The real Slim Shady isn't just standing up. He's also opening up.
Eminem's five-year hiatus from the music biz officially comes to an end when his new album, Relapse, drops May 19. He has put pen to paper to write an article about his long road back from drug addiction for Vibe magazine's upcoming Real Rap issue.
"It's no secret I had a drug problem," he states matter-of-factly. "If I was to give you a number of Vicodin I would actually take in a day? Anywhere between 10 to 20. Valium, Ambien, the numbers got so high I don't even know what I was taking."
In fact, the rapper's pill-popping got so out of control at one point, it nearly became fatal…
Following an initial stint in rehab, Eminem relapsed and suffered an overdose after taking some unidentified drugs, which later turned out to be methadone.
"My doctor told me the amount I'd taken was the equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin," he says. "Even when they told me I almost died, it didn't click."
Despite eventually detoxing, Eminem later found himself relapsing yet again, but he finally admitted to himself "that I'm an addict" and took the necessary steps to turn things around.
Now, after being clean and sober for a year, the Grammy- and Oscar-winning artist is back on the scene with his new album, which has already generated two videos, "3 A.M." and "We Made You," prior to its release.
"I wanted to make an overall statement—I'm back," he writes. "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."
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