Jay Z has joined with the New York Times to break down just how big of a failure the war on drugs has been. In fact, he calls it an "epic fail." In the animated clip, Hov narrates from the beginning in the 70s through the crack era on to high incarceration rates and how all these things effected people of color. "The NYPD raided our Brooklyn neighborhoods while Manhattan bankers openly used coke without impunity," he says about the 80s. Moving through the years he gets to today's legal marijuana market and how Colorado has flourished but states like Louisiana are still giving out large sentences related to the drug. What the film comes down to is, the war hasn't changed much.
"Rates of drug use are as high as when Nixon declared this so called war in 1971."
Watch the Jay Z narrated and Molly Crabapple animated film above.