MC Macklemore Talks About Drug Addiction and Recovery
Though MC Macklemore released his first full-length album in 2005, The Language of My World, it wasn’t until after he attended rehab and began creating music based on his experiences with addiction and sobriety that he began to really make a name for himself. Unlike other hip-hop artists who glamorize drug and alcohol abuse or turn the problem into a joke, Macklemore has been applauded for the sincerity and heart-felt lyrics in his music.
To Macklemore, it’s his personal take and experience that set his music apart from the rest in hip-hop. Said Macklemore in a recent interview: “I try to be myself. By nature of being myself, that’s going to separate me apart from everybody else. If you add that level of honesty to your music, no one else can tell your story. I try to tell my story as openly as possible and hope people can connect with it.”
When asked why he wasn’t producing much in terms of music between the release of his first full-length in 2005 and in 2009 when he started to make headway in his career, he said that drugs got in the way but treatment freed him: “I had always wanted to get clean and sober, but I didn’t really have the tools to do it. I had the desire to quit using drugs and alcohol, but I didn’t know how to get out of my environment. I didn’t know how to get out of my head and really focus on who I wanted to be. I didn’t have that resource.
“Initially, getting sober, I went to a treatment facility, and there I was able to get perspective on the broader scheme of life and realize that there’s something greater than myself. I had lost any contact with God or power greater than myself during the time I was using drugs and alcohol. I don’t consider myself a religious person at all, but I do consider myself a person that believes that there is something greater than us out there.
“Getting back into a sober mind state, I got in touch with something I lost a long time ago. I was able to realize I had a certain amount of control, but I don’t in the same sense. I have the ability to choose whether I’m using drugs and alcohol, yet all these things that are happening to me are false. I could choose them or I can just go against them. I used drugs and alcohol as a numbing device. The minute that I lost the desire to numb myself was the most essential tool of the tool belt.”
If you’re looking for a place to break free from drug and alcohol addiction, contact us at Michael’s House to learn more about our Palm Springs drug rehab program here in southern California.
This is so awewsome to see someone so open and free about it. I believe that june 6, 2011(the release date of this article) was his 2 years of sobriety. My 2 years was on july 31st
I love Macklemore, I can relate to him. I have been on prescribed opiates for over 7 years and have been clean 1 month. I love music, he is healing me until i get the energy, strngth and courage to get myself to meetings. Thanks macklemore by the way he is in concert 4/7/12 in san bernadino taking my son and his friend.