DJ Drama Opens up About ‘Dangerous’ Drug Addiction He Feared Would Kill Him

DJ Drama recently appeared on the Broken Record podcast to discuss his addiction to opioids and recovery. Drama revealed that he first entered rehab right after the outbreak of Covid in 2020 and then came out a few months later. Due to the ongoing shutdowns throughout the United States as a result of the pandemic, the 45-year-old was able to stay clean at first, but when things started to open up again towards the end of 2020, he relapsed.

Among the events that he recalled was nearly overdosing at his Atlanta home shortly before he was slated to shoot scenes for the Netflix movie You People. Drama had been taken to the hospital for treatment, but he was allowed to leave when a nurse spoke with another employee about his presence there.

During his time on the set of You People, Drama had a chance to talk with Jonah Hill about his struggles with addiction. Concerned about Drama’s troubles, Hill convinced Drama that he wanted to overcome this challenge and get his life back in order. “I used to tell [my therapist] Amy all the time, ‘My biggest fear is ending up like Michael Jackson or Prince…if it can take the lives of Michael Jackson or Prince, who the f— am I? That was always my fear.” When DJ Drama walked into rehab, it was all in the spirit of trying to live a healthy life.

With six months of sobriety approaching, Drama also spoke to Shanti-Das Healing about how his opioid addiction began: with a 5-milligram Percocet. After a few months, he had transitioned to over 100 milligrams. In the morning, he would take 30 milligrams, then another 30 in the afternoon, and “three 30s and a 15 to fall asleep.”

He paid a high price for his heavy opioid use. “I know how easy it is for it to become a problem,” Drama said. “It’s scary. The scariest part and the most dangerous part is that it was a five-to-six thousand dollar a month habit I had.”

“I was spending close to six figures a year on opioids,” he added. “I was in a position where I could afford the type of habit of doing that. The average person can’t do that. The next step after opioids or not being able to afford consistent Percocets is heroin.”

Drama considers himself the definition of a “functional junkie” despite his addiction, recalling how he hid it from Tyler, the Creator, while working closely with him on the 2021 Grammy-winning song, Call Me If You Get Lost. Drama said that one of the things that keep him going in his sobriety is looking forward to the 22nd of every month since that is when he can celebrate another month on his sobriety journey.