You find out who your friends are when you need them the most. And in a candid interview this week on the “Sway’s Universe” show on SiriusXM’s Shade 45 channel, Dogg Pound rapper Kurupt revealed that when he was at his lowest, Eminem and Dr. Dre stepped up to lift him up.
In a chat on the Sway in the Morning show on Monday (Aug. 3), West Coast MC Kurupt (born Ricardo Emmanuel Brown), 53, revealed the Em secretly paid for his trip to rehab to deal with a near-fatal alcohol addiction that caused seizures and led to a three-week medically induced coma.
“It was Dr. Dre that called and was just giving his support and just let me know that, you know, we all go through these things,” Kurupt said. “He was just giving me that game. And it was Em who came to the table like, ‘I”m gonna put Kurupt with my folks and I’m going to put some money into getting him into like, a rehab situation to where he can sit down and enjoy himself and be out the way. Nobody will know he’s there.’”
Eminem and Kurupt have a long history together, dating back to Em calling Kurupt an all-time MC on his 2002 song “Till I Collapse,” on which he raps, “‘Cause I’m at the end of my wits with half the s–t that gets in/ I got a list, here’s the order of my list that it’s in/ It goes: Reggie, JAY-Z, 2Pac and Biggie
André from OutKast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas, and then me.”
Kurupt continued, saying, “You know, these things cost bread. So Em put the cheese up for it and said, ‘Tell Kurupt I love him.’ Dr. Dre relayed the message and then he put me with Em’s folks. So, you know, that was real special to me. Appreciate both of them so much. And it’s like, damn. You know, he just came out the blue from nowhere. Like, ‘Okay, Kurupt going through that. Bam. Boom. I’ma do that for him, man. Tell Kurupt get well, we love him.’ That’s deep.”
Em also has a public history talking about his struggles with substance use, including a near-fatal 2007 overdose, after which he entered a rehab facility. In April of this year, Eminem celebrated 18 years of sobriety with a snap of his 18-year gold coin, which read, “to thine own self be true.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
Watch Kurupt discuss Dre and Eminem’s help below.
