The Politics of Healthcare Marketization and Medical Fetishism in Parliament’s “I’m Gon Make U Sick O’Me”

Abstract

This article examines Parliament’s music video “I’m Gon Make U Sick O’Me” (2018) as a satirical and Afrofuturist critique of the American healthcare system and the pharmaceutical industry. Released as part of the concept album Medicaid Fraud Dogg, the video engages with broader concerns about the commodification of medicine, the profit motives embedded in healthcare delivery, and the racial politics of medical access and trust. The study situates the video in the cultural and historical context of Afrofuturism, a framework that blends speculative aesthetics with critiques of anti-Blackness, capitalism, and systemic oppression. Using methods drawn from visual culture analysis and critical theory, the article explores how Parliament’s retro-futuristic funk aesthetic and surreal medical imagery work together to produce a layered commentary on contemporary healthcare systems. Central to this analysis is the portrayal of Big Pharma as a seductive and manipulative force, embodied by hyper-stylized characters such as a fetishized nurse, a dazed patient (played by George Clinton), and a flamboyant Dr. Feel Good (portrayed by Scarface). These figures symbolize the eroticization of medical authority and the normalization of pharmaceutical overuse, exposing how illness is constructed and consumed within a capitalist framework. The video’s psychedelic visuals, paired with funk’s destabilizing rhythms, challenge viewers to question not only the marketing of medicine but also the broader systems of racial and economic inequality that shape access to care. The article finds that the video critiques the entanglement of healthcare and desire, drawing attention to how Black communities have been historically marginalized, exploited, and overmedicated. Ultimately, it argues that Parliament’s Afrofuturist vision turns funk into both a mode of critique and a site of healing: one that confronts the violence of medical capitalism while imagining alternative futures grounded in resistance, sonic liberation, and cultural memory.