Royce Da 5’9 had a reason to celebrate on (Sunday) September 12 — and no, it wasn’t a nomination at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.
Instead, it was something much more meaningful. The former Slaughterhouse MC just hit nine years of sobriety, which he commemorated on Instagram.
The post read simply, “9 Years (3287 days total).”
Royce opened up about his struggles with alcohol in a recent interview with HipHopDX and revealed the first time he took a sip was with Dr. Dre. At the time, he didn’t realize what he was about to unleash. But in 2012, he put the alcohol down for good and hasn’t looked back.
“It was just so many years of just — excuse my language— fucking up,” Royce said. “Just doing bad stuff, doing, making really bad decisions, having myself in situations that quite honestly I just felt like I was better than. It’s just dumbing myself down a lot. It was just really hard to stand on anything when you’re letting go of your inhibitions all day, every day.
“This is the business for that, you know what I mean? Once I started reaching a certain age, you don’t look cool doing that shit for a long time. It’s like first they’re laughing with you, then they start to laugh at you.”
MC Serch's 'Breaking Anonymity' Podcast Tackles Addiction With Royce Da 5'9, Mobb Deep's Havoc + More
With the encouragement of Eminem — who celebrated 13 years in April — Royce was admitted to a hospital to rid himself of the addiction plaguing him, a decision he’ll never forget.
“Every man comes to a point in his life where you got to make tough decisions, you got to make the crucial decisions and just decide what is it going to be?” he explained. “Is it going to be this, or is it going to be that? Because this is really the cross. This is really the fork in the road right here — you got to choose. I just decided that that’s not what I want to be.”
Royce Da 5’9 is among the many guests who will tell their recovery story on the forthcoming Breaking Anonymity podcast. Hosted by 3rd Bass legend MC Serch and veteran music journalist Kyle Eustice, the series debuts on September 29 and can be found here.
Congrats Nickel 9…!!!
Still some guy who would shoot another guy’s son holding Sun Chips LOLLL GTFOH
But can he celebrate 9 years of being racist free? I think not!
dont be silly…blacks cant be racist…if u want to end racism, go talk to ur white friends about squashing it….the problem will end over night
What you mean they cant be racist. You sound dumb. When you see a black man on the streets do you think he is your brother or parr of your family or something? Have you ever been to africa or anywhere else where outside the US where they all black? Do you feel everyone your skin color is your family or something? Blacks can be racist against mexicans or hispanics. They can also accumulate hate towards white people they have never met in their life for no reason other than their skin color, im pretty sure thats racism. Juts like whites do with lots of black people. If you cant recognize that your mindset is all messed up. Aint nothin good about playing the victim.
crying like a hysterical woman wont change the fact that blacks cant be racist…if u have a problem with racism, talk to ur white friends about ending white supremacy
GOAT
Lupe bodied Royce. There’s nothing Royce can do about it
As emotional as he got over Lupe and Mickey Factz disses he might wanna go back to drinking to toughen himself up
Fake a** addiction story just like his fake a** persona. This goofy trying to get cool points for sobriety when he was never a REAL addict in the first place. Yeah bro you got drunk a lot and wilded out when you were younger. Who didn’t? Then you smartened up and stopped. Ok. It’s not like he was physically addicted and had to overcome painful withdrawals to get over this. He just like to pretend like that’s the case cuz it adds more “struggle” to his boring story. Lupe broke this fool down to his essence in the last minute and a half of his verse.