Across the album’s 12 tracks, there’s a reference to selling cocaine on every single song. Some of these lyrics are boastful and subtly funny, while others are poignant and deeply serious. It’s these traits that place Pusha T among the most revered coke rappers in history. He’s right up there with reformed hustlers like Jeezy, who made moving bricks sound aspirational enough to motivate listeners chasing more legitimate dreams in life, and Jay-Z, who transcended the image of coke rap altogether on his way to becoming a billionaire.
- A collaboration between producer King Jammy and vocalist and musician Wayne Smith, who found the riddim’s pattern on a Casio MT-40 home keyboard, ‘Under Mi Sleng Teng’ is an irresistible paean to the sweet sensimelia and a solid rebuff to the devil’s dandruff.
- Coke raps serve more than just the clueless suburban kids who consume them, no questions asked.
Jay Z ‘Can’t Knock The Hustle’
His lane, of course, is being the king of toxic masculinity, “mumble rap” and club bangers. And while I wouldn’t argue that Future is the greatest rapper alive, I’d definitely say he’s the best Future imaginable. But Pusha T’s greatest avenue for growth over the years, and especially on It’s Almost Dry, is his command of the beat. Pusha T has always been able to nestle himself into a pocket, though there hasn’t always been much variation in his delivery. Just listen to the way he calls himself The Night King on “Neck & Wrist” (“Summertime, Winterfell, I’m the Night King,” he raps) or the way he does a light Slick Rick impression on “Call My Bluff.” It all comes together for Pusha T to be a fully formed musician using his voice as an instrument.
NWA ‘Dope Man’
Breaking uncharted territory with their non-exclusive recording contracts with Loud Records, members of the Clan were allowed to sign solo record contracts wherever they pleased, resulting in a wave of solo albums that followed 36 Chambers. Method Man and Ol’ Dirty Bastard may have been the first two members to release solo material, but the third solo release from the crew came courtesy of Raekwon, whose 1995 album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… would leave listeners in astonishment, as they marveled over the sheer brilliance on display. E-40 is one of rap’s more tenured artists, an independent maverick that has afforded himself a career spanning thirty years and counting.
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“Is it getting your shit numb?”, Noreaga asks, to a reply of “No, this shit is weak”. And so the crusade for a drug heist begins backed by a dusty, piano-tapping golden age East Coast hip hop beat. In and among the searching, gagging and stick-up, Capone, Norega and Khadafi chat about how they are turning “coke to crack” and how they “been buying my coke from the same cat.” The plot’s so good this could be film noir for the ’90s hip hop generation. If you were plugged into the UK’s post dubstep scene in the early 10s then you will be familiar with how notorious ‘Sicko Cell’ was.
The Maxx ‘Cocaine ‘
After grinding on the underground for several years, he needed something special to break into the big leagues. The actress and director was reportedly addicted to cocaine and heroin in the 1990s. By the age of 13, Drew Barrymore had already entered rehab for cocaine addiction. Running eighteen tracks in length and produced entirely by the RZA, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…‘s sonic structure was built around various samples, most notably compositions and dialogue lifted from the 1989 kung-fu flick The Killer, as well as films like Shaolin Vs. Lama, The Mack, and Carlito’s Way. Raekwon, Wu-Tang Clan’s resident street hustler, is fully engaged throughout the album, as he crafts tales of high-stakes drug deals gone awry, the spoils that go to the victor, and the more grim realities of it all, amid shouts to “Incarcerated Scarfaces” and others of his ilk.
Harry, who had gone solo after Blondie went on hiatus in 1982, happily sung about coke, only using the Spanish slang term of ‘yeyo’ (also spelled ‘illello’) rather than being so blatant. “Rush rush, got the yeyo? amphetamine addiction treatment / Buzz buzz, gimme yeyo / Rush rush, got the yeyo?” go the lyrics. This is Biggie’s infamous guide to selling and surviving, which was inspired by a feature on the US crack epidemic in hip hop magazine The Source. Based on the biblical 10 commandments, it’s a visceral description of rules that those in the drug game have to live by in order not to end up dead or in jail.
The rapid rise of drug references laid waste to Ice-T’s message of abstinence, as Jay Z, the Notorious B.I.G., and Snoop Dogg dropped albums with first-hand accounts of the 1980s crack epidemic. Their experiences selling drugs (and smoking them) translated into platinum-selling records, fueling a generation of rappers intent on telling the story of the hustler. This trend persisted through the early 2000s with Jay Z, Raekwon, and the Clipse—all of whom kept the hustler-rapper Mafioso persona at the forefront of hip-hop culture. Super Fly is the 1972 blaxploitation film about a Harlem coke dealer who’s trying to go straight.
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- The lyrics across the track play out like an anti-drug lesson taught in high school, warning against the problems that can occur from excess cocaine use, including losing your wife, friends and life.
- Bun B and Pimp C rap about having pockets full of crack, referring to freebasing, dope fiends, pipes and pregnant women clucking for a crack fix.
- While it could be mistaken for glorifying the drug, the track’s actually a pretty educational tool about the effect it had on the group’s community.
- Just listen to the way he calls himself The Night King on “Neck & Wrist” (“Summertime, Winterfell, I’m the Night King,” he raps) or the way he does a light Slick Rick impression on “Call My Bluff.” It all comes together for Pusha T to be a fully formed musician using his voice as an instrument.
- I don’t know if Pusha T can be in the same overall GOAT conversation as Jay-Z without more diversity in his subject matter, but he can be the best within his lane.
In response, he entered a drug rehabilitation center to combat his addiction. Today, Eminem is rappers that do coke sober and inspiring other addicts to seek help for their addictions.