong as the South’s stranglehold on mainstream airwaves. But what can be done about an issue that’s become the backdrop of an entire musical landscape?
A recent Los Angeles Times story credited the diminishing role of violence in hip-hop to rappers being more open about their vulnerability. The counter argument to that is much of the violence we have grown accustomed to hearing in hip-hop has been replaced by prescription drug abuse, most notably, lean, pills, marijuana, and more recently, molly.
While it is positive to see rappers aren’t dying over bars anymore, rappers haven’t turned a new leaf, they’ve found new vices. Is it encouraging that knowing the reason behind peace in the hip-hop community is more closely linked with being too busy partying and popping pills than maturity alone?
This is hip-hop’s Studio 54 era. The real test of the culture will be how it comes out on the other end or, frankly, who makes it to the other side.
Living in an era where YOLO is reason enough to try anything, substituting the quick death of gun violence for the slow burn of drug abuse is hardly a proper alternative, but it seems to be the one hip-hop has settled on until it too betrays the culture, like crack before it.
@mikemccray | social media coordinator | the fayetteville observer | 910.609.0649
