It's become a meme at this point to say that the only thing Ameer talks about is drugs; however, I never really got the impression that that was his main topic. Sure, he talks about it a lot, but it's not like with Pusha T where you can count on there being at least three references to drugs every verse...right?
As someone with spare time on their hands I figured that it might be fun to go through every Ameer verse and quantify exactly how many drug references are present in his music, and compare that amount to how many verses he's spat overall to see if it really is statistically his favorite topic to rap about.
It should be noted that I have seen both people saying that all he raps about is drug dealing and people saying that all he raps about is drug usage, so I will be searching for both types of references but will be listing them differently. When I go through the songs and point out the drug references, drug dealing references will be prefaced by DD and drug usage references will be prefaced by DU.
RULES:
-If two different drugs are referenced during the same verse, that will count as two separate references; for example, "Roll that weed, push them needles" will count as two references.
-If he raps about the same drug numerous lines in a row, it will be judged on a case-to-case basis which lines count as their own individual drug references.
-Purple drank will be considered a drug; alcohol will not.
-When I say "drug usage" I don't mean references to other people doing drugs; I specifically mean Ameer talking about himself doing drugs. Thus, the "she out there flirting with addiction" line from Sincerely, Yours will not be counted.
Without further ado, let's go through everything Ameer has contributed to (that I could find), starting with his own solo work.
Solo Tracks and Features
Sincerely, Yours
DU: "I'm numb from smoking blunts"
A Wizard Told Me
DU: "I'm on angel dust"
High Tolerance
DU: "I just bought a bag/And smoked it on my own"
DU: "I just bought an eighth/Chewed it, now I'm tripping"
DU: "And no matter how much I be smoking, drinking, sipping" (Note: Based on the fact that he specifies both drinking and sipping in this line, we can assume that "drinking" refers to alcohol and "sipping" refers to drank. Thus, combined with the reference to smoking, this line will count as two references.)
DU: "I need it every morning/Need a little 'fore I'm sleeping"
DU: "I keep a sweet rolled/I light it on fire/And turn it into smoke"
RABBITS
DU: "While sippin' on some medicine"
DU: "Mouth full of shrooms"
I'm Sorry
No drug references!
Black Snake Moan
DU: "With a pint"
DU: "And bag of swishers"
Disconsolate
DU: "My only way of coping is smoking"
DU: "And snorting"
DU: "And popping"
LOVE
No drug references!
Camera Roll
I can barely make out any of the lyrics on this song but from what I can tell there aren't any drug references.
Dom McLennon - Avian (feat. Ameer Vann)
DD: "Place your tongue upon this white rabbit, it's magic"
Invictus - Don't Call (feat. Ameer Vann)
No drug references!
Mike Melinoe - Neighborhood Goats (feat. Ameer Vann)
DD: "I cop the zip, I make it flip"
DU: "Smokin' Moses and the burnin' bush"
DU: "Buy the gram"
Kevin Abstract - Not On Doasm 01 (feat. Matt Champion & Ameer Vann)
DU: "I ain't spilled my cup"
DU: "Like Jesus Christ on Actavis"
Now, let's move on to his work in BROCKHAMPTON, starting with the non-album singles released leading up to/around the time of All-American Trash.
BROCKHAMPTON LOOSIES
Bet I
DD: "She only call me when she wanting to get high" (Note: technically, this line and the lines that follow it appear to be about Ameer giving a girl drugs while having sex with her. This might not be "drug dealing" per se, but it still involves referencing Ameer as a person who supplies drugs to other people, so I'm counting it as a drug dealing reference.)
DU: "Roll that weed"
DU: "Push them needles"
DD: "If all we need is drugs then all you gotta do is call me"
Hero
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Dirt
DD: "I got a pocket full of stones for all of y'all" (Note: this is, of course, a reference to UGK more than it is a reference to drug dealing, but it still counts as a drug dealing reference since it still is Ameer saying that he has a pocket full of crack rocks (presumably) to sell.)
Cannon
DD: "It's a four inside my cup"
As you can see, after having joined BROCKHAMPTON Ameer started referencing himself as a drug dealer in addition to being a drug user. Now let's move on to BROCKHAMPTON's actual albums, starting with All-American Trash.
All-American Trash
Encino
No drug references!
