Maclemore Drug Abuse

One in three Americans are prescribed opioids from their doctor. Once someone is prescribed a medication and take it daily, as told to do so by the doctor, it is extremely easy to become dependent on the pills. Dependency on a drug means that the body physically craves it and may experience withdrawals when the prescription is stopped. Addiction characterizes as a mental need for the drug. The behavior changes and abusing the medication will begin.

Music is part of everyday life and serves as the center of many cultures across the world. Music brings out the best parts of a movie, a car ride, or even a special event. The purpose of music varies from artist to artist and different cultures. Every piece of music carries a unique message, but a song, in particular, carries meaning. “Runaway Love” by Ludacris, featuring Mary J. Blige, exploits the struggles of young girls by using rhetorical techniques, such as pathos, ethos, logos, tone, and visual rhetoric throughout the music video to raise national awareness about youth runaways.

: A controlled substance is any drug, prescription or illegal. That has the potential for abuse or addiction. For the public’s protection, controlled substances come under a category of prescription drugs that contain and elevated level of restrictions. In 1970 controlled substances act established the (DEA) Drug Enforcement Administration, under the department of justice, which maintains oversight of the legally prescribed drugs, used narcotics drugs and for containment of illegal drugs. This was put in to effect to implement controls on drugs that are commonly abused by society, controlled prescriptions provided for the drugs, and prescribers are required to be registered with an individual (DEA) numbers.

When you listen to most rap music a leitmotif of drug use and glorified alcohol consumption can be heard on most Hip-Hop artist’s albums. Macklemore is a self-proclaimed abuser of these vices. Unlike most he does not elevate these depravities but speaks of his struggles overcoming their drowning influence. In the song “Starting Over” he expresses the disgrace he feels when he relapses. Macklemore painfully illustrates this shame with the verse “Feeling sick and helpless, lost the compass where self is / I know what I gotta do and I can’t help it / One day at a time is what they tell us / Now I gotta find a way to tell them”(“Starting Over”). He explains that he knows what needs to be done to overcome this evil; nonetheless because of his dependence he has become lost, and is ashamed to say he has a problem. In his song “Neon Cathedral” he discusses how going to

Music has been a way for those who felt disenfranchised and disillusioned to offend, break away from their parents and be very, very cool. From Elvis' hip-wiggle to the pot-smoking Beatles, from Kurt Cobain's hoarse screams to Rage Against the Machine's "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" -- youth have been able to claim something that is their own and not their parents'. The influence of music on young people is as strong as it ever was, and since MTV is offered as part of a basic cable package, its influence is hard to ignore in our televised culture. Around the world, 70 million households have access to MTV and the channel prides itself on being the most popular station amongst the 12 – 24 year old demographic (Hay sc.8). MTV's chairman of the board emphasized the extent of MTV's influence over adolescents, "At MTV we don't just shoot for the fourteen year olds-- we own them" (Duff sc.6). And if that doesn't sound a tad frightening, listen to this: "Hey moms, it's too late! Your kid's had his head in that Walkman for a long time now. You have no idea how deep we're in your house. We're sitting right there at your dinner table and you don't even know it." That was Ice-T, a renowned rap-artist, verbalizing what may be many parent's worst nightmare (Duff sc.6).

In the video, Macklemore talks to Barack Obama about his own personal experiences and opinion on pain killers, as well as the epidemic of addiction. He talks about doing something different and mentions high school athletes who are doing pain killers and becoming addicted, people who are doing things that they wouldn’t normally do. Prescription opioids are extremely addictive because our brains make us think we need them to survive. The video shows different people’s lives and stories on how they got addicted to heroin or pain killers, and how support groups are helping them. People feel trapped and they want to stop, but the addiction is so strong that they can’t. Treatment gives people the help they need, but is also very expensive. People have to wait around for so long to get into a treatment facility, that by the time they get in, they don’t want to go anymore, or have lost the motivation to stop. People need long term help, not just a few times seeing someone but longer over

“The scientific method leads us to truths that are less than self-evident, often mind-blowing, and sometimes hard to swallow.” (Achenbach) People might read something that they don’t particularly agree with, in either the newspaper, the internet, or even in magazines, but it possibly is written by an expert in the field. Then which results that people don’t believe the expert since it doesn’t go along with what individuals think. Now for example, the abuse of prescription pills is becoming a widespread problem in the United States. Folks think that those who are abusing the prescribed medication are doing it because they want to, not realizing that most of the persons consuming the painkillers are struggling with discontinuing the use of the

The corruptness of music today seems to be linked to the crude language and aggression found particularly in hip-hop and rap music. Some rap artists use vulgar language in their lyrics that are easily adoptable by teens (Holden). Not only have certain lyrics influenced the way teens speak but also their actions. An article on Headliners.org stated that “lyrics in the music are too violent and are to blame for many problems.” The problems range anywhere from suicide and aggression towards women to underage drinking and drug use. Lyrics are not only to blame, but also what people see in artists’ music videos can affect what they do (Doaks). The urge to emulate these rap musicians has escalated quickly causing a spike in rebellious tendencies among teens.

