Eminem Opens Up About Past Addiction In New Music Nearly Two Decades After Overdose
Eminem appears on “Lace It,” one of several tracks off of Juice WRLD’s new post-humous album following his fatal overdose in 2019.
Eminem got personal in his latest song, giving fans new insight into his history with substance abuse.
The rapper hasn’t released an album since 2021’s Insomnia and while Eminem doesn’t appear to have upcoming plans to release a new album, he does appear on Juice WRLD’s post-humous album The Party Never Ends, released nearly five years after the 21-year old’s overdose in 2019.
Eminem’s Collab With Juice WRLD References His Addiction
Eminem appeared on the track “Lace It,” where he opens up about how he almost lost his life to addiction after an overdose in 2007.
“You pop some ecstasy first, it gets progressively worse / Try your best to reverse unsuccessfully flirtin’ with certain death revertin’ to your promethazine urge / The *****’ devil he lurks, lose your best friend, he smirks / Wake up and everything hurts and as you spiral downward, listen,” he raps on the track.
Eminem is no stranger to discussing his personal life in his music, historically using his songs as an outlet to rap about everything from his romantic relationships and feuds to his upbringing and personal challenges, including addiction.
Nevertheless, the Grammy-winning artists is relatively private when it comes to his personal life in interviews and online, so he’s rarely spoken publicly about his struggles with drugs aside from his music.
Eminem Discussed His Overdose Last Year
via Instar
He did, however, touch on his near-fatal overdose last year during an appearance on Paul Rosenberg’s Paul Pod podcast. Rosenberg is the rapper’s long-time manager, and he agreed that there was a point where he wasn’t sure Eminem was going to overcome his addiction. Luckily, the rapper has been sober since 2008 and released his album Relapse in 2009 as a nod to his newfound sobriety.
“I remember when I first got sober and all the s— was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f—g new to me again,” Eminem said in the podcast interview. “It was the first album and the first time that I had fun recording in a long time.”
“It was like the first time I started having fun with music again, and re-learning how to rap, you remember that whole process,” he continued. “It took a long time for my brain to start working again.”
Eminem then recalled his manager’s reaction to his overdose, saying Rosenberg asked doctors if the rapper would have permanent brain damage.
“Didn’t you ask the doctors when I started recording new s—, when I first started rapping again, and sent it to you, didn’t you say, ‘I just wanted to make sure he didn’t have brain damage?’ ” the 8 Mile actor asked.
Eminem also addressed rumors that he’d make a follow-up to Relapse with tracks from the dark time in his life that are currently unreleased, though the rapper says he doesn’t see that happening.
“I mean, there’s probably enough to make another Relapse 2. There are a lot of songs still that did not leak out from Relapse,” he said. “If they didn’t even make the album on Relapse and I feel how I feel about Relapse, then that should tell you something.”
A Relapse 2 may not be in the works, but Eminem’s latest track proves he’s not done rapping about his struggles.
