In music today specifically Rap music there is a glorification of the name-brand narcotic Percocet and its generic oxycodone. Percocet contains oxycodone, an opioid pain reliever used to relieve moderate to severe pain, and Tylenol a nonopioid pain reliever. The side effects of Percocet include nausea, vomiting, constipation, dizziness, and drowsiness, and there is a possible risk of addiction and overdose. Plenty of -=[medications carry these risks but since 1999 prescription opioid overdoses have increased rapidly each year with 3,442 overdose deaths involving prescription opioids in 1999, 23 years later 14,716 died the same way.
Prescription Oxycodone Bottle and Pills
With this increased usage of opioids, Percocet and oxycodone have been made the talk of the rap scene in recent years with rappers bragging about their usage and selling of the drug. It isn’t definite why this drug is talked about so much but it could be because oxycodone is accessible with a prescription from a doctor. The rapper, Future, professes his love for the drug in his songs including his most famous song titled “Mask Off’ which has 1.7 billion and has even been played at our rallies here at Santiago High School. The chorus of the song repeats the words “Percocets, Molly, Percocets” multiple times, but this isn’t even the greatest extent to which the drug is glorified.
LA rap group named Shoreline Mafia is notoriously known for flaunting and bragging about their use of narcotics. Fox 11 published an article on their codeine usage in 2017, titled “The serious effects of the codeine craze”, where they explored the negative effects of the drug. Shoreline Mafia took a part of the segment from Fox’s report and put it in their song “Whuss the Deal” where they rap about drugs.
The part from Fox they put in the song was about them pouring codeine cough syrup into soda and drinking it. Codeine isn’t the only drug they are known for rapping about; in their most famous song titled “Bands,” one of the members, who goes by the stage name Ohgeesy raps the words “If you need it, hit my line, know I got it, I’m the man Oxycontin, Thizzle, Xans, that’s what made me all these bands”. He is referring to the fact that he sold numerous drugs, including oxycodone, codeine (sizzle), and Xans (Xanax), which made him thousands of dollars (bands) that allowed him to live a luxurious life. Another one of their songs takes their love for the drug to another level, with the title of the song being “Perc Popper”. The word “Perc” is a nickname for Percocet along with the number 30 being a nickname for pills that contain 30 milligrams of oxycodone. Numerous times in the song, rappers Fenix Flexin and Ohgeesy say lines such as “I just popped another 30, now I’m meditating” and “Perc popper boy I’m outer space”.
Fenix Flexin had become sober in recent years and announced his sobriety on the rap podcast “No Jumper” and went on to say, “… all the kids listening, I carry a lot of guilt just like from the first days of Shoreline Mafia when we were promoting like “Oh sipping juice for life”, this, this, and that like you know? I done had like some young little *expletive* 15, 14 years olds sending me pictures them pouring up. “Hey, you the reason why I started sipping drank” “You the reason why I started popping Percs,” This *expletive* don’t make me feel good.”
He admits to the fact that he influenced some young teenagers to use codeine and Percocet. Even though he is sober now and at the time was expressing himself through music,c he still carries guilt for inadvertently introducing children to Percocet.
Plenty of other rappers also rap about the drug and use it, like Quavo, Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert, and Nicki Minaj are all artists who have rapped about or used it. Rappers Lil Peep, Mac Miller, and Juice Wrld also struggle with the use of oxycodone, but the difference between them and other rappers is, tragically, they met an untimely demise. Their deaths have been examples of what the use of drugs can lead to, but rappers continue to put it in a more positive light. Although it is not the fault of musicians when their audience tries the drugs they talk about, they’ve still had some influence, as Fenix Flexin has admitted. Oxycodone continues to be talked about and glorified even with thousands of deaths every year from opioid overdoses, including 708 drug fatalities of children in 2023 alone. Pop culture has been talking about drugs for years. Still, with drug deaths increasing over the years, it’s become a bigger issue than it ever was before, and whether or not it’s acceptable for musicians to speak about it in their work is ultimately up to them as they are free to express themselves. Still, audiences are urged to cut back on certain topics. It’s unclear how long oxycodone will stay a topic in pop culture, but it is clear that there are consequences that can come with it if they do continue to talk about it, just as Fenix Flexin has learned.