Drug abuse is the habitual taking of addictive or illegal drugs. Many college students rule out prescription drugs because they feel that they are neither addictive nor illegal. Prescription drugs are both. Not only are they addictive to the people that are required to take them, but also they are even more addictive for students who they are not prescribed to. When prescription drugs are obtained without consent from a doctor, it is considered illegal. Many college students try to take short cuts in life without realizing the extent of the consequences that their actions may hold.

Music is subjective which means people will often voice their opinions on it, and undoubtedly one of the most controversial genres that has sparked a barrage of disapproval is rap. It is believed and further encouraged by the media that rap music promotes a bad lifestyle. With corruption being apparent around the world it is easy for the media to put the blame on a genre of music that is filled with explicit lyrics about violence, drugs, and rebellious subject matters. However, further investigation will reveal that because of its accurate depiction of reality, and wide variety of categories, rap music does not encourage an unhealthy lifestyle.

Some study on substance abuse representation has been shown on the depiction of alcohol within the media outside of the marketing and advertising scope like music and videos (Baillie, 1996). Music and videos are increasing glamorize drugs and alcohol use in their content. These songs and videos are readily available to adolescents without parental guidance. Examples of two song Liquor and Drunk Texting by Chris Brown. Songs such as “Liquor” show Mr. Brown in a bar and female slips something into his drink, where he goes on to have a wild night under the influence and experiences with a female. His other song “Drunk Texting” featuring songstress Jhene Aiko show Mr. Brown and his ex under the influence after a fail relationship showing how

In society today, it is highly noticed that the role of rap music messages and video images of violence causes an increase in negative emotions, thoughts and behaviors which could lead to violence amongst youth. Rap music has been at the center of concern in regards to the potential harmful effect of violent media on social behavior amongst youth. This potential behavior could be seen in the music video titled “Kim” by Eminem. In this music video, the storyline, language and sound encourages hostile thoughts and feelings amongst its audience. In the music video, Kim husband catches her cheating on him in their home with another man, while he is away. However, when Marshall gets home and finds out that his wife is cheating on him, he gets upset, angry, and abusive and becomes violent towards his wife Kim. He screams at her saying that, if she moves again, he will “beat the shit out of her” (Line 11). Violence in rap music has increased in response to the complex interplay of changing social conditions such as the elevated levels of youth violence in the changing commercial practices within the music industry. Hence, the media influences violence in four negative ways, which contributes immensely to anger amongst youth which leads to aggressive behavior such as social violence, substance abuse, domestic violence, and negative perceptions of women.

Ben Haggerty, stage name “Macklemore”, crafted his moniker after a superhero he made growing up. It’s clear to see now that not all superheroS have THE MOST predictable powers. MACKLEMORE’S power lies in his activist through hip hop. It’s with his catchy beats and lyricism that he first hooks US in, but the more WE start to listen, the sooner WE discover hidden treasures. From songs recounting his struggle with substance abuse, the fight against homophobia, and the dangers of branding, Macklemore showcases a facet of very personal struggles. He brings them out and into the open but not just issues he’s had in his past, but issues he notices in his PRESENT. In his song “White Privilege II”, he calls out himself, celebrities, and all of white

One of the most misused type of drugs in the US is the misuse and abuse of Prescription Drugs. It is estimated that 52 million people in the US have used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons at least once in their lifetimes. Out of those people 20 percent of them were aged 12 and older. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) did a survey in the year 2010 that found that 1 in 12 high school seniors reported past-year nonmedical use of the prescription pain reliever Vicodin and a 1 in 20 reported abusing OxyContin. It is now 2017 less than ten years from the initial report and the numbers of high school seniors abusing prescription drugs has doubled.

In life, music affects everything many people look at all the different stories of teenagers committing violent acts and have begun to wonder can violent songs make teens violent? With all the violent acts that music glorifies as of recently many psychologists and parents alike have begun to wonder why certain types of music cause their children and teenagers to become so violent. Because of the questions that violent songs raise and why teenagers have started to gravitate towards violent songs more than ever before. Some factors that could be reasons as to why violent songs have such a powerful effect on teenagers could be that: teenagers learn violence from their surroundings, teenagers can have a history of violence, and violent songs give teens a place to vent their frustrations at,