The EDM scene has been attracting a whole lot of negative attention in the aftermath of the two drug-related deaths at New York’s Electric Zoo Festival and another death from an overdose of ecstasy at a Zedd show in Boston last month, but Major Lazer think the real issue is a lack of drug education, with Jillionaire saying, “we need to teach kids how to do drugs”.
Authorities have cracked down on drug use at festivals following the fatalities, arresting 21 people at Boston Calling Festival last weekend, but Diplo told Rolling Stone during that festival that the media are just using the tragedies as something to write about:
“The drug thing happens, and this is the first time music writers can have something to write about. Electronic music is so young, and these audiences are full of 18 – no, 13-year-olds – and people who are 30, and 30 is old. Music writers and critics are old.”
“When I was younger and living in Philadelphia, there was a crazy heroin problem. I had a lot of friends who died from Oxycontin and heroin overdoses. No one wrote about those kids. When 6,000 kids party for three days and two kids die, it’s a story because the writers don’t write about electronic music, as it’s flat and boring all the time.”
Jillionaire says that teaching kids about moderation is way more effective than telling them to abstain, saying that we need to acknowledge that the youngins will do ’em anyway:
“It’s going to sound weird, but we need to teach kids how to do drugs, the same way we teach them about drinking responsibly and having safe sex. If you’re going to go to a festival, drink water for six days before you get there; don’t drink no alcohol. If you’re going to do a pill and a half, don’t do four more and then pass out, overheat, and die of cardiac arrest. Instead of acting like drugs don’t exist, acknowledge that drugs will be at a festival and address them.”
Diplo and Jillionaire will be bringing the Major Lazer show our way next January for the 2014 Big Day Out.
(via Rolling Stone)
