Lynn, MA artists Randy Reimer and Wade Barber shine a much needed spotlight on an epidemic which as wreaked havoc across the United States, and unfortunately, shows no signs of slowing down.
Their new collaborative Statik Selektah-produced single “Heroin Man” serves as a PSA (similar to Macklemore and President Obama’s public service announcement) to awaken the American public to the seemingly unmanageable opioid crisis which has severely impacted many communities throughout Massachusetts.
To give an example of just how bad this pervasive crisis is in The Bay State, we’ve pulled some statistics via Mass.gov which shows an exponential growth in unintentional opioid-related deaths between January 2000 through December 2015, and “all intents” opioid-related deaths between January 2015 through September 2016 (see chart below).
According to Randy, the song has been a work in process for over a year, adding that “[the] concept was not to touch to [sic] much upon the addiction and the horrible details but to ask the heroin man a question and attack the epidemic from the back door and more or less be the first MC to do so. Everybody has their own belief on addiction. Is it a disease? And we see on a daily basis the impact it has own all of us…”
Listen to the powerful song below, then do yourself a favor and peep James Brown’s “King Heroin.”
