Rap superstar Eminem gets deathly serious about his past drug addiction which proved almost deadly in a new documentary called "How To Make Money Selling Drugs" that opened up this weekend.
In the film Eminem, born Marshall Mathers, opens up to filmmaker Matthew Cooke about his previous intense addiction to prescription drugs like Xanax, Valium and Vicodin, which at one point almost took his life when he ended up hospitalized due to an overdose.
MTV reports that Eminem confided in Cooke on film that his addiction to prescription pills quickly spiraled out of control.
"When I took my first Vicodin, it was like this feeling of 'Ahh,' like everything was not only mellow, but I didn't feel any pain," he says in the film. "I don't know at what point exactly it started to be a problem. I just remember liking it more and more. People tried to tell me that I had a problem, I would say 'get that f***ing person out of here'."
Eventually Eminem says he began mixing pills and admitted that he would pop up to 20 Vicodin a day, the New York Daily News reports. These behaviors almost killed the lyricist, eventually landing him in a hospital in critical condition after overdosing on meds.
"Had I got to the hospital about two hours later, I would have died. My organs were shutting down. My liver, kidneys, everything," he says. "They were gonna have to put me on dialysis. They didn't think I was gonna make it. My bottom was gonna be death."
Within a month of being released from the hospital Eminem relapsed and became convinced he would end up dying from his addiction and the hold the drugs had on him. He eventually reflected upon his responsibility as a father and says that in order to make sure he'd always be there for his kids, he underwent a hellish, self-imposed detoxification.
"Coming off everything, I was literally up 24 hours a day for three weeks straight. And I mean, not sleeping, not even nodding off for a f***ing minute," he says. "I had to regain motor skills, I had to regain talking skills. It's been a learning process, I'm growing. I couldn't believe that anybody could be naturally happy without being on something."
According to Examiner.com, Eminem wants everyone that has a drug addiction and thinks there is no hope to know, "it does get better, you know. It just does."
More details about Eminem's trials and tribulations are featured in "How To Make Money Selling Drugs," which was produced by "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier.
International Business Times reports that the documentary is about the drug industry and the war on drugs, told from the perspective of former drug dealers. It features interviews with Susan Sarandon, Russell Simmons, 50 Cent, tv producer David Simon (who created "The Wire") and others.
*WARNING - VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT*