Purple Pills
by D12

Album: Devil's Night (2001)
Charted: 2 19
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is about drug use. The censored version is called "Purple Hills," with many of the lyrics changed. For example, in the chorus:

    I take a couple uppers
    I down a couple downers
    But nothing compares to these blue and yellow, purple pills.
    I've been to mushroom mountain
    Once or twice but who's countin'
    But nothing compares to these blue and yellow, purple pills


    is changed to:

    I've been so many places
    I've seen so many faces
    But nothing compares to these blue and yellow, purple hills
    I've climbed the highest mountain
    Once or twice but who's countin'
    But nothing compares to these blue and yellow, purple hills
    >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Thomas - Double Springs, AL
  • D12's most prominent member is Eminem, who performs on this track. His solo success thrust D12 into the spotlight and gave this song a big boost. Other hits for the group were "My Band," which reached #6 in the US and #2 in the UK in 2004, and "How Come," which was also a transatlantic hit for D12.
  • The music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, follows Eminem cruising through literal "blue and yellow purple hills," a nod to the censored version's lyrics, before meeting up with the rest of D12. Proof, disguised as a clown, is shown terrorizing kids at a birthday party.
  • Nelly was another big-name rapper whose group got its own release in 2001. He had a group called St. Lunatics, which released their album Free City that year. It sold over a million copies and spun off a minor hit called "Midwest Swing."
  • The purple pills became a major problem for Eminem when he got addicted to Vicodin and Valium a few years later. It was most acute after his D12 bandmate Proof was shot and killed in 2006. "My addiction went through the f--kin' roof," he told XXL. "I had f--kin' 10 drug dealers at one time that I'm getting my s--t from. Seventy-five to 80 Valiums a night."

Comments: 1

  • Peter from Carmel, InThis was definitely not their only hit.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine Band

Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine BandSongwriter Interviews

Harry Wayne Casey tells the stories behind KC and The Sunshine Band hits like "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way (I Like It)," and "Give It Up."

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And HellSongwriter Interviews

Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.