Macklemore visited the White House to film a conversation with President Barack Obama that will be included in an upcoming MTV documentary on opioid addiction. Macklemore, who has struggled with addiction in the past, will serve as the documentary's host.
Macklemore also sat in on Obama's weekly address to discuss the recent rise in drug overdose in the United States.
“Overdose deaths have doubled in the last decade," Obama said. "A lot of the time, they’re from legal drugs prescribed by a doctor. So addiction doesn’t always start in some dark alley – it often starts in a medicine cabinet. In fact, a new study released this month found that 44 percent of Americans know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers.”
Macklemore delivered a withering invective against the pharmaceutical industry in "Kevin," one of the best tracks on his new album This Unruly Mess I've Made. He reiterated the song's themes in Obama's weekly address.
“I didn’t just know someone — I lost someone,” Macklemore said. “My friend Kevin overdosed on painkillers when he was just 21 years old. Addiction is like any other disease — it doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care what color you are, whether you’re a guy or a girl, rich or poor, whether you live in the inner-city, a suburb, or rural America. This doesn’t just happen to other people’s kids or in some other neighborhood. It can happen to any of us.”
The White House has just announced that Obama has called on Congress “to pass the $1.1 billion in new funding in his Budget to make sure that every American with an opioid use disorder who wants treatment can get the help they need." Watch the full weekly address below.
