I'm starting up an anti-syrup movement

The other day I was listening to "Purple Rain" off of Beanie Sigel's The B Coming and realized I had to speak up on this issue.

Promethazine and codeine aka sizzurp/syrup/lean/purp/purple lotion or whatever you want to call it is the latest plague affecting Hip-Hop's culture. The syrup phenomenon was an underground thing until Memphis demigods Three 6 Mafia put out an anthem touting its supposed virtues. Rap legend Pimp C had a memorable guest appearance on that record and unfortunately the topic itself may have recently played a part in his untimely passing. One of my personal highlights from the recent Underground Kingz double album was "The Game Belong To Me" with a witty hook naming a hustler's goods by the public icons most associated with them - "I got Bobby by the pound/Whitney by the key/DJ Screw by the gallon..." (I'm waiting on someone to say "I'm selling that Amy Winehouse", it's gonna happen any minute now.)

If you've been living in a cave or all you play is D.I.T.C records, DJ Screw was a pioneer of Houston's scene and one of the first big names to die from this drink. I'm not 100% positive but I think the music on Screw's mixtapes was slowed down (if you're uncertain as to what I'm talking about, think back to the end of Kanye's "Drive Slow") to give listeners the feel of how songs sound when one is high off of the potion.

I don't have the first problem with what rappers do with their personal time outside of the booth. Slang cracks, pimp hoes, do all the recreational drugs you want, my issue comes when it starts to seep into the music. No one really believes Malice & Pusha T (or Jeezy for that matter) have any strips locked down, those are just creative roles being acted out. But on some level rappers need to realize that they have more influence than they might think, and some of what they're advocating is sending our people to early graves. Please believe if Jay-Z can make a man (who didnt already have sense enough) put on a dress shirt, that same man is probably also impressionable enough so as to try anything else that a "cool" rapper celebrates, including syrup.

You cant blame Hip-Hop for black on black violence or the disrespect of women, those ills of society are as American as apple pie and the Yankees winning the World Series. But I'd put good money behind the notion that things like this video



have added to the fallacy that (to borrow from Dave Chappelle playing Diddy) syrup is what's hot in the streets. You can argue Dipset was irresponsible to put out a liquor by the name of Sizzurp, but to my knowledge it was just purple in color with the original contents not involved, I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to sell anything close to the actual stuff in stores. Rumor has it this is also the drug of choice for the omnipresent Lil' Wayne, which gives cause to bars like "Damn right I kiss my daddy" and other nonsense he's prone to get over on people spitting nowadays.

By the time summer rolls around I'm gonna need a "Self-Destruction/We're All In The Same Gang" type record to come out in memoriam of Pimp C and everyone's verse (Devin, Scarface, Lil' Flip, Slim Thug, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Bun B etc.) needs to be about putting down the styrofoam cup.