Love in Disguise: The Hidden Message of "Drugs, You Should Try It."
The fourth track of the newly released but not newly made album "Days Before Rodeo" is titled Drugs, You Should Try It. This song quickly rose to the top of Travis Scott's discography. DYSTI is a melodic masterpiece mentioning romantic love through a drug-induced lens. This song is presumably based on a Justin Beiber love song titled "All That Matters." The beat has a similar laid-back beat and has that lower tone feel so I can see the similarities. Let's dive into Drugs, You Should Try It by Travis Scott.
INTRO
The song's intro starts with a palm-muted electric guitar plucking a single note, just a few beats later we can hear Travis with deeply distorted vocals, harmonizing, instantly transporting us into a world that is sonically relaxing but tense. The intro's lyrics are as follows:
(Hoo) Yawa thgin eht esahc
Ot ydaer 'nitteg er'uoy wonk I
Ecnad annaw uoy wonk I, evom annaw uoy wonk I
Doom eht ni enola emoh er'uoy nehw
Gibberish, I know, but it's the outro of the song just in reverse, which is as follows:
When you're home alone in the mood. I know you wanna move, I know you wanna dance. I know you're gettin' ready to chase the night away (Ooh)
This warped and distorted intro tells the listener that the drugs are taking effect on Travis as his voice is altered and the speech is disorderly.
CHORUS
The chorus starts with, "I'll try it if it feels right. This feels nice." He talks about this new drug he is trying for the first time and how it makes him feel. Many speculate the new drug he is taking to be Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine (MDMA), otherwise known as ecstasy or Molly. "I've been down and lost for days, glad I found you on the way." This could apply to the drug he is taking as he is struggling and is glad he found this new "clutch" to help in through this difficult time. This could also apply to a love interest that he found to aid him in his troubling times. The clever use of words to describe a drug or a love interest is discussed further in the THEME section near the end of this article. The following line had me thinking and is honestly up for debate. "When the day gets brighter, the night gets nighter. I always feel this way." I feel this has to do with Scott's disguise he uses to mask his depression. Travis Scott is no stranger to depression and has been very open about it. I assume Travis is tired of faking his liveliness or "bright" attitude during the day so during the dark it gets "nighter" and does typical nightly things like in this case, taking a new drug. His next line "Through the hills I hear you calling, miles and miles away." As talked about in the THEME section this could apply to the love interest or the drug calling to him as he is craving either, or possibly both. After this line, the distorted voice comes back and the inverted intro is sung again.
VERSE 1
Travis starts by saying "We up all night, from dawn to dusk it's always poppin'" He cleverly starts the verse by using the word poppin' for popping drugs and popping like being upbeat at a club or party. Later in the verse, he says the line "I played the drums, she rolled the drugs." This line gets interesting because throughout the song we hear Travis refer to the love interest as "you" but here he uses "she." Some backstory for this line, Travis Scott's father was a drummer, pianist, and jazz musician who taught Travis music theory and how to play the drums at a young age. The next line is self-explanatory as they both drank heavily causing them to vomit. A couple of lines later Travis sings "I take that puff, you take that puff. You know we never care to overdose." He uses the word puff which implies the use of marijuana which is nearly impossible to overdose. I think here they both take the "puff" or commit themselves fully to their relationship and were constantly "using" or being around each other all the time as they never cared to "overdose" or get too much of each other.
OUTRO
After the second chorus and a small bridge, we come to the outro which is the inverted intro but in the regular form. He mentions his love interest getting in the mood and as we discussed we see a parallel with drugs and love. This could mean she is in the mood for drugs as Travis sings "I know you wanna move, I know you wanna dance," since molly/ecstasy enhances the feeling of movement. On the flip side, this could mean making love as sex is commonly described as a dance. He then says, "I know you wanna take the night away." Whether it's drugs or sex, Travis's love interest wants the night occupied to get their mind off of the troubles keeping them up at night.
THEMES
The parallel between drugs and love is commonly found throughout the track. Travis speaks on how he will "try it if it feels right," and how "it feels nice," in the opening lines. Here Travis could be singing about the effect the drugs have on him or the effect his love interest has on him. Both can be intoxicating and encapsulating if left unchecked. Travis in DYSTI has been "down and lost for days," and, "glad I found you on the way." Again, he could be talking about molly and how he's been struggling and using these drugs as a crutch. On the other hand, he could be singing about how his love interest is making him happier through his troubling times. Even in the song title, Drugs, You Should Try It, you could replace the word Drugs with Love and it fits just as well. Travis could be alluding to love and how it should be experienced by everyone, and how "they should try it."