Tony Yayo Says ‘Nobody Was Dying’ When He Was Dealing Before Fentanyl Epidemic

Tony Yayo sees stark differences between the street drugs from yesterday and today.

In a new interview with DJ Vlad, the 46-year-old discussed the fentanyl crisis and its impact, specifically noting the dangers of street drugs today compared to the past.

Vlad, 51, opened the portion of the interview by reflecting on Rich Homie Quan, who is the fifth person he has interviewed to die from an overdose, alongside Coolio, Gangsta Boo, Aaron Carter, and Mac Miller.

“I mean it's sad because if you sniff coke or you pop pills, it's like rolling the dice now,” Yayo said at the 1:21 mark of the video above. “It's like you're rolling dice with your life. If you choose to do that, get a test or something. You hear motherfuckers in the hood die off for just bagging up fentanyl, mixing that shit up with they work and doing what they gotta do.”

The former G-Unit member contrasted recent overdose deaths with his past experience in the drug trade, saying that he saw “crackheads live forever.” He also mentioned that overdoses were rare in the past, even among heavy users.

“Nobody was dying, bro,” he said. “I've seen people on dope, on coke, and they live forever, bro… And it was never no overdoses. Motherfuckers sniffed it. It was either the bad work where a motherfucker wanna slap you in the head or want his money back, and that's what you call bad work. The bad work now is when you die.”

He continued, “Back in the days when we hustled, that was the last thing you worried about is somebody dying off of something you gave them … We fast forward to fentanyl and you see where the game's going. Now it's a roll of the dice, and God bless anybody who dies from it. It's like, hopefully you don't, or find a way to test the shit you got, do what you do. I'm not advocating you do drugs, you know what I mean? Just try to test your shit at least because you're rolling the dice or fentanyl. All that shit is some powerful shit, bro.”

Yayo also believes that many young people are becoming more cautious to the risks involved with street drugs, saying, “Young n***as I know on the street are smart enough to know. They're not gonna buy just a pill off the street anymore. People are hip to it now. Motherfuckers that pop pills … they're smarter now.”

Despite Yayo's position, it's worth pointing out that drug overdoses were not uncommon even then, though the rise in fentanyl overdoses in recent years has been hard to ignore.