In a Dark Wood

Purple Drank. Sizzurp. Lean. A southern delicacy with many names, originating in Houston, Texas in the 1960s, when blues musicians started mixing Robitussin with beer. In the 80’s and 90’s, a new generation of rappers adopted the tradition, updating it to the formula we know today:

Prescription-strength codeine/promethazine cough syrup, mixed with soda and a jolly rancher garnish.

Rappers in the area not only consumed the beverage, but started mentioning it in their music, leading to its popularization elsewhere (in the process, Houston gained the moniker “City of the Purple Sprite”). DJ Screw was the most influential of these rappers. He pioneered the “chopped and screwed” technique by slowing down, skipping, and distorting his tracks. The result is music that sounds as though the song itself has taken too much codeine.

Many of his mixtapes feature recognizable beats and songs, slowwwed down and overlayed with other pop culture samples, creating something shockingly prescient: a prelude to “vaporwave”, decades before that term ever existed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG9te3F_tF4&feature=youtu.be&t=33m00s

DJ Screw died of a codeine overdose in 2000.

Now, in 2018, you can buy this stylish codeine smartphone case. Sold among other fashionable items like a mined gemstone - polished, cut, removed from the context of its cultural historical bedrock.

That may sound cynical, but I understand the appeal of a product like this. Ours is an increasingly accelerated world. Even those born in the internet age can hardly keep up. The past is blurred, and the future is already here, crowding out the present before we can blink. It generates a desire to disconnect from it all, to d i s s o c i a t e. Who wouldn’t want to slow their roll?

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

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