Ben Carson
DD: "The trap ain't free"
DU: "Smoking Sunday's best"
Michigan
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Infatuation
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Breakfast
DU: "Lighting blunts underwater"
Mosscliff
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Contacts
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Palace
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Flip Mo
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Home
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Cotton Hollow
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
Poison
DU: "You know I smoke"
Lost In Love
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
All-American Trash may not have many appearances from Ameer, but when he does appear he does, in fact, talk about drugs. Even on Poison, where his verse is about metaphorically referring to a girl as a drug, he still makes one reference to actual, literal drugs.
Now, on to the Brockhampton project where Ameer really got put into focus: Saturation.
SATURATION
HEAT
DU: "I got pipe dreams of crack rocks"
DU: "I can taste the weed"
GOLD
No drug references!
STAR
DD: "Quarter pound of the dank/On the scale and it stank"
DD: "Paint a picture with the white dust" (Note: while this line never explicitly says he's the one selling the white dust, the fact that he is rapping about being in control of cocaine implies to me that he is indeed talking about drug dealing.)
DD: "Kingpin like JAY-Z"
BOYS
DD: "By the ounce, sellin' ounces over here"
2PAC
DD: "When I sold prescriptions"
DU: "My pill addiction"
DU: "Hella drugs"
DD: "Selling dope from out ya house"
FAKE
No drug references! (Note: I am not counting "put the gas in the blunt" because I am not including references to other people doing drugs, and that line is preceded by "Niggas hit licks", implying that the people Ameer is talking about are putting the gas in the blunt, not him.)
BANK
DD: "I was sellin' cabbage"
TRIP
DU: "I need another pill"
DU: "We're getting wasted"
DU: "We get all our drugs and medication"
DU: "We still roll up"
SWIM
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
BUMP
DD: "I've been trappin' out my momma house"
DU: "Smokin' blacks with my hood bitch"
DD: "I sell it by the gram"
CASH
DU: "Crack"
DU: "Marijuana"
DU: "Syrup on the dashboard"
MILK
DU: "I did a bunch of drugs"
FACE
No drug references!
WASTE
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
As we can see, on Saturation Ameer's drug references became very common, to the point where they were noticeable as one of the main things he raps about.
Let's go on to the latest BROCKHAMPTON project, Saturation II.
SATURATION II
GUMMY
DD: "I ain't sellin' no more" (Note: yes, this line is saying that Ameer isn't selling drugs anymore, but it's still mentioning that he did sell drugs at one point, so it counts.)
DU: "But got my hand in the zip"
DU: "I got a bag of the gas, and a blunt I can face"
QUEER
DU: "Spilled syrup on my big wheel"
JELLO
No drug references!
TEETH
DU: "Empty stomach, weed smoke can't fill it"
SWAMP
DD: "My daddy taught me how to sell dope/Turn grams into elbows"
DU: "Light it up when the L rolled"
DU: "Find the dope then we take off"
DU: "Actavis in my baby bottle"
TOKYO
DU: "Smoke weed and get high"
JESUS
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
CHICK
No drug references!
JUNKY
DU: "I got my hand on an ounce"
DU: "I took an eighth of them shrooms"
DU: "I took like two of them pills"
DU: "Paranoia and drug addiction"
FIGHT
No drug references!
SWEET
No drug references!
SUNNY
DU: "Smokin' till it's all gone"
SUMMER
No Ameer verse, so no drug references.
We can see now that Ameer's lyrics are referencing drugs less than they were on Saturation I, which makes sense given that in his verse on CHICK he actually acknowledges the criticism that he raps too much about drugs. Before we get to the numbers, let's move on to the (supposed) first single from Saturation III, FOLLOW.
FOLLOW
DD: "I got dirty money, minutes on my trap phone"
DD: "I just bought a scale, now everywhere a trap house"
Stats
All of this adds up to a total of 44 drug usage references and 18 drug dealing references, meaning that so far in all his recorded output Ameer has made 62 references to himself either using drugs or selling drugs.
He has spit 51 verses across his solo work, features, and BROCKHAMPTON, meaning that an average Ameer verse contains ~1.21 drug references: ~0.86 drug usage references, and ~0.35 drug dealing references.
Here is a graph visualizing Ameer's drug references over time (I arranged the pre-BROCKHAMPTON singles in the best order I could). While there isn't an extremely obvious trend, we can see that his drug dealing references picked up significantly once he joined BROCKHAMPTON.
In conclusion, Ameer's drug references are definitely common, and there are plenty of songs (especially on Saturation I) where he raps about drug dealing in particular, so there is basis for people saying he mainly raps about dealing. However, across his whole career we can see that drug references aren't nearly as prevalent in his music as it may seem, and in fact he raps about drug usage more than he raps about drug dealing.
