Purple drank

Whether being interviewed or performing in a video clip, Lil Wayne never leaves his white cup. So I’m quite sure a lot of people wondered: what is Lil Wayne drinking?

Lately I saw this movie called "No Strings Attached" with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. I was surprised by a particular scene where Ashton rushes to a hospital to see his father who had a heart case and finds his X who’s now sleeping with his father, he asks her what happened and she said that his father drank too much purple drank because he became a Lil Wayne fan loool.

This made me think a while…. Lil Wayne made it really big, he got white people imitating him like when MJ was at his peak, I guess soon they’ll be covered with tattoos and wearing grills lool.

For those who didn’t hear about the purple drank, it’s a famous drink used in the Dirty South. It’s basically a cough syrup mixed with Sprite or Mountain Dew and pieces of Jolly Rancher candy. The drink has other nicknames such as sizzurp, lean or Texas tea.

The syrup contains promethazine and codeine which apparently when drinking a certain dose makes u see and hear in a slower mode. DJ Screw used this effect in his music and popularized the drink by inventing the famous "chopped and screwed" style which consists of lowering the pitch sound giving a deep voice effect in music, (example the back voice in Lil Wayne’s song a milli).

In 2000, Three 6 Mafia's single "Sippin' on Some Syrup," , brought the term "purple drank" to a nationwide audience, After that many rappers started mentioning the drink in their song including Far East Movement lately (sippin sizzurp in my ride, like Three 6).

However the syrup is under prescription and the drink is considered a drug and dangerous for the health thus illegal. In doses higher than recommended, it produces extreme somnolence, weakness and may cause fatal respiratory failure. Ironically DJ Screw himself died from an overdose.