Percocet Soundscapes

sound
2018

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I thought of the idea for this project after I had ligament repair surgery on my wrist and was prescribed Percocet. While on the medication, I began to think about the various ways that opioids are represented in popular culture, and how these vary in different social contexts. 

 

To compose the soundscapes below, I sampled from radio broadcasts and documentaries that covered the opioid crisis in white communities, and incorporated techniques popularized by the chopped and screwed genre– a sub-genre of southern hip-hop that originated in Houston in the 1990's and was heavily influenced by "lean", the term for promethazine/ codeine cough syrup mixed with soda. The genre's creator, DJ Screw, died of an opioid overdose in 2000 at the age of 29.