Rapper Flavor Flav has revealed his partying days and drug use cost him up to $2,600 a day during his Jan. 25 appearance on the Spotify podcast, Off the Record, with DJ Akademiks. “There was a time that I was spending $2,400 to $2,600 a day for six years straight, you do the math,” he confessed. “That’s how much I spent on drugs.” Using the given numbers, he spent more than $5 million on drugs in six years. And although he admitted to selling “a lot” of drugs, he said he was his own “best customer.” He added, “I had a lot of money at the time too, I was just doing the wrong things with my money.”
Now, the 63-year-old “Unga Bunga Bunga” hitmaker believes he beat his addiction to try to prevent others from tumbling down the same path he did. “I guess God wanted me to live. And he knows that I’m a mouthpiece to the world. So, I feel that God let me live through that, so that way, I could teach people about the mistakes that I made. And hopefully, they won’t make them later on in life,” he explained. “Drugs are easy to get on, and they’re hard as hell to get off of.”
One of Flav’s concerns with today’s youth is the rap music they’re now experiencing. “Back in the days, when we used to make drug records, we used to talk about selling drugs. Talking about who can make the most money off drugs, who’s balling off selling drugs. It was a competition thing to all of the hustlers,” he stated. “Now today’s music, we’re talking about doing drugs. So, there’s a big change within the music … It’s giving younger kids the wrong idea, you know? … Younger kids emulate off of what we do.”
Discussing his own journey to sobriety, Flav said he has been clean for 15 years and is happy to say it. “I’m proud to sit here and talk about it today because I’ve been clean, off of [cocaine and crack] for the last 15 years. Not only that, but I feel proud to say I haven’t drunk alcohol for the last two and a half years. I haven’t smoked cigarettes in the last two and a half years. So I’ve been clean and sober,” he said.
Just a few months ago, he took to Instagram to celebrate his second year of sobriety. “Flavor Flav right here in the building! Today is October 19. Guess what? I am two years no cigarettes. Two years no alcohol. And you know what? I feel real good y’all, just to let you know,” he enthusiastically announced in the video he posted (seen above). “I’m gonna do this another maybe 22 more years, I don’t know. But right now I’m working on one year at a time, folks.” He added, “And I don’t care what nobody says, but I look good. Still sober baby!”
One year prior, he celebrated his first year of complete sobriety. “1 year up,,, lotz more to go,,, next year I pray my whole family will be walkin the same path I am,,,” he tweeted alongside a current photo of himself with one from when he was not sober — and looking much older.