Jay Z says war on drugs is ‘an epic fail’ in stirring new video

US: US rapper Jay Z has labelled the war on drugs an “epic fail” in a four-minute video published by The New York Times. Speaking about the drug problem in America, Jay Z said “young men like me who hustled became the sole villain and drug addicts lacked moral fortitude” when strict drug laws were introduced in the 80s.


This video is part history lesson about the war on drugs and part vision statement.

In the footage narrated by Jay Z featuring the artwork of Molly Crabapple and posted on nytimes.com. the rapper argued that the treatment of drug dealers is hypocritical given that states like Colorado have legalized marijuana.

Jay Z whose real name is Shawn Carter, blames mandatory minimum sentencing on drug crimes in part for the sharp rise drug related crimes in the US prison population adding that the prison population had risen to more than two million during the so-called drug war.

“There were more than 1.5 million drug arrests in 2014,” he said narrated.

“More than 80 per cent were for possession only. Almost half were for marijuana. People were finally talking about addiction to harder drugs as a health crisis.”

The singer often rapped about his past as a crack cocaine dealer.
He also wrote the script for the video, describing it as it is set to a series of illustrations.