Rapper Bishop Nehru under fire for appearing to try heroin in YouTube video

Rapper-turned-YouTuber Markel ‘Bishop Nehru’ Scott went viral after releasing a video where he appears to inject heroin in an attempt to promote his latest music video.

Bishop Nehru has had one of the most interesting career paths of any up-and-coming rapper of the last decade.

He garnered attention early in his career by collaborating with some of rap’s most iconic figures like MF DOOM, and even signed onto Nas’ label, Mass Appeal Records, at the ripe age of 17.

Now, Nehru has gone viral on social media for something completely unrelated to his rapping skills.

YouTuber goes viral for “trying heroin” video

Nehru released a video on May 17 titled, “Heroin Addiction.”

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The clip the New York rapper posted to social media instantly gained tons of attention as he seemed to cook up, and then inject, heroin to “note its short-term side effects.”

Just a day after posting, the announcement tweet has already garnered over 1,000 replies and nearly 5,000 quote-tweets – many of which express concern for the contents of the video being both damaging to him as well as a harmful message to share with his followers.

One user said: “Bishop Nehru had assistance from Nas, MF DOOM, and Wu-Tang Clan and now he’s sticking in needles for clickbait. This is sad.”

Bishop responded to the flood of comments on the YouTube video, saying, “It’s just art. Wait until I explain all of this. I love y’all and hope y’all are safe.”

Since promising to explain the video, Nehru hasn’t posted on social media.

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Social media users pointed out that it’s likely the rapper didn’t actually inject the drugs into his arm, as the needle appears to miss his arm in the video.

Despite that, many shared their concern that the message of the video could be harmful to his younger audience.