I was just reading some Yahoo! news stories like I do many days before I start working, and I came across a story about the highs and lows of the AMAs. I don’t really watch awards shows anymore, but I like to read the highlight reel in the aftermath. Anyway, number 2 on the list of highs and lows was “Macklemore Teamed With Leon Bridges for a Sobering New Song” and this got my attention because as I read about the song named “Kevin” I learned that it’s about prescription pill abuse- a subject that REALLY hit me hard because it’s a little too close to home. This prompted me to look up the lyrics and as I read them I became a bigger fan of Macklemore than I ever have been before. These lyrics…oh my goodness…these lyrics…. Read them below from Genius.com and if you too are dealing with prescription pill abuse or have a family member that is dealing with it – please find a way to stop using. There is help out there. Check them out below and tell me what you think in the comments. Photo above by Flickr.
Kevin Lyrics
[Verse 1]
I seen pain, I felt the losses
Attended funerals and seen coffins
21 years old, an angel was lost here
Wings clipped by the grip of 80 milligram sniffs of oxycontin
Everyday through the nostrils
Never went away, never does it stop there
Death a line or two away and a couple tall cans
Cause you never know when God is gonna call, man
Precious, what we all share
I said peace at 5:30, the next time that I saw him was in the hands of the pallbearer
What if I would’ve never gone and dropped him off there?
Blaming myself, in hysterics, screaming “It’s not fair!”
21 years old with a book of rhymes he was gonna recite to the globe
Only thing to numb the pain besides that shit in his nose
He was gonna quit tomorrow, we’re all gonna quit tomorrow
Just get us through the weekend, and then Monday follows
Then it’s Wednesday, then it’s “fuck it, I’m already feeling hollow”
Might as well go crack a pill, might as well go chug a bottle
Might as well go pop a pill and go and bathe in that problem
And escape this world, vacate this world
Cause I hate myself
No praying’s gonna cure this pain
[Hook: Leon Bridges]
Doctor, please, give me a dose of the American Dream
Put down the pen and look in my eyes
We’re in the waiting room and something ain’t right
All this is on you, we’re overprescribed
[Verse 2: Macklemore]
My man Kev
He went up in jail, institutions are dead
And with our lives, we play Russian Roulette
And try to find a life where we can be content
Cause for us, we’re just trying to minimize the fear of being alive
And now my little brother is in the sky
From a pill that a doctor prescribed
And a drug that a million dollar industry supplied
And the cops never go and profile at night
Yeah, the, the, the orange plastic with the white top they sell to you
Has us looking for the answers and not instead of you
Quick fix, whatever’ll do
We just gonna neglect the truth
Because a doctor with a license played God and said it’s cool
Played God and said it’s cool
But me? I don’t blame Kev or his mom freebasing while pregnant with him
I blame the pharmacy companies
And country that spends trillions fighting the war they supplying themselves
Politicians and business and jail
Public defenders and judges who fail
Look at Kevin, look at Kevin
Now he’s wrapped in plastic
First dealer was his mom’s medicine cabinet
Got anxiety, better go and give him a Xanax
Focus, give him Adderall, sleep, give him Ambien
‘Til he’s walking ’round the city looking like a mannequin
Ups and downs shooting up prescriptions you’re handing him
So America, is it really worth it? I’m asking you
[Hook: Leon Bridges]
Doctor, please, give me a dose of the American Dream
Put down the pen and look in my eyes
We’re in the waiting room and something ain’t right
All this is on you, we’re overprescribed
[Outro: Leon Bridges]
Doctor, your methods, any old methods
Can’t cure my disease without killing me
You’re killing me, you’re killing me
You’re killing me, you’re killing me
Doctor, your methods, any old methods
Can’t cure my disease without killing me
You’re killing me, you’re killing me
You’re killing me, you’re killing me
