“Same Drugs” Music Video Review

By Jack Salz, Staff Writer

With the 2013 release of his mixtape, “Acid Rap,” Chance the Rapper flew to the top of the rap world. The release of his most recent album, “Coloring Book,” in may of 2016 captured his fans with a mix of upbeat and seriously emotional tracks. The popular and powerful song “Same Drugs” got paired with an “Official Video” on Feb. 6 that likely will not resonate with his fans.

The video quality mimics that of early 70s television broadcasts with lens flares and all. The video as a whole seems under paced and, to put it simply, just lazy. Besides Chance sitting at a piano, the video is populated with Muppet-like puppets, something that is confusing to say the least. Chance stands up from his piano and hardly attempts to lip-sync as the video quality suddenly changes to a style that is much more conventional. We see him slowly walk out the studio paying no attention to the puppets running the show.

While the song “Same Drugs” is a powerful story of a breakup, this music video seems to pay no mind. This at first will let many fans, including myself, feeling let down and confused, but a deeper look will reveal another conversation lying beneath the surface.

Chance is not only famous for championing positivity and family values but also is on the forefront of the anti-recording label wave. He has refused to sign with many popular labels and releases all of this music for free on SoundCloud. This video is very likely a part of that conversation rather than the message of the song.

As the only human being surrounded by puppets Chance may be contrasting the realism he tries to push forward in the industry while being surrounded by people who are simply trying to make a buck. This also explains the confused and distracted behavior that Chance has during the majority of the song. It does become obvious that he is fed up with the situation as he leaves the studio with no hesitation.

While the meaning in this video requires a deeper dig than is typical for many music videos it’s satisfying to have a concrete answer, unlike some made by artists like Childish Gambino and Kanye West. While many feel that a music video should directly correlate to the meaning of the song I personally am happy with the symbolism and message behind this music video.

View the music video here.