Rapper Gucci Mane Speaks Out About Sobriety, Past Drug Use

"I associated everything with being high. In hindsight I see it for what it was: I was a drug addict.”

After serving nearly three years behind bars, Gucci Mane is sober and ready to reclaim his throne with a new album released last Friday.

The rapper, born Radric Davis, had a string of hits in the 2000s including “Wasted” and “Lemonade.” But he’s also been arrested at least 10 times since 2001 and Todd Moscowitz, a member of his management team, lamented to the New York Times that “every single time that he was about to break through is exactly when he went back to jail.” In September 2013, he began serving a three-year jail sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon before being released this past May to finish the time out on house arrest.

During his time in jail, Davis got sober and finally acknowledged that his unruly behavior was partially due to drug addiction. His latest album, Everybody Looking, is the first time he’s made music while sober.

“I felt like I couldn’t make music sober, I couldn’t enjoy my money sober. Why would I wanna go to a club and couldn’t smoke or drink? I felt like sex wouldn’t be good sober. I associated everything with being high,” he told the New York Times in a recent interview. “In hindsight I see it for what it was: I was a drug addict.”

Gucci Mane is also speaking out about his addiction and recovery in his new music. In his new single, "No Sleep," he mentions his drugs of choice and his past as a drug dealer. "I can't even sleep I got so much to say/Ex-drug dealer, used to sell a brick a day/I can't even sleep I got so much to say/Recovering drug addict, I used to drink a pint a day/I can't even sleep I got so much to say/Recovering drug addict, I used to smoke a pound a day."

Davis had a wide range of drugs he consumed including alcohol, weed, ecstasy, prescription pills and lean (a concoction of soda and promethazine/codeine-based cough syrup). He unsuccessfully attempted rehab once before, but was forced to take the withdrawal process on while locked up.

“Death. It feel like death,” he said. "Your body just craving lean bad. Stomach tore up, can’t think straight. Just mad at the world. Temper so short, so violent, so aggressive. So just rude and toxic.”

After getting sober, he stayed that way with a rigorous exercise schedule, prayer and reading self-help books. Davis has kept up that routine since being released and is determined to stay sober so that he doesn’t thwart his career trajectory once again.

“I made like a pact to myself: When I get out, no matter what happens, I must record these songs. It was so real when I wrote it,” said Davis. “I knew that these people was trying to give me 20 years, 30 years. I dodged a life-shattering moment, damn near a career-ending injury. What’s the sense of having all this money, all these millions of dollars and you sitting in prison and you can’t enjoy it?”