Answer Addiction

Tag: rappers and mental health

  • DMX Returns To Rehab

    DMX Returns To Rehab

    The announcement was met with supportive comments from several of his peers in the hip-hop industry.

    Veteran rapper DMX has canceled a slate of upcoming live performances and returned to rehab, according to statements issued via his social media account and management.

    Commitment To Family & Sobriety

    According to Rolling Stone, the performer, who has publicly struggled with substance dependency and mental health issues, was absent from several recent high-profile performances prior to the announcement about his return to rehab on October 13, which cited his “commitment to putting family and sobriety first” while also thanking fans for their support.

    The rehab check-in is the second for DMX in the last two years, and comes on the heels of a productive year following his release from prison in January 2019. After serving a year for tax evasion charges, the 48-year-old launched a 32-city tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his debut album, It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, including a performance at Coachella in April 2019 before signing with Def Jam Recordings in September 2019. 

    Long-time producer Swizz Beatz, who reunited with DMX for recording sessions in March 2019, said, “It’s going to be a good year for him, God willing. I just want it to happen so he can go to where he been supposed to have went.”

    Rolling Stone noted that DMX was slated to perform at the Rolling Loud festival in New York on October 13, but was not included on the list of performances when it was released that morning. He was also absent from a 35th anniversary party for Def Jam in Brooklyn for “personal reasons,” according to Page Six.

    His Peers Speak Out

    DMX’s announcement, which was posted on his Instagram account, was met with supportive comments from several of his peers in the hip-hop industry, including Def Jam co-founder and Rush Communications CEO/chairman Russell Simmons, who wrote, “Love you and always will Keep your head up,” while rapper Casanova wrote, “Prayers to you my brother.”

    In an interview with GQ in September 2019, DMX (born Earl Simmons) spoke about his motivation after so many ups and downs in his career and personal life.

    “I don’t need to have a goal in mind,” he said. “I just need to have a purpose. And I don’t even know that purpose, because God has given me that purpose since before I was in the womb, so I’m going to fulfill that purpose, whether I want to or not, whether I know it or not, because the story has already been written. If you appreciate the good, then you have to accept the bad.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Big Sean Gets Candid About Depression, Anxiety

    Big Sean Gets Candid About Depression, Anxiety

    “I wasn’t feeling like myself and I couldn’t figure out why. I just felt lost—and I don’t know how I got there,” the rapper revealed on Instagram.

    Rapper Big Sean is getting candid about mental health—and according to the BBC, it’s inspiring other men of color to do the same.  

    Recently the 31-year-old rapper utilized Instagram videos to discuss a period of his life that he says was difficult because of anxiety and depression. He says around his 30th birthday, he sought therapy for issues needing “special attention.”

    “I wasn’t feeling like myself and I couldn’t figure out why,” he said on Instagram. “I just felt lost—and I don’t know how I got there.”

    The rapper continued, “I got a good therapist. I was blessed enough to talk to some super spiritual people. They made me realize one thing I was missing in my life, and the one thing I was missing was clarity. Clarity about who was around me, what I was doing.”

    Sean also mentioned that since the age of 17, he has leaned on meditation to manage depression and anxiety, but this time around he needed more. Sean says that seeking therapy brought him “clarity,” especially in relationships.

    “I had a lot of toxic relationships around me,” he said in the videos. “Even the relationship with my mum was getting to a point where we weren’t talking like that. It was just weird because it had never been like that with me and her.”

    Sean also touched on how his mental health affected his career, stating that he lost the enjoyment he initially had in music. 

    “I realized that it all started with me,” he said. “I couldn’t point the finger at anyone else, I had to point it at myself, nurture those relationships that were important to me but most importantly nurture the relationship with myself.”

    Sean’s openness about mental health has had a positive impact on other men of color, including Ben Hurst, who works to promote gender equality in young men and boys. 

    “I’m in awe that he’s having that conversation,” Hurst told the BBC. “It just makes it OK. I started therapy recently and I remember when I started, I didn’t tell my family, there was a big reluctance inside of me to tell my friends and to have that conversation.”

    Hurst tells the BBC that when he was younger, it was ingrained in him to not discuss his feelings. 

    “Particularly in POC (people of color) communities, there’s a big pushback on talking about emotion, especially for men,” Hurst added. “It’s almost like when you’re young, you’re taught to not air business out in public, to not talk about stuff outside of the house.”

    Alex Leon, a charity worker, tells the BBC that openness from public figures such as Sean makes a difference when it comes to the dialogue around mental health. 

    “Sometimes we see statements where artists, musicians or activists talk about ‘difficult periods’ but they rarely give the name and say they were suffering from anxiety or depression—or, more importantly, say they saw a therapist,” said Leon. 

    “What Big Sean has done is a good step in the right direction for us to be able to tell men of color in the media that they should be speaking more openly because we need that representation,” he added.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Rapper Vic Mensa Deals With Addiction, Mental Health In New Song

    Rapper Vic Mensa Deals With Addiction, Mental Health In New Song

    The 25-year-old rapper gets candid about relapsing, recovery and mental health in his new song “10K Problems.”

    Chicago rapper Vic Mensa just dropped his second single in a month called “10K Problems.” The song tackles addiction, his struggles with his mental health and dealing with family tragedy.

    “10K Problems” immediately received strong reviews upon its release, and while the song is a little over two minutes, its impact hits hard from the beginning: “Niggas asking where I been at, I gotta recap it/Relapsing d-r-u-g habits/Tryin’ to move forward, depression been holding me backwards/Recovery ain’t a straight line.”

    Then as Mensa raps on, he deals with his father becoming paralyzed after surgery. “It’s a painful process watching your parents die/And niggas look at my life and think I’m in paradise.”

    Like the Fugees classic “Ready or Not,” Vic Mensa rapped “10K Problems” over the same Enya song, “Boadicea.” In the brief time the single has been out on SoundCloud, Rolling Stone has called it “cathartic,” and HotNewHipHop writes that “when Vic Mensa is his vulnerable self, he is able to weave a story with the best of ‘em.”

    Continuing in the same self-confessional vein, Mensa also promised Business Insider that his next album will be “powerful, aggressive, beautiful, sad, all those things… Whenever I get into making an album, it’s always like a really self-reflective, self-expressive journey. And I’m learning about myself in real time.”

    Mensa had previously tackled addiction in the single “Rollin’ Like a Stoner.” In the song, Mensa rapped, “I am a disaster, I don’t need a recipe/Tried to be sober, that didn’t work for me.”

    Mensa told High Times, “I really was writing that song about a point in time in my life, for the most part. I was fucking with a lot of drugs. I went sober and then I’d do hard drugs some time ago.

    But I still bounce back sometimes,” hence the lyrics in “10K Problems” where he raps, “Recovery ain’t a straight line.” (As a Mensa profile in Billboard reports, Mensa’s favorite drugs included mushrooms, acid, Molly, and Adderall.)

    Mensa added that artists should be open about drugs and alcohol, as well as their mental health struggles. “I do think that shedding some honest light on drug use is important… A lot of youngins growing up in the hood, they witness death and despair firsthand… and we’re trying to deal with trauma often through external substances.”

    Mensa admitted he sees a therapist, and practices meditation as well, and he “100%” feels that “the stigma is lessening” around mental health, “but it still needs to be introduced in a major way.”

    View the original article at thefix.com