Before he became known as a ridiculous character on a dating reality show, Flavor Flav was the outrageously unique rap artist who was apart of one of the most iconic hip hop collectives: Public Enemy. With fame, however, came money, women, alcohol, and drugs, and Flav has struggled throughout his life with all of the above. His substances of choice were cocaine and crack cocaine, and the rapper admits that his addictions have caused him nothing but trouble.
Flav has had a number of run-ins with the judicial system, even before his Public Enemy days. He's faced charges like robbery, burglary, attempted murder, domestic violence, multiple driving offenses, and drug possession. He recently sat down with VladTV to discuss the rise of his career and memories of his times with Public Enemy, but it was difficult not to reminiscence without bringing up his drug addiction.
"That was one of the worst mistakes that I could’ve really ever made with my life, experimenting with drugs," Flav admitted. "Let me tell you something, man. Drugs, them sh*ts is real easy to get on, and they're hard as hell to get off. If I would’ve known that back in those days, then I don’t think I would’ve experimented with it. I got to the point, Vlad, where I was spending like $2,300 to $2,500 dollars per day on coke and crack. Per day. And I did that sh*t for six years straight. Do the math. That’s a lot of money, bro."
“I thank God that I’m still living today and to be able to talk about it. 'Cause, now I can teach about it," he said. "I can teach about the mistakes that I made and hopefully people won’t make the same mistakes. I had a lot of people around me that was supposed to be my friends, but yet, when I would go to the bathroom or something, they would steal my sh*t and I would come back and my pile would be smaller. I thank God for those thieving-ass friends that I had because if it wasn’t for them stealing my sh*t, maybe those could have been the hits that took me out."
The rapper called that period in his life a "nightmare" and said that he appreciates the lessons he learned from his experiences. He admits that since he's been sober, he's been in situations where other people have been doing drugs in front of him. While he's not bothered by it, he said he doesn't stay around it.
Flav also shared that he was an addict for 18 years and "I’ve been clean off of coke and crack now for about a good eight-and-a-half years. I still got about ten to go before I can be back to where I was. So right now, to this day, yes, addiction can still set into me. So, that’s why I’m smart enough not to f*ck with that sh*t."