Kendrick Lamar is using his spotlight to take on one of the big current trends in rap music: the prevalence of the drug Molly.

The rapper notably flashed a sign reading "Death To Molly" at the end of his new video for the song B-, Don't Kill My Vibe.

"Sometimes you have the trends that's not that cool," Lamar told MTV News after a performance at the Hangout Festival this weekend in Gulf Shores, Alabama. "You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don't really have that lifestyle, and then it gives off the wrong thing. And it becomes kinda corny after a while."

The drug has been mentioned often in recent releases by both established rappers Kanye West, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, and Gucci Mane and newcomer like French Montana and Trinidad James. In March, Rick Ross appeared on the Rocko single U.O.E.N.O., in which he rapped about unsuspectingly putting the drug into a woman's drink and having nonconsensual sex with her. The controversy from that verse resulted in the end of an advertising deal Ross had with sneaker company Reebok.

Complex posted a timeline of Molly in rap music on their website in 2012, and believes the drug "reached critical mass" when West mentioned it in the G.O.O.D. Music single Mercy: "Something 'bout Mary, she gone off that Molly." But Lamar thinks it's time for a change.

"When everybody consciously now uses this term or this phrase and putting it in lyrics, it waters the culture down," Lamar posited, "so it's really just time to move on."

Molly, short for "molecule," is the slang term for a pure powdered or crystallized form of MDMA, or ecstasy. Users often initially feel pleasurable effects, but according to the organization The Partnership at Drugfree.org (formerly The Partnership for a Drug-Free America), use of the drug can lead to a multitude of unhealthy conditions.

"High doses of MDMA can interfere with the ability to regulate body temperature, resulting in a sharp increase in body temperature (hyperthermia), leading to liver, kidney and cardiovascular failure. Severe dehydration can result from the combination of the drug's effects and the crowded and hot conditions in which the drug is often taken," the Drug Enforcement Agency reports.

Lamar has also spoken out about other substance abuse issues on his critically acclaimed album good kid, m.A.A.d. city. On the album's second single, Swimming Pools (Drank), he rapped "I've got a swimming pool full of liquor, I'm gonna dive in," discussing the danger of alcoholism and his own struggles against his family history with the illness over a dark-toned beat.

But Lamar argues that his frank lyrics aren't just about educating listeners, it's also about keeping the music genre interesting.

"It's really about keeping hip-hop original and pushing away the corniness in it," said Lamar.

Check out Kendrick Lamar's B-, Don't Kill My Vibe video!

Tags: kendrick lamar rap hip-hop