Eminem Reveals He Had to 'Relearn How to Rap' After Getting Sober From His Drug Addiction

Eminem, 52, has been sober from drugs for 17 years — but his road to recovery hasn’t been easy.

The rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, opened up about his former drug addiction in his new documentary STANS, released in theaters for a limited time on Thursday, August 7.

Eminem candidly shared how he had to “relearn how to walk, talk and for the most part, had to relearn how to rap again.”

The critically acclaimed rapper emphasized how his “writing had gotten terrible,” adding, “When I started to get it back, it was exciting. Because I felt it. It would be conversations, just having conversations with people or the TV.”

Shortly after gaining control of his addiction, Eminem began working on his 2009 album Relapse.

The rapper credited his album as a therapeutic tool that reintroduced him to the man he needed to be. “It did something. It turned the light on. I realized I’m not embarrassed anymore about [sobriety]. I started treating sobriety like a superpower, and I took pride in the fact that I was able to quit,” he said.

Eminem’s drug addiction spiraled in the ‘90s before he became sober on April 20, 2008. The “Lose Yourself” hitmaker favored a concoction of pills, including Vicodin, Valum, Ambien and Xanax.

At the time, the 8 Mile star’s addiction became merciless to his waning will to become sober. Before he knew it, Eminem had overdosed in December 2007.

“I got into this vicious cycle of, ‘I’m depressed, so I need more pills,’” the rapper explained in his documentary. “Then your tolerance gets so high that you end up overdosing. I woke up in the hospital, and I didn’t know what happened. I woke up in the hospital with tubes in me and s---, and I couldn’t get up; I wanted to move.”

Eminem said he felt like he was “gonna die” before he finally decided to become sober. His depleting relationship with his biological daughter, Hailie Jade, was also an eye-opener for the artist, who described how drugs caused him to regretfully miss her birthday.

“I cried because it was like, ‘Oh my god, I missed that.’ I kept saying to myself, ‘Do you want to f------ miss this again? Do you want to miss everything? If you can’t do it for yourself… at least do it for them,’” the “Mockingbird” artist shared.