Eminem On Drug Addiction Hurting Career, “I Had To Learn To Write & Rap Again”

Written By S. Samuel

Grammy-winning rapper Eminem has discussed the difficulty he found himself in when battling drug addiction over the past few years and re-learning how to rap again.

Eminem
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According to Em, he had to re-learn his rhymes after sobering up.

“I had to learn to write and rap again, and I had to do it sober and 100 percent clean. That didn’t feel good at first…I mean it in the literal sense. I actually had to learn how to say my lyrics again — how to phrase them, make them flow, how to use force so they sounded like I meant them. Rapping wasn’t like riding a bike. It was [as much] physical as mental. I was relearning basic motor skills. I couldn’t control my hand shakes. I’d get in the [recording] booth and tried to rap, and none of it was clever, none was witty and I wasn’t saying it right…It was four or five months after I’d been clean when I started to get a glimmer of my writing skills back. I don’t remember what song I was working on specifically, but I do remember getting feeling back in the music. I realized I wanted to do this again.” (New York Post)

Last June, Em revealed a near-death experience he had from drug usage.

“It took me awhile to admit I actually did have a problem,” the musician said. “In the hip-hop world that I live in, it can be mistaken for weakness and the last thing you want to do in hip-hop is admit that you’re weak. But if I didn’t admit I was weak with this certain thing I was going to die.” When asked how close he was to death, the artist responded that he “was certainly a couple of hours away from death,” adding that he “overdosed and almost died.” But he pulled himself back from the brink and re-entered rehab with a more honest, committed attitude: “I had to admit I had a problem. I had to do it for myself,” Eminem said. (CNN)

In January, music veteran Elton John revealed he was helping Em fight through drug addiction.

“I’ve been helping Eminem over the last 18 months and he’s doing brilliantly,” John says, reports the British Press Association. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 in the U.K. on Saturday, Sir Elton, 62, who has freely spoken about his own past issues with substance abuse, said: “I’m there if people want my help. If people ask for help you tell them where to go but there’s no point advising people if they don’t want to do it.” (PEOPLE)

In a June 2009 VIBE interview, Em broke down his slow recovery and return to the spotlight.

“I wanted to make an overall statement–I’m back,” Em said. “It was a slow process. You gotta remember I hadn’t recorded a song sober in seven years. So it took me awhile to even feel like I could record a song sober…I don’t know the last time I shot a video sober, without drinking or taking anything. It’s been years…I almost feel like a little kid again with rap. I wanna play around with different flows. If I don’t feel like it’s what I’m fully capable of, if there’s one weak line, I wanna change it. Rap was my drug. It used to get me high and then it stopped getting me high. Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that…now rap’s getting me high again.” (Rap Radar)

Check out a past interview of Eminem speaking on drug addiction down below:

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Written by S. Samuel

Steven Samuel is the co-founder of SOHH.com.

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