10 Sober Rappers Who Dont Drink Or Do Drugs

“Making this album, I didn’t know if I was gonna get a chance to make another one,” he says. It’s one thing to play up drug use as part of the creation of a musical persona (see The Weeknd), but it’s another to completely fake it for the sake of selling records and signing sponsorship deals. I always believed 50 to be an authentic artist, especially at the beginning of his career, but apparently his desire to sell records and brand loyalty trumps everything. After all, the motto was get rich or die trying, not get rich but always be completely honest. In fact, here is a list of performers that don’t drink at all, which which challenge society’s alcohol-soaked stereotypes of rock stars and famous singers. Kendrick Lamar is one of the most critically acclaimed rappers of this generation, and he has also achieved sobriety in recent years.

Country Songs That Feel Like They Time-Traveled from the Past

His recollection is probably not how things actually went down, but I love the image of Pharrell working with Usher, discovering the music of a young T.I., and then hours later passing out in a bathroom. Pharrell’s brain is clearly otherworldy enough on its own to travel to other worlds without any help. Like with Royce da 5’9″, exercise sober rappers helped him get through it. He started cranking out 17 miles per day on the treadmill and slimmed down from 230 pounds to 149. Royce called Eminem when he decided to get sober, and they still have conversations about sobriety to this day. In 2014, the stress of the public spotlight pushed him to take up sleeping pills and weed. His fiancee discovered his sleeping pill habit when she found a pill in his shoe at SXSW.

Writing the Waters: A Creative Recovery Journey Thirsty for Wonder

“The deeper I got into my addiction, the tighter the lid got on my creativity,” Eminem told New York Times in 2009. Back in 2020, during an interview with Converse for their Creative All Star Series, Tyler, The Creator shared that he’s never been interested in drinking, though he’s tried weed twice. Then he noted that his “addictive personality” is what could potentially lead to his downfall. “I’m in a financial place where I can enable it myself, and I don’t ever want to be that guy,” he affirmed. The mere fact that some of the trendiest rappers amongst young hip-hop listeners are sober and happy to talk about it is huge for the culture.

A Closer Look at How Drug Overdoses Are Plaguing Hip-Hop

While drugs and music can be close bedfellows, we’d all much rather have our favorite artists alive and healthy than partying like a rockstar and headed toward an early grave. It’s important to take a step back and remember that not everyone needs to be high to be dope. For every theory Cole expounds, his own logic becomes more and more inflated, contradictive, and sorely mistaken for genuine wisdom.

• Word has it that Ice Cold hasn’t touched a mind-altering substance for nearly two decades.
• With a background in academia, he is passionate about bringing rigour and insight to music journalism.
• Notably, drug usage has troubled the career of Glo Gang boss Chief Keef.
• He further expressed that he has never once wanted to get drunk.

Lil Scrappy

• Most recently, Toosii went on Instagram to set the record straight about what he likes to do in his spare time.
• As hard as people like Andre’a and Carmela are working to stem the tide, drug use continues to rise.
• The city lost many artists to drugs and drinking, from Mother Love Bone’s Andrew Wood to Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain to Alice in Chains Layne Staley.
• Macklemore is the new creative director for CLEAN Cause Sparkling Yerba Mate, a beverage company with a mission to support people in recovery.
• Some of these artists have never done drugs in their life, while others choose to abstain from smoking or drinking because of near-death experiences they’ve had.

He may rap about blood and gore, but Tyler, the Creator says “no to drugs, I never spark it.” The Odd Future leader has a strict stance against drug use, despite being surrounded by it. Judging by his boundless energy and creative mind, he’s doing just fine without it. “No to drugs, I never spark it”, Tyler said on the first track of drug addiction treatment his very first project, Bastard.

Unfortunately, he did struggle with substance abuse down the line, and much later, he discovered that his teenage daughter had started using as well. Dro shared that the discovery pushed him to check himself into rehab in 2021 and has stayed clean since. Although he spent time there and admitted that it was great for him, the rapper stated, “I was ordered to go by the court, so it didn’t stop me.” Mane had a rough childhood and had struggled with drug addiction for some time. However, he did not put much effort into fighting it until 2014. I knew I couldn’t have drugs in my life,” Gucci Mane shared with the finance publication Money.