December 04, 2000
Copyright © 2023 HipHopDX
All Rights Reserved
Young Dro has revealed that he’s 17 months sober and is in a great space because of it.
The Atlanta rapper opened up about his journey in a new interview with VladTV shared on Thursday (January 5). As he heads into nearly two years clean, Dro admits it’s still something he has to work at every day.
“As I sit here before you, I am 100 percent clean of everything,” Young Dro said. “17 months. I’m working on my two years. Tough too. I think my mindset changed. It’s still a struggle to actually maintain this because I still live a Hip Hop party life. I go out at night. I pay my bills out of clubs and concerts where my peers are smoking and drinking, popping champagne. And that lifestyle is still there.
“To navigate through it, I feel like I’ve been on this journey for five years already,” he continued. “And that’s just because what I see in the night – to fight through that is like going through terrain in Africa in the jungle.”
Later in the conversation, he revealed that his father’s struggle with addiction kept him from being active in Dro’s life.
“My father is a good guy but his addiction led him to not being present,” Dro admitted. “And that’s one of the things that made… I wanted to be different from that. When I saw myself in the grips of it, I was very upset and I fought with that for a long time in my career.”
He also revealed that addiction plagued his mother’s side of the family as well, taking the lives of five of her six siblings. