Senadheera 1

Ransith Senadheera

Professor Granillo

English 101 / 47379

7 February 2020

Rainbow Road

Drug addiction. A powerful force that dominates the body, causing the user to lose self

control. Drug or substance abuse can be sought out in almost all communities, but is only found

in a body of a few. This addiction changes people and causes relationships to break, lives to be

ruined, and deaths to occur. It is rampaging through our society today, and is being lifted up by

the insightful words of influential people such as celebrities. However, there are a few people

that are using their past experiences with drugs and addiction to combat this harmful way of life.

Through this essay I will be speaking on four different songs titled “48” by Tyler, The Creator,

“Crack Rock” by Frank Ocean, “Carmen” by Lana Del Rey and “Self Care” by Mac Miller,

which are included in my playlist Rainbow Road. Each of these songs discuss past relationships

with drugs and alcohol, in order to create a new view on drugs that will hopefully create change

in people's decisions when it comes to taking drugs. These four songs and the people who make

them, lead me into the creation of a new patriot, one who strives to enlighten people on the

harmful uses of drugs and advocate for a change in society built around drug culture.

“48” by Tyler, The Creator and “Crack Rock” by Frank Ocean share a message of drugs,

specifically crack, ruining the world in these two songs and spread word about this prominent

problem in society. Near the end of the song “48”, Tyler raps “She could have been a doctor,

nigga, I’m sorry (Yeah, nigga) / Could have been an actor and won that Oscar, said I'm sorry / I

sold that soul, and I killed black folk, I'm sorry (Yeah, nigga)” (Tyler, The Creator 2013). In
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“48”, Tyler is showing how dealing crack to different people ruined their lives and hindered their

futures and success. He states how one of the girls could have won an Oscar, but instead, she got

sucked up into the lonesome world of drugs. Frank Ocean, in his song “Crack Rock”, soulfully

sings “You're smokin' stones in abandoned homes / You hit them stones and broke your home”

(Frank Ocean 2012). In “Crack Rock”, Ocean is stating how drugs, such as crack, ruins families

and break the stability of homes. Through both of these songs, you can see how people afflicted

with drug addiction are systematically ruining their lives and are not getting help to get out of

this state. In an article by Hatice Arslan of The Turkish Journal on Addictions, he states how

“music is said to influence youths' emotions, behaviors, and communication styles, with rap

music being problematic. As a result of the analysis, under the main theme of expressions related

to alcohol and substance use, four sub-themes have been formed: expressions demeaning women

(13.1%), desperate-pessimistic expressions (27.0%), expressions supporting violence and crime

(26.3%), and slang and taboo expressions (33.6%)” (Arslan). Arslan states how music influences

youth groups and changes the way they think about certain topics. He also states the average of

meanings in many different rap songs. These two songs that I mentioned are totally different and

instead show the negative effects of using drugs and how they are not always nice to the user and

loved ones. Tyler, The Creator and Frank Ocean are creating my sense of a new patriot because

they are leading the way and enlightening people on the faults of drugs and how they can affect

families and people’s career. Personally, I come from a background in skateboarding and I am

very entrenched in the skateboarding subculture. Through my years in the culture, I have seen

countless friends lose themselves in short-lived euphoria and become addicted to substances that

are deadly, such as Ketamine. I have seen them ruin their lives in the course of a month and

eventually, it felt like I did not even know them anymore.

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“Carmen” by Lana Del Rey and “Self Care” by Mac Miller both allude to the amazing

feeling of being high or drunk but also recount the dangers of doing these acts too much. Lana

Del Rey sings about a girl named Carmen who “says, ‘You don't want to be like me / Looking

for fun, getting high for free’ / I'm dying, I'm dying” (Lana Del Rey 2012). In this verse from

“Carmen”, Lana Del Rey expresses the pain of the girl who is abusing liquor in order to feel fun

and free. This feeling is what gets her hooked and begins to kill her slowly. In Self Care, Mac

Miller sings, “We spend our nights all liquored up, our mornings high / Can you feel it now?”

