Andre 3000 may experiment with bow ties and suspenders, but he doesn’t toy with drugs. Word has it that Ice Cold hasn’t touched a mind-altering substance for nearly two decades. Andre decided to make the change after partying too hard in his younger days. “I actually looked in the mirror and saw myself deteriorating,” Andre 3000 told “VIBE” in 2012. “I was like, ‘Man, we’re doing too much—way too much.” He is also a vegetarian. Attorneys for most of the other defendants which had counsel listed in court records did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night.

Their 1995 record, Smokin’ N’ Leanin’, is littered with references to syrup, some 20 years before Atlanta’s Future released Dirty Sprite 2—an ode to the drug he denies being addicted to. “I was running from my old life tryna get high didn’t want to face them demons…I’m getting help I might just go to rehab.” Before his untimely passing, he stated he hadn’t taken a sip in two months. A life-long musician, a former promoter, and a vinyl enthusiast, he loves digging into the stories behind the great artists of our time.

Trial date set for rapper Young Thug following jury panel selection

Eminem is one of the most prominent rappers around and has been open about his time in rehab. His drug addiction began in 2002 when he started taking pills for his insomnia. For the next few years, the rapper struggled with addiction to prescription drugs, including Vicodin, Ambien, and Valium. In 2005, Eminem went to rehab and successfully achieved sobriety after spending time there.

• Several other rappers, from Macklemore to Kendrick Lamar, have relayed the dangers of drug abuse through song.
• Frequent collaborators Lil Pump and Smokepurpp blacklisted Xans, announcing in January 2018 that they were leaving the habit in the past.
• Also last January, Mozzy kicked off the #KickDaKupChallenge, denouncing lean by pouring out a whole bottle onto the ground.

The New Orleans rapper has been sippin’ and spittin’ about purple drank for years. He first came out about his addiction in 2008, but rumors of the toll it takes on his life continue into 2013. When he landed in a coma after suffering from severe seizures a few months ago, everyone pointed at a sizzurp OD as the cause, though Wayne claims to have suffered from epileptic seizures his whole life. Lil Uzi Vert isn’t very far off when he screams “I’m a rockstar,” because, in all reality, this genre switch has made him the new breed of rockstar. Of course this comes with the heavy drug culture that rockstars partook in through the late 1900s.

Rap Music

Despite being accused of horrific abuse by an ex-partner, XXXTentacion enjoyed massive popularity before being killed in 2018 aged 20 as he was robbed outside a Florida motorcycle dealership. Pittsburgh rapper Jimmy Wopo – touted as the heir to local forebears Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller – was killed in a drive-by shooting the same day. Two weeks sober rappers later, 21-year-old Canadian rapper and Drake tourmate Smoke Dawg was killed outside a Toronto nightclub. In March 2019, Nipsey Hussle was shot dead outside his Los Angeles clothing store. Since molly’s fading popularity and the increase in codeine mentions, other over-the-counter and prescription drugs have crept into hip-hop’s woozy landscape.

• The fantasy of making money on the streets has always appealed to the Hip-Hop community, so it is no surprise that a large percentage of rappers talk about moving work in their rhymes.
• The image that he’s painted for himself even gets to him a little bit.
• In songs and interviews, Jay-Z has discussed the ubiquity of drugs he saw while growing up in Brooklyn in the 1980s.
• With the truth out about the fatal consequences of the string of illicit and synthetic drugs, it should prove interesting to see how the music — Hip Hop music to be exact — echoes the message going forward.
• Sullivan was arrested Sept. 30, while the other defendants were taken into custody in October.
• But there are plenty of rappers who find that life is better without substances.