Ice-T is stepping behind the digital camera with Fame and Fentanyl, a two-hour A&E particular airing August 25 at 9 P.M. ET, spotlighting the lethal grip of fentanyl throughout America and the lives it continues to steal—together with these of Prince, Mac Miller, and Coolio.

The Hip-Hop icon serves as each host and govt producer of the documentary, which weaves collectively harrowing tales from grieving households, regulation enforcement officers and the music trade’s most tragic losses.

The undertaking goals to show the scope of fentanyl’s devastation and educate viewers on its deadly presence within the drug provide.

“Fentanyl, for me, came out of nowhere. By the time I learned about the drug, I had already lost people to it. It’s a poison in the drug world, and I wanted to do everything that I could to make people aware of its danger,” Ice-T said in a statement about the project. “Everyone knows someone who has fallen victim to fentanyl.”

The movie arrives because the U.S. sees a pointy decline in overdose deaths.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug-related fatalities dropped from 110,037 in 2023 to 80,391 in 2024—a 27% lower.

Opioid overdoses, together with these involving fentanyl, fell from 83,140 to 54,743 throughout the identical interval. Still, fentanyl stays the main explanation for overdose deaths, accounting for almost 70% of all drug fatalities.

“These are the stories that everyone needs to hear,” Ice-T added.

Among these tales are the high-profile deaths of artists who unknowingly consumed fentanyl-laced substances. Prince died in 2016 after taking counterfeit painkillers containing the artificial opioid.

Mac Miller handed away in 2018 from a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.

Coolio, finest recognized for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” died in 2022 with fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine in his system.

The listing continues with Rich Homie Quan, who died in 2024 from a mix of fentanyl, codeine, alprazolam and promethazine.

The documentary dives into how fentanyl is usually consumed unknowingly, because it’s ceaselessly blended with different substances.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 5 out of 10 drugs examined in 2024 contained a doubtlessly deadly dose of fentanyl—down from 7 out of 10 the 12 months earlier than.

The CDC additionally reported that overdose charges are nonetheless disproportionately excessive amongst Black, Hispanic, American Indian and multiracial populations, with the best demise charges amongst adults over 55.

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