(Mac Miller 2018). In Mac Miller’s verse, he states how he would always be high or drunk to

simply feel pleasure. The euphoric feeling Miller acquires after taking all these drugs led to his

substance addiction and, sadly, caused his death in 2018 due to an accidental overdose.

According to Imtiaz Ahmad Docar from the Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society, he states

how “drug abuse culture has deeply penetrated all strata of our society. Especially the lower and

upper classes, ranging from…methamphetamine (crystal-meth), cocaine, and other party drugs

like LSD, MDMA, and synthetic cannabinoids etc. There is a rise in drug abuse culture in our

educational institution be it universities, colleges or even schools' ' (Dogar 6). This rise in drug

culture in the world is leading to countless deaths in our society. Mac Miller passed due to an

overdose of a mixture of drugs ranging from cocaine to fentanyl (Blankstein). The way he spoke

about his drug problems and then died due to them, impacted many. people and showed listeners

that drugs are not always happy and societies problems with drugs are no joke. In today’s music

culture built around drug culture, so many influential artists are dying so often. One artist, who I

loved was Mac Miller and his upbeat raspy voice which lulled painful feelings from me. After

his death, a surge of drug addiction and substance abuse awareness was spread around the

community and impacted the way the youth look at drugs nowadays.
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As seen in the songs above, people are creating change in our society due to the fact that

they are bringing light to the powerful problem of drug and substance abuse. In matter of fact,

President Trump stated in a speech at the White House in 2017, that “as Americans, we cannot

allow this to continue. It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.

Never been this way. We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic. We can do it. We

can do it” (Vital Speeches of the Day 357). This new found wave of anti drug information and

substance abuse cases in influential artists has led to a resurgence in helping communities make

it through drug addiction. People around the world are being taken by drugs and led down a path

of addiction. With the power of these songs, the President of the United States has recognized the

problem with drugs and is working on overcoming it. It is important to remember that we are a

community built on teamwork and we need to help our communities in need.

These four songs and the people who make them, lead me into the creation of a new

patriot, one who strives to enlighten people on the harmful uses of drugs and advocate for a

change in society built around drug culture. These songs discuss the effects of drug addiction and

substance abuse. They highlight key elements such as the high you feel and the crash that occurs

in your life to the people around you. The messages of these songs are seen in real life and the

harmful effects of drugs are noticed in society today, especially with the sad death of artist Mac

Miller. It is important in today's society to understand the effects of drugs and enlighten the

youth on the presence of drugs in a current culture framed around deadly substances.

Works Cited

Arslan, Hatice, and Mehmet Kırlıoğlu. “Drug Subculture as a Way of Expression: Rap Music.”

Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, vol. 6, no. 3, Sept. 2019, pp. 819–843.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.15805/addicta.2019.6.3.0075.
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Blankstein, Andrew, and Li, David K. “Rapper Mac Miller Died of a Drug Overdose.”

NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 5 Nov. 2018, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-

news/rapper-mac-miller-died-drug-overdose-n931361.

Docar, Imtiaz Ahmad, and Amqa Shah. “Locked up behind Crystal Bars: The Rising

Evil of Drug Abuse.” Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society, vol. 16, no. 3, July 2019,

pp. 6–9. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=140266858&site=ehost-live.

Frank Ocean. “Crack Rock.” Channel Orange, The Island Def Jam Music Group, 2012. Spotify,

spotify:track:5lcyIeEfwZTs8Ajw3kdF7P.

Lana Del Rey. “Carmen.” Born To Die - The Paradise Edition, Interscope Records, 2012.

Spotify, spotify:track:5QvBXUm5MglLJ3iBfTX2Wo.

Mac Miller. “Self Care.” Swimming, Warner Records, 2018. Spotify,

spotify:track:5bJ1DrEM4hNCafcDd1oxHx.

“Time to Liberate Our Communities from This Scourge of Drug Addiction.” Vital Speeches of

the Day, vol. 83, no. 12, Dec. 2017, pp. 357–360. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=128834448&site=ehost-live.

Tyler, The Creator. “48.” Wolf, Odd Future, 2013. Spotify,

spotify:track:2wK7y55bzry7tUDmDqYaz7.