All the Times The Daily Mail Didn't Care When White People Sang About Drugs

In the interim period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve British newspaper The Daily Mail ran a piece using recent research to suggest that “grime artists such as Stormzy are fuelling the use of skunk”. Of course, the “article” conveniently glossed over the fact people have been smoking weed long before the advent of recorded music. It also didn’t take much thought to see the Mail’s write-up as a racially motivated hit piece both on Stormzy and other grime artists.

Listening to a song referencing drugs and then going out and taking drugs are not mutually exclusive activities. That said – as Stormzy rightly pointed out – musicians have been singing about cocaine and ecstasy and all manner of illegal substances for decades. Here are some of the times that’s happened, perhaps even while a Daily Mail journalist has been shovelling/shelving/snorting/sucking on a drug(s) at some point in the past.

Song: “I Took A Pill in Ibiza” (2016) – Mike Posner
“I took a pill in Ibiza / To show Avicii I was cool”
Avicii = a gateway drug to EDM, a genre of dance music

Album: MDNA (2012) – Madonna
MDNA is likely a blatant reference to the drug known as MDMA

Song: “Rainy Day Woman #12 & #35” (1966) – Bob Dylan
“Everybody must get stoned”
Stoned = a state of mind that occurs after smoking one or more marijuanas

Song: “Cocaine Blues” (1968) – Johnny Cash
“Early one mornin' while makin' the rounds / I took a shot of cocaine and shot my woman down”: Pretty self explanatory what’s happened here, and it’s not good at all.

Song: “The A-Team” (2011) – Ed Sheeran
“They say / She's in the Class A Team”
“'Cause we're just under the upper hand / And go mad for a couple grams ”
Grams = the weight of a drug, in this case most likely a Class A (crack cocaine)

Song: “I Don’t Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)” (1998) – Marilyn Manson
“There's a hole in our soul that we fill with dope ”: This lyric suggests that Marilyn Manson would no longer enjoys drugs but if he does not do them then he feels empty.

Song: “I’m Shady” (1999) – Eminem
“I got mushrooms , I got acid / I got tabs and aspirin tablets… I’m shady!”: If you would like to partake in drugs, Eminem is gleefully saying he has probably got “what you need”.

Song: “Semi-Charmed Life” (1997) – Third Eye Blind
“chop another line like a coda with a curse”: A user on Rap Genius claims this is in reference to repeatedly chopping (preparing) a line (of drugs) again and again.

Song: “We Can’t Stop” (2013) – Miley Cyrus
“So la da da di we like to party / Dancing with Molly”
Molly = street slang for MDMA or ecstasy

Song: “Sister Morphine” (1969) – The Rolling Stones
Slightly unfair because the Mail love running stories that dredge up the Rolling Stones’ past fucked-up decisions made while they were high. But Jagger and the lads get away with having a song about Sister Morphine and COUSIN COCAINE and essentially coming *this* close to ODing.

Song: “Time to Pretend” (2005) – MGMT
This drops in references to cocaine and shooting heroin in Paris before the first verse is even over, and signs off with “we’ll choke on our vomit and that will be the end” in the final chorus.

Song: “Ebeneezer Goode” (1992) – The Shamen
“Eezer Goode”: eg:.. E’s (ecstasy) are good.

Song: “Heroin” (1967) – The Velvet Underground

Song: “Drugs” (1979) – Talking Heads
A song about drugs, although it’s not clear what ones.

Album: Drukqs (2001) – Aphex Twin
Richard D James has stated the title is not related to drugs, and is "just a word he made up”, but that’s obviously something someone who has done drugs would say.

Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) – The Beatles
The entire album is clearly about being on drugs.

You can find Ryan on Twitter .