Joe Budden is opening up about a time when walking around with a heavy supply of Percocets was just normal for him.
On Wednesday’s episode of Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, Budden reflected on his long battle with addiction and the experience that ultimately led to real, lasting change.
Around the two-hour-and-five-minute mark of the interview, the 45-year-old podcaster said the shift that truly stuck happened during what he called “the perc epidemic,” a time when, in his words, “doctors were writing all these slips in the hospitals and prescribing the percs, and people were getting hooked on them.”
Budden recalled visiting the hospital sometime around 2008 or 2009 for what he described as a hand problem that continued to worsen.
“They prescribed me with medicine, percs were on that list. When I left the hospital, I was hooked to percs,” he said. “I was addicted to Percocets and oxycontin. And I was able to get them on the street-level in bulk.”
“My Altoid case would be rocking. I didn’t leave home with less than 40 pills on me,” he added. “30s too. Big boys. So I didn’t leave home without them, just in case you bumped into a party.”
He went on to explain how prolonged use took a serious toll on his body. “You do that long enough, your body starts to become almost dependent on it, and if you get off it or try to get off it: you’ll start going through these really deep and intense withdrawals, cold sweats at night. I couldn’t live like that. I was killing myself slowly but surely.”
Budden also shared how grateful he is that his addiction occurred before fentanyl became widespread.
“I thank God every day that I experienced that at the time that I did because that was before fentanyl,” he said. “What fentanyl is out here doing and how undetectable it is—unless you’re out there actually testing every drug that you take, the pill head that I was? I would have killed myself. No doubt about it. I’d have been dead. Just like that.”
Although Budden eventually got sober, he pushed back against the idea that it came from sheer willpower alone.
“I mean, I don’t want to say I woke up one day like I just had all of this self-control,” he explained. “My parents were instrumental in that, my friend group and everybody in my life was really instrumental in weaning me off of that stuff. And it wasn’t overnight. It was a struggle, indeed. But again, I thank God it happened back then and not now.”
When the topic of rehab came up, Budden clarified, “No, I didn’t. I mean, I’ve been before in my life, but not for Percs.”
The “Pump It Up” rapper said his addiction spanned from 2008 to 2010, during his time as an active artist. He also noted that, unlike “white people” who could check into a facility for a couple of weeks, his reality made that option unrealistic due to fame, bills, and stigma.
“If I went away somewhere, bills ain’t getting paid,” he said. “And I’m famous, and at the time your pill addiction is taboo to even discuss out there because all of us are zombies moving around. So, nah, we all needed to get educated on what that was doing.”
Watch Joe Budden’s full Club Shay Shay episode above.
