Eminem Says It Took ‘A Long Time’ For His Brain To Function Again After His Previous Near-Fatal Overdose

Curtain Call 2 podcast, released on Thursday, the former president of Def Jam Recordings and longtime manager of Eminem revealed how he became increasingly concerned after the “8 Mile” rapper was hospitalized following an overdose on methadone in 2007. The situation appeared to have been so bad that Rosenberg feared Eminem may have even suffered from brain damage.

Slim Shady himself appeared on the podcast alongside his manager to discuss the events that followed after his overdose, which were severe enough that the Detroit native needed to “relearn” how to drive a car and rap. “It took a long time for my brain to start working again,” he told Rosenberg, before the latter added, “I mean, you literally were coming off of an overdose and they had to sort of stabilize you with a few medications. And some of them took you a minute to adjust to – let’s just leave it at that.” The drug overdose had affected Eminem to the extent that writing rap lyrics no longer came at ease for the 49-year-old, who remains one of the best-selling Hip Hop artists of all time.

Back in 2010, Eminem spoke candidly about the ordeal which had left him in a dire state as the Grammy winner was also said to have struggled with prescription sleeping medication. Needless to say, though, it was after the release of “Relapse” that the “Beautiful” hitmaker decided he wanted a clean start. “I had to learn to write and rap again, and I had to do it sober and 100 percent clean,” he told MTV in 2010. “That didn’t feel good at first … I mean it in the literal sense. I actually had to learn how to say my lyrics again; how to phrase them, make them flow, how to use force so they sounded like I meant them.