Sizzurp: The Codeine-Based Hip-Hop 'Drank' of Choice

(Sept. 2) -- What's in that cup, anyway?

On Wednesday night, the rapper known as T.I. and his wife, Tameka "Tiny" Cottle, were stopped by Los Angeles police after making an illegal U-turn and subsequently charged with possession of a controlled substance. While conflicting reports claimed that the substance in question was either methamphetamine or ecstasy, initial rumors had it that the couple had been arrested for drinking sizzurp, the popular homemade concoction that mixes codeine cough syrup with a variety of other ingredients ranging from candy to vodka to soda.

TMZ based its sizzurp speculation on a photo taken at the scene of the arrest in which large styrofoam cups were visible inside the car. "Sizzurp is typically ingested in styrofoam cups ... it's become a 'thing' in the hip-hop community," the site proclaimed.

Despite the fact that other beverages besides sizzurp are also "typically ingested in styrofoam cups," there is no denying that over the past few years the drink also known as "drank" has become something of an accessory to the Southern hip-hop lifestyle.

In fact, as Surge Desk's Katie Drummond reported this week, with the rise in popularity of sizzurp, the federal government is now weighing new regulations of over-the-counter medications that contain dextromethorphan, the nonprescription cough syrup ingredient in sizzurp used to achieve a euphoric high.

Known to have a variety of health risks, sizzurp was blamed in the death of the Texas-based rapper Pimp C in 2008, when the drink conflicted with an underlying health condition. One of the biggest hits of Pimp C's career was the song "Sippin' on Some Sizzurp."

But no rapper has been more outspoken about his love of sizzurp than Lil Wayne. In fact, the New Orleans native composed a song in honor of the purple libation titled "Me and My Drink," which contains the following lyrical turn:

... and this is how we do it, do it in the south
One more ounce will make me feel so great
Wait ... now I can't feel my face
up in the studio me and my drank, me and my drank, me and my drank...

With high-profile promoters and even a new consumer beverage called Drank that, in a not so sly wink at its illicit namesake, is packaged in a purple can and promises to "slow your roll," it is perhaps no wonder that use of sizzurp has become a cultural phenomenon.