“Santeria” - Sublime

The most interesting thing about the “two-year experiment to increase his creativity” story that MTV After-School Specials use to explain away the heroin habit that cost Brad Nowell his life is not the fact that it is most likely bullshit, but that it is hardly a cautionary tale.

Suggesting that 40oz. to Freedom - a wildly inconsistent collection of derivative takes on Jamaican dub and uninspired covers that is at best mildly interesting, and at worst completely pedestrian - was recorded before Nowell started using and that the Robbin’ The Hood sessions - which produced not only an operatic DIY tour de force that is a masterpiece in its own right but also laid the groundwork for many of the high points on Sublime’s self-titled breakout - took place during the height of his addiction is about as ringing an endorsement for the artistic utility of heroin as I’ve ever seen.