Summary: Crack Era To Lean Culture

Crack era to Lean Culture: Whether its something we like or not, it is hard to speech of hip hop music without speaking of the drugs involved in the industry. Drugs have been and probably will remain a massive component in hip hop culture. No matter the drug, no matter the era, drugs have always played a major role in the sound and presentation of hip hop. Rap has gone hand in hand with the idea of partying, drugs, and everything else that comes along with it. In most cases, the harmless drug use of marijuana has act as the go-to drug, whereas the harder drugs such as Cocaine/crack has served to tell a different story of hip hop. In any of the cases, the drug culture has had a distinct effect on the culture of hip hop and the artist that

However, one phase seems to struggle to pass. In the recent decade, the rise of a new drug has plagued the rap industries especially in Southern Hip hop. This new drug has been known as the drug of the Southern Hip Hop because of its high concentration and use among many new, up coming Southern artist. The new drug goes by the name of Lean, also known as promethazine with codeine syrup. Nevertheless, the drug by the name lean has been around forever. The drug usually mixed with soda, alcohol, or both for an out of the world experience. Unlike marijuana, cocaine, and even heroin, which tend to attract all ages, codeine seems to attract mainly teenagers and college students due to its party-like nature. Dating back to the 1980s, the popularity of drinking lean came from the Houston, Texas rap scene. From its humble beginnings, it has grown exponentially to affect a whole culture of people. Ronald Peters, a retired professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center, traces lean’s roots back to the when Houstonian bluesmen mixed syrup with beer. Mixers evolved to wine coolers, and later soda, to mask the taste. As far as its popularity, it increased the most after the mainstream rappers such as Lil Wayne promoted its use in the mid to late 2000s. The phenomena of drinking lean in two Styrofoam “ double cup” were a trend that was created by Lil Wayne. Many fans, and artists

Lean grew in popularity by a community that was being disapportionailty targeted by the police other illegal drugs such as crack and marijuana. Lean was an alternative option to many of these rappers that were being targeted for using illegal drugs. The simple ingredients for lean is, a flavored cream soda, and a promethazine codeine cough syrup, a prescription pain relieve and a cough suppressant. Therefore, the main ingredients of the “ drank” are all legal and precriptioned items. This was a crucial point in drinking lean, because it was a legalized drug that couldn’t be highly scrutinized. The drink lean has been referred to in modern hip hop with many similar names such as but not limited to: "drank," "purple stuff," "lean," and "seizure," among other names. The rise of the visibility of promethezeine codeine syrup allowed for the pharmaceutical companies in America to see a market for them. The pharmaceutical companies started to manufacture and sell the syrup as part of some community’s everyday vernacular. Bottles of the promethazine codeine cough syrup were produced by some of the huge companies such as Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Wockhardt Ltd. The bottles of the syrup would sell on the streets of many southern cities for $700 to $1000 a pint. In 2016 promethazine codeine syrup was prescribed about 4 million times in the U.S., according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence, and