Eminem Speaks On His Drug Addiction, Rapper Says He Was So High During ‘106 & Park’ Interview That 50 Cent Had To Step In & Help Him Answer Questions

Eminem Speaks On His Drug Addiction, Rapper Says He Was So High During ‘106 & Park’ Interview That 50 Cent Had To Step In & Help Him Answer Questions

In his own cover story, Eminem gets candid about his past drug addiction and how it affected him personally and professionally.

For XXL’s 25th Anniversary issue, Eminem wrote his own feature, detailing his career and how becoming famous spearheaded his addiction to drugs. Recalling his rise to fame, Eminem admits that it was difficult at first adjusting to being a famous rapper. He explains

“I never thought I would be anyone’s influence. When my first album came out, I was still staying wherever I could stay—mostly with Kim and her parents. I didn’t get my own house until the second album.”

He continues,

“I wasn’t sure before then if this was a one-time thing, but I had people knocking on the door and I realized that it was getting crazy. That was one of the inspirations for writing ‘Stan.’ It was like, These people are actually looking up to me? I also was amazed.”

Eminem

The ‘Lose Yourself’ rapper reveals that his drug addiction didn’t begin to surface until he was already famous, and it was something that quickly spiraled out of control.

“I was able to downplay my addiction and hide it for a while until it got really bad. And also, at that time, so much sh*t was happening with the whole 50 [Cent] beef with Ja Rule. We started feuding, going back-and-forth, and I’m making all of these diss records and sh*t. So, I’m coming off The Marshall Mathers LP and going into Encore when my addiction started to get bad. I was taking Vicodin, Valium and alcohol. I kinda fell off the map a little bit and didn’t explain why I went away.”

Eminem goes on to recall a time that he was so high during an interview that 50 Cent had to interject and help him out.

“I remember things started getting really, really bad when me, 50 and G-Unit did BET’s 106 & Park. We performed ‘You Don’t Know’ on the show and then we did an interview afterward. That’s when the wheels started coming off. One of the hosts was talking to me and I could not understand a word she was saying. 50 had to cover for me and answer every question.”

50 Cent

Things took a turn for the worse when Eminem’s best friend Proof was murdered. The rapper admits that his addiction got even heavier after the tragic loss. He explains,

“Then the thing happened with Proof and my addiction went through the f*ckin’ roof. I remember just after Proof died, I was in my house by myself, and I was just laying in bed and I couldn’t move and I just kept staring at the ceiling fan. And I just kept taking more pills.”

He continues,

“I literally couldn’t walk for two days when that happened and eventually my drug use f*ckin’ skyrocketed. I had f*ckin’ 10 drug dealers at one time that I’m getting my sh*t from. Seventy-five to 80 Valiums a night, which is a lot. I don’t know how the f*ck I’m still here. I was numbing myself.”

Eminem

Eminem later reflects on his album ‘Encore‘ which he says wasn’t his best body of work. He was high on drugs and did not take the album-making process seriously. To make matters worse, several songs from the album had leaked,  causing the ‘Without Me’ rapper to become even more disheartened about the record.

“It became a misstep and I struggled to get over the fact that I didn’t do my best. My best would’ve been good enough if the leaks hadn’t happened. But I released what I had at that point in time, and I feel that put a kind of a mark on my catalog. Encore did some decent numbers, but I was never that concerned with numbers. I was more so worried about what people think about the album. Critics and fans were important to me, and they were always at me about that project.”

Eminem

As previously reported, Eminem has been sober since April 20, 2008, according to a 2020 Twitter post, and made his 2009 album Relapse during the early days of his recovery. During a recent interview on Paul Rosenberg’s “Paul Pod” podcast, the “8 Mile” actor said that as he returned to music, he felt that things were “new to me again.” He explained,

“I remember when I first got sober and all the sh*t was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f**ing new to me again. It was the first album and the first time that I had fun recording in a long time.”

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