After watching a documentary about Peter Gatian and how the clubs he owned in New York and various other places were hotbeds for illicit drug sells, one particular part of it made me ask myself a question, and that question is; “Is the uptick in the use of Ecstasy (E, Molly, or X) by young Black youths one of the reasons why so many of them love the horrible violent music that’s out, and have no feelings about taking the lives of their fellow peers?”
After watching the documentary and hearing them talk about how techno music became popular in London and New York on the back of X fueled rave parties it dawned on me, MDMA is a drug used to make you feel happy and euphoric. I’ve never used it myself but I know lots of people that have, and they all say that it amps things up, makes anything that you do that much better, anything that you like a little, great, and so on.
The dark side of X is that it has been linked to decreased levels of serotonin production and can cause increased depression and anxiety if it is abused long term. After too long of use, it becomes increasingly harder to be happy without it and you go into depressed stages when not on it.
So what this is saying is that while you’re using it, you like everything way more than you would if you weren’t using it, and if you abuse it for too long you you’ll find yourself in prolonged unhappy and depressed states that can lead to just about anything.
So let’s take this hypothesis and juxtapose it with the youth of today, and as far back as the mid 90’s.
During the mid 90’s E became popular on the hip hop scene as an illicit party drug. Knowing what I know about the hip hop party scene from back then up until now, I can safely say that there are myriads of songs that I have heard in the club whilst intoxicated that banged and made the club go up, but there was no way on God’s green earth that I would actually pay for them and listen to them at home or in the car. But if I was on that Molly, I’d probably have purchased every crappy club banger from then until now.
Now take into account all the kids that grew up during the Ecstasy era, between 96 and 2012, that started using it at younger ages because of hip hops influence on the youth. This can show how and why horrible music that sounds good in the club while you’re inebriated can become the driving force behind the sells of hip hop music today. It’s been fueled by the recreational use of MDMA. The music from the club bangs, you think it’s way better than it is because of the use of E and then it starts to make money. Add to that the fact that X usage has moved from a recreational club drug to an everyday all day type of drug, like marijuana because the people that use it need to have it in their systems in order to be happy and productive.
These two variables together get you what you see today; bad music is King, it becomes more and more evident everyday.
Now let’s take a look at the anxiety and depressed state that the same drug brings about in it’s users. Anxiety and depression can and will cause a lack of motivation in a lot of people. A lack of motivation and high anxiety can and will lead to acts of self-mutilation or outward violence towards others in some people. So some of these kids that are on X have to discontinue usage while they are at school or they run the risk of being caught on drugs and kicked out of school, which is in itself helps to increase anxiety and depression. This helps to perpetuate the cycle because after a stressful day what’s the first thing that you want to do, relax and find a modicum of happiness? And if you find happiness in alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, crack or X, that’s what you partake in to get you where you want to be.
So what we have are high anxiety, depressed, unmotivated youth that think violent music is great. And because we mimic art as children, they are now mimicking the way they think the artist that spew this BS behave in everyday life. Although most of them are what we used to call studio gangsta’s, some of them have actually committed the crimes that they boast about on records. And in our minds at a young age, that makes you one hundred, or as real as it gets, and if you’re considered real, your following grows exponentially.
Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way saying that this is the only reason for what we see in youth culture today but it has to part of it. Women are becoming more and more violent everyday. Black men are falling back to the late 80’s early 90’s type of violence and the music has taken a turn for the worst also.
What does this say about us? How do we curtail it? If we know that it’s happening, what are we going to do about it?
All suggestion are welcome, leave a comment and let me know! I know plenty of brothers that are willing to go to bat for Black people, they just need to know that they have a team behind them that is willing to pick up the bat if they strike out or are kicked out of the game!