Eminem has revealed he 'relearned' how to rap after experiencing an accidental drug overdose on methadone in 2007.
The rapper spoke about the overdose during an appearance on the latest episode of Paul Pod, the podcast hosted by his longtime manager Paul Rosenberg.
He went sober in 2008 after experiencing the overdose, and in the aftermath of the incident, released his 2009 album Relapse, written during the early days of recovery.
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During the interview, Rosenberg recalled how doctors had to 'stabilise' the rapper with 'a few medications', saying: “So, you’re learning how to rap again almost literally, right? Because it’s the first time, probably, you were creating without having substances in your body in, however many years, right? So it’s a whole different experience.”
Eminem described the experience of recording his post-overdose album as being 'new to [him]', telling Rosenberg: "I remember when I first got sober and all the sh*t was out of my system, I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f*cking new to me again. [Relapse] was the first album and the first one that I had fun recording in a long time."
“It was like the first time I started having fun with music again and relearning how to rap," Eminem added.
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The rapper went on to reflect with Rosenberg about how it took a 'long time' for his brain to start 'working again', and about the manager's concerns for Eminem in the aftermath of his overdose.
"Didn’t you ask the doctors when I first started rapping again, didn’t you say, ‘I just wanna make sure he doesn’t have brain damage’?" Eminem asked.
Rosenberg responded: "Yeah. I thought you might have some permanent problems. Yeah. I was concerned, for sure.”
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Eminem has previously spoken openly about the recovery from his overdose, as well as how he had to 'relearn' how to rap, telling The New York Times in 2009 that he would 'stack a bunch of words and just go down the line and try to fill in the blanks and make sense out of them'.
Shortly after he began his recovery, an unreleased song Eminem had written called 'Detroit Basketball' was leaked to the public, with Rosenberg remembering that it caused concern because it 'wasn't good'.
The rapper admitted it was 'f*cking weird', adding: "As my brain was turning back on, I started going over lines like 'Wait, that's not good.' If you remember, I don't know which version leaked, but if you remember, there were like, 20 versions of that sh*t."
Last year, Eminem shared an image online celebrating his 12 year anniversary of being sober.
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