Drug Dealer

            As someone who understands addiction through personal experience and some messed up people with great hearts, Drug Dealer hit me like a train. Macklemore is the king of expressing controversial topics to people of all types through his “white” raps, and while “One Love” was good, you can feel his struggle while you listen in an unreal way. To fit with his lyrics his music video is so brilliantly convincing, showing recreations of his own struggles with addiction and quitting. It is dark, shaky, fuzzy going in and out of focus, and has raised awareness to the war on addiction going as far as Obama personally meeting with Macklemore to discuss how to help fight drugs with the perspective of an addict in mind. The video shows him shaking, rocking back and forth naked, sweating, and screaming from help while explaining how his addiction started.

               I won't go into great detail due to it being a very personal topic, but I recently saw another good friend lose their battle with addiction, and in the months before she died she showed every single emotion Macklemore shows in this video. It’s scary, this shit is real and it has the power to control you. She didn’t have the power to overcome, but its videos like this that can prevent others from going through these same issues. And although I had seen worse in the years past, when I was stupid and getting into things I shouldn’t, it was images like the ones I saw in this video that shaped me up. That slapped me in the face and knocked the crap outta me. The only difference being those were my close friends rather than a video made by a rapper, but I got to say this video has a very similar power to those interactions I had. And having the featured vocalist drowning in pills during the chorus only improves the overall tone of the video. 
              Quote in the song, "Was best friends with the thing thats killing me!"