It’s a disturbing image made all the more powerful by the singer’s haunting vocal performance. Penned by Martika about a friend wrestling with cocaine addiction, this eery 1989 pop-rock jam gets at how drugs control people like kids playing with plastic figurines. Then you’ll probably just get a slap on the wrist.Ĭhart Peak: No. As Melle Mell raps with his inimitable old-school bellow, coke will get you hooked, leave you broke, and land you behind bars-unless you’re a respectable white businessman, that is. 7 on Hot 100, July 29, 1967Īn early example of hip-hop tackling social issues, “White Lines” is all about the bad times you’ll have messing with blow. The unorthodox health lesson ends with a reminder to “feed your head.” It’s like the FDA food pyramid has morphed into that creepy Eye of Providence on the dollar bill and taken flight to a new dimension called San Francisco.Ĭhart Peak: No. There are pills to make you big and pills to make you small, Slick tells us, and they’re all more effective than whatever you can by at the drug store. Like Lennon on “Lucy in the Sky,” Grace Slick and company get down on some Lewis Carrol business with this mega-trippy 1967 hit. But toward the end of the first verse, he raps about a coping mechanism that isn’t doing him any favors: “Xanny, help the pain, yeah / Please, Xanny, make it go away / I’m committed, not addicted, but it keep control of me.” In late 2017, following the overdose death of Lil Peep, Uzi pledged to kick Xanax for good.Ĭhart Peak: No. A woozy Uzi also wrestles with relationship issues and the pitfalls of fame. Lil Uzi Vert’s 2017 emo-rap smash “XO Tour Llif3” isn’t solely about drugs. 1 (eight weeks) on Alternative Songs, May 24, 1997 Only Lou Reed fronting Sugar Ray could’ve come up with something better.Ĭhart Peak: No. Singer and songwriter Stephan Jenkins wanted the tune to be deceptively perky and exciting, just like the amphetamines ruling his characters’ lives. In between those “doo-doo-doo” choruses are verses about being strung out on crystal meth. Image Credit: Margaret Norton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty ImagesĪnyone who dismisses 3EB as a cheesy ‘90s band ought to take another listen to this 1997 smash. The story checks out, but it doesn’t cancel out the super-druggy Alice in Wonderland imagery (“marmalade skies,” “kaleidoscope eyes,” etc.) It just makes this yet another mind-blowing coincidence in the story of The Beatles.Ĭhart Peak: *Beatles version did not chart during initial run* No. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, John Lennon always claimed he named this tune for a drawing his son Julian did in nursery school. While The Beatles were experimenting with psychedelics around the time of Sgt. It doesn’t take a “Paul is dead” clue-spotting conspiracy theorist to notice the “LSD” embedded in this song’s title. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” The Beatles.If he’s looking for something that won’t mess with his body and mind, love might not be the prescription he needs.Ĭhart Peak: No. “One that makes me feel like I’m with you,” he sings to the lady in his life. On this fluffy pop-rock tune, Huey goes looking for a new substance-one that won’t turn him into an anxious dry-mouthed zombie who can’t stop talking. One thing about drugs: They’re lousy with side effects. No drug song can be as addictive as the substance it’s about, but this one comes damn close.Ĭhark Peak: No. He got some help from Max Martin, the Swedish pop guru behind the infectious beat, and Micheal Jackson, whose inspiration is sprinkled all over this track. 5 on Hot Rap Songs, June 21, 2014Ĭanadian alt-R&B mystery man Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, went mainstream in a big way with this thinly veiled ode to cocaine. The message, such that there is one: smart hustlers move on from slinging product and devote themselves to next-level pursuits.Ĭhart Peak: No. Then comes Pharrell, a more family-friendly artist who wraps his verse with some socially conscious lines about opposing drone warfare. Over a menacing, mind-bending beat from producer Mike WiLL Made It, Future and Pusha T drop crazy verses about cooking crack and savoring the spoils of the drug game. “Move That Dope,” Future featuring Pharrell, Pusha T & Casino.1 (three weeks) on Hot Rap Songs, July 28, 2001 Props to Swifty McVay, aka Swift, for holding it together long enough to offer this gem: “Speed, ‘shrooms, down the valiums / even smoke weed out of vacuums.”Ĭhart Peak: No. Em and the gang rhyme about everything from common street drugs to pharmaceuticals-all over a wobbly, oozy backing track that suggests any one of the MCs could pass out at any second. Radically cleaned up and renamed “Purple Hills” for radio and MTV, this posse cut by Eminem and his hometown homeys D12 is one big chemical orgy. Image Credit: Bob Carey/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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