Macklemore Is Opening Up About Hard Times During The Pandemic

According to Page Six, rapper Macklemore has been battling substance addiction since before 2008 when he seeked out treatment. Since then, he has relapsed two times — once in 2011 and once in 2014. The rapper also had a life-threatening overdose. The "Next Year" rapper mentioned that his work was the thing that got him through the struggles at first.

"The thing that pulled me back was knowing that I wanted to be a musician, and that if I wanted to do this I had to get sober," Macklemore told MTV in 2014. "So I'd go a month and be sober, make a bunch of music and then fall back off and vanish for a couple months and go back and forth like that."

In 2021, Macklemore opened up to UPROXX Video about his addiction, and he credited therapy sessions and treatment as the main thing that helped him through the dark time. "If it wasn't for my pops having the 10 or 12 racks that it was when I first went to treatment, and willing to spend that on me, I'd be f***ing dead," he said. The rapper has now shared a milestone in his life on his road to recovery.

Macklemore has been very open about his addiction battle, as he believes it's helpful to talk about it. "I spent most of the last 11 years in recovery and it's made me who I am," he told Dax Shepard on the "Armchair Expert" podcast in April 2021. "I've done things that I'm not proud of, but I do have that foundational level of 10 years of recovery, and I'm f***ing proud of that."

On July 24, the rapper opened up about his struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I relapsed during the first summer of COVID," Macklemore stated in the TikTok video. "Today I have [been] 694 days clean." The rapper got a flood of supportive comments from fans, as some TikTokers shared their stories about battling addiction.

In the rapper's new song "Chant," he talks about his struggles with addiction. A line in the lyrics says, per Genius Lyrics, "Look at where we started, look at where we got to / Almost OD'd that night in the hospital."

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).