There’s Something About Molly and Hip Hop

Does it seem like everybody and their cousin is in love with a girl named, Molly? It does if you listen to a lot of rap and hip hop these days. Except, Molly isn’t a girl, Molly is the second coming of Ecstasy, the once uber-popular club drug that seems to have lost its place in the pantheon of recreational drugs out there. Over the past year, Molly has been name dropped like crazy by everybody in the game, check it out.

We’ve all heard of MDMA (“MDMA got you feeling like a champion”- thank you, Jay-Z), which is itself a combination of amphetamines and a powerful hallucinogenic drug. Ecstasy was often made from MDMA, but cut with something to increase supply. However, Molly, short for molecular, is a pure form of MDMA that comes in capsules, an off white powder or yellow crystals. It is said to release a rush of feel-good brain chemicals like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, leaving the user in a state of euphoria. The downside is the strength of Molly and over-use/abuse can lead to permanent brain damage quickly.

So, why am I talking about hip-hop and drugs? Because hip hop and drug culture have had a very strong, almost symbiotic relationship since forever. Hip hop artists and rappers have long included the popular drug of choice of the time into their music, be it cocaine, marijuana, cough syrup, ecstasy, you name it, it’ll be referenced somewhere. Molly is just the newest recreational drug to receive this treatment, which has been pretty overwhelming for the past year, causing most of us to wonder what it’s all about (especially if you’re like me, a casual listener and non-Molly user).

Are artists name dropping the drug because it’s popular, following the trend? Are they actually using and incorporating into their music? It seems more and more artists don’t care if everyone knows what they do in their free time, so they freely state what they like. Is all this referencing of Molly a dangerous trend? It could be, but it’s nothing new to listeners and lovers of rap and hip-hop, who are used to drug references being dropped (it definitely doesn’t even faze me anymore, and it certainly doesn’t motivate me to go out and try anything). We all know that rap and hip-hop artists love talking about their lifestyles, whether they are living it up and loving it, or struggling, or talking about past struggles while living it up now. It’s part of the art form, part of the beauty.

The trend isn’t going anywhere, so we all better get used to hearing about Molly.

Featured Image via Details.com