My right ear feels like it might explode any second, so that sounds sort of good to me.

well, craniac, get your drank on and report back to us!

When I was in college I had a friend who would drink Robitussin for recreational purposes. He had a verb for it too - he'd say "hey, I'm gonna Robo tonight!" - idiot.

This has been around forever. My immediate reaction is that hip hop culture continues to be more open, and, in that process, continues to be able to shock, and that's kind of the point. You say you knew someone who did it in college, are you just shocked at the thought of hearing about this in a song?

"Shocked" does not really describe pie's feelings about this.

I used shocked as a nicer word than stupid, like the body image isssues of young pop princesses, say.

It's gangsta to drink cough syrup mixed with Sprite now.

Wouldn't it be more gangsta to drink it without the Sprite? Seems kinda wussy to me. If you're going to do something moronic, do it right, I always say.

Other ingredients

Cough syrups are usually mixed with a carbonated lemon-lime soft drink (generally Sprite). Fruit juice may also be added. In certain circles, the drink may also include Jolly Rancher candies or Skittles.

Oh. Skittles. I see. Now the Sprite seems very hardcore by comparison.

Taste the Rainbow!

The rise of drank closely paralleled and influenced the rise of crunk.

Speaking as an experienced psychonaut - Robotussin DM is not to be taken lightly as a recreational drug. Though technically a dissociative, it can cause powerful hallucinations and mind-body-space distortions.

Most of the syrup sippers were probably doing Robo DM, since the hard shit with codeine is nigh impossible to come by. Codeiene also wouldn't be as likely to inspire the "chopped and screwed" style of krunk, anyway, but DM's aesthetics most certainly would.

Well, that, and the 5-10 prior years of IDM, ambient and electronic music doing the same damn thing. (Hi. Whoever it was that stole my Aphex Twin, Cylob and Pthalocyanine CDs and loaned 'em to the Dirty South: Thanks! Thanks a fucking lot!)

Also, "sipping" is like 4-5 years old.

You want stupid? Just wait until "hyphy" and "thizz" finally makes it nationwide. Oakland thugz got a hold of some Ecstasy a few years ago and started worshipping at the alter of fuzzy, overblown bass riffs that make you feel funny while on E.

God I miss acid. I want a time machine so I can go borrow Owsley and get him to turn on a bunch of hip hop heads. I just want to see what would happen to mainstream hip hop music. Mainly, to see if it'll stop sucking.


But really, perhaps part of the reason why hip hop sucks is that people haven't given it room in their expectations. Perhaps mainstream hip hop is like the once goofy, loveable little brother going through some tough years, and we just need to show 'em it's ok to be dorky and uncool.

pass that shit over here, man.

I blame ClearChannel, same as Pop.

Come to think of it, isn't this what Frisbee Girl is downing up in the top left-hand corner?

Codeine syrup is easier to get than the various other prescription opiates and it is certainly credited as influencing the chopped and screwed sound. I have seen several car trunks full of the big pharmacy bottles of the stuff down New Orleans way, on many occasions.

Opiates make you feel super-fucking-awesome which is why it's such a shame they can ruin your life so very badly.

Page plenty early Del tha Funkee Homosapien for what happens when rappers take acid. I also recommend Deltron 3030 although he seems to have written that straight. "We keep the funk alive by talking with idiots."

I agree, loq. Hip hop needs a good freak out.

When rappers take acid:
Divine Styler

Cough syrups are usually mixed with a carbonated lemon-lime soft drink (generally Sprite). Fruit juice may also be added. In certain circles, the drink may also include Jolly Rancher candies or Skittles.

Homer: Hey Apu, gimme a six-pack of that new beer with Skittles in it, you know, Skittlebraü.

Apu: I'm sorry Mr. Simpson, you must have dreamt this.

Homer: Ok, just give me a six-pack of Duff and a bag of Skittles.

When DJs take acid:
DJ Sushi

and back to MCs:
Rammellzee

Ooh, good one, hellbient. More DJ options: Bulletproof Space Travelers, 1200 Hobos, Allies, Citizenz (sp?). For 'when producers take acid,' do you think Anti-Pop, Scotty Hard or somebody else would be the best choice?

crap, this is single-handedly getting me back into hip-hop. I'll have to check out some of those names, box. Anti-Pop seems sort of appropriate, although I usually just think weed with them. Tried to get into "Kill Dog E" years ago, but couldn't, so I don't know about SH. Because that's a hard question to answer, it makes me think there's a niche to be exploited.

Since no one's mentioned it yet, pie, DJ Screw was a big part of the syrup-sippin' phenomenon.

This is a nice Screw essay, though not the one I was looking for.

The following are the effects of drinking syrup:

* Feeling that everything is in slow-motion (this effect is the prime source for the sound and tempo of the hip hop subgenre screwed and chopped).
* Dizziness, often causing the user to list side-to-side. This gives rise to one of the drug's alternate names ("Lean")
* Reactions slowed
* Inability to speak clearly
* Vomiting
* Visual color patterns (in high doses)
* Itching
* Blurred vision
* Insomnia

Oh yeah, that sounds like lots of fun. Gimme some of that.

Robo?

Fucking RO-BO?

*shakes head sadly*

Jesus. What are they gonna have next -- a GLUE-HUFFING sound?

Oy.

Glue-huffing's been done.

After listening to this, I'm a big fan of Chopped and Screwed. And while I wouldn't go out of my way to find it, if somebody handed me a cup of the purple stuff, I'd drink it!

I've got some buddies and we all drink bleach
You know we practice what we preach
We're not a drunken bunch of frat-boys
Trashed on beers
Or a stoned bunch of hippies
With no careers
I wanna drink bleach with a Georgia peach

My pals and I all drink Clorox
Or eat Snowy Bleach right out of the box
Teenage suicide rate's shot high
And we understand the reasons why
Bleach does more than whiten socks

Don't you wanna hang out with the Bleach Boys, baby?
In a world where ministers murder golf pros
Don't you wanna drink some bleach tonight?

Maybe there'll be a party at the beach
We'll bitch about life and chugalug bleach
No one's getting high, and no one's getting drunk
I've got a case of bleach stashed in my trunk
I wanna die with Clorox within reach

I'm very proud of the respect I've earned
And my voice is very deep cause my throat got burned
Bleach keeps you young so I've been told
Cause no one who drinks it lives to get old
Drink it with a chaser was the first thing that I learned

Don't you wanna hang out with the Bleach Boys baby?
In a world where midgets run for mayor
Don't you wanna drink some bleach tonight?

I had 26 friends in the beginning
But now it seems our numbers are thinning
Some people drive fast, others love to bet
Still others snort coke in a private jet
But drinking bleach is my way of winning

Don't you wanna hang out with the Bleach Boys baby?
In a world where welders own our schools
Don't you wanna drink some bleach tonight?

I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach
I am so bored!
I am so bore