Some Kind Of Drug

Some Kind Of Drug: G-Eazy and Marc E. Bassy's Collaborative Single and Its Place in the Bay Area Rap Scene

"Some Kind Of Drug" is a pop-rap track by G-Eazy featuring Marc E. Bassy, released in 2017 through RCA Records as part of G-Eazy's commercial expansion during one of the most active periods of his career. The song represented a creative partnership between two Bay Area artists who had been building parallel careers in the same geographic and cultural ecosystem, and its release underscored the regional music community's ability to generate music that connected with mainstream audiences well beyond California.

G-Eazy, born Gerald Earl Gillum in Oakland, California, had by 2017 established himself as one of the most commercially successful independent-turned-major-label rappers of his generation. His 2015 album These Things Happen had delivered strong commercial results, and his follow-up When It's Dark Out had continued the trajectory. By the time "Some Kind Of Drug" was released as part of the campaign for his third major-label album The Beautiful & Damned, G-Eazy was operating at a level of commercial visibility that gave his releases immediate mainstream attention. The Beautiful & Damned debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 when it was released in December 2017.

Marc E. Bassy, born Marc Griffin, had developed a following as a singer-songwriter working at the intersection of R&B and pop, with a vocal style that suited the melodic, emotionally accessible lane G-Eazy was navigating on "Some Kind Of Drug." Their previous collaboration had generated commercial attention, and the return pairing on this track felt like a natural extension of a creative relationship that worked sonically and commercially. Bassy's contribution added a melodic hook and vocal warmth that complemented G-Eazy's spoken-word-adjacent rap delivery.

The production on "Some Kind Of Drug" employed a minimalist approach with room-filling drums and a clean, melodic foundation that suited the track's lyrical content about intoxicating romantic attraction. The arrangement created space for both G-Eazy's rhythmic delivery and Bassy's more melodic contributions, with the interplay between the two registers giving the track a dynamic range that made it effective across different listening contexts, from car speakers to headphones. The production aesthetic was consistent with the larger sound G-Eazy was cultivating across The Beautiful & Damned.

The song performed on the Billboard Hot 100, benefiting from the promotional infrastructure surrounding The Beautiful & Damned's release cycle. G-Eazy had developed a significant streaming presence by 2017, with multiple tracks from his catalog accumulating substantial plays across platforms including Spotify and Apple Music. The streaming era had been particularly kind to his brand of accessible pop-rap, which suited the consumption patterns of listeners who favored background-friendly, melodically engaging music for everyday listening contexts.

G-Eazy's commercial prominence in 2017 also extended to his visibility as a cultural figure. He had been involved in high-profile collaborations throughout the year, including with Bebe Rexha on "Me, Myself & I," which had been a top-five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and had introduced him to a substantially wider audience than his rap-focused releases had previously reached. The success of that collaboration informed the approach to "Some Kind Of Drug," which similarly sought to balance G-Eazy's rap identity with broader pop accessibility through the inclusion of a melodic collaborator.

Critical response to the song was mixed in the way that much of G-Eazy's critical reception during this period was mixed. Reviewers generally acknowledged his commercial instincts and his facility with the pop-rap format while questioning whether his music offered sufficient artistic depth or originality to merit the level of commercial attention it received. These critiques were not new to G-Eazy, who had navigated similar tensions between critical reception and commercial performance throughout his career, and they did not significantly affect the song's commercial trajectory.

The track also contributed to the ongoing conversation about Bay Area rap's relationship to mainstream pop music. G-Eazy's success demonstrated that artists from outside the traditional centers of New York and Atlanta could build major commercial careers in the streaming era, and his collaborations with other Bay Area artists like Marc E. Bassy helped maintain a sense of regional identity even as his music became increasingly nationally oriented. RCA Records supported the release with a full promotional campaign that reflected G-Eazy's status as a priority artist for the label during this particularly productive commercial period.