November 23rd, 2010
11:22 AM ET

Rapper T.I. admits to drug problem


The world may know about some of T.I.'s troubles, but in a new magazine interview he reveals a hidden problem.

The rapper tells VIBE that he developed a drug habit after extensive dental surgery. “I had a lot of work done to my teeth,” he says. “Oral surgery, extractions, six, seven, eight root canals. Between January to February.”

T.I. told the magazine that during his prison stint last year he had fillings and things fall out which had to be repaired, and he was given pain killers oxycontin and hydrocodone.

“Then I get these pills and I start taking them for the pain at first,” he told the publication. “And then I’m like, Wait―this [expletive]makes me feel good. And it’s legal.”

The rapper said he continued taking the medication, even after he had healed from his surgeries the way others “might have a drink or smoke a blunt.”

“And eventually I developed―I guess―the beginning stages of dependence,” he said.

T.I., who is currently serving time for violating his probation on an earlier federal weapons conviction, said he discussed his issue with fellow artist Eminem, who has also battled addiction.

“I asked him how he knew he was an addict,” T.I. said. “Basically if you put yourself in harm’s way... if you risk that, you’ve got to assume that there is something fundamentally wrong with your thought process.”

^ Right. Blame it on Novocaine. Just like Michael was an addict because of the pain killers he took for his burned scalp twenty-five years earlier.