This anti-drug screed from the Anglo/Irish hip hop crew, Marxman, is a beauty. I’ve been caning it since the weekend simply because it’s one of those instances where everything about it just seems right. From the brilliance of the arrangement through to the lyricism of the storytelling, whereby across four verses, we’re taken on the journey of:
1) Newly minted drug dealers who revel in the influence and contacts their new business brings them.
2) Feckless institutions, such as universities, which allow drugs to be bought and sold on their premises. Meanwhile, the rap community itself, despite its own entreaties to its audience to stay clear of drugs, has also allowed Crack to enter its bloodstream both as a recreation and a business opportunity.
3) Drug addicts who see their lives start to shrivel up in front of them as they damage themselves and alienate their families.
4) The concerned circle of friends who come to mourn their drug dealer/addict friend who has over-reached himself and ended up dead. The only thing worse than the death is the way in which the lifestyle has influenced their younger brother who wants to follow in big brother’s footsteps and perpetuate the cycle of bling, illegality, degradation and ultimately death.
They may be straying on to the turf of Scarface, but Marxman more than match him with Do You Crave Mystique. My only complaint is that all that proximity to drugs may have had something to do with them not including a question mark on the end of the title. Music can be such a force for good, but its sloppiness towards using accurate punctuation remains one of its principal blindspots.
Video courtesy of John Ryan.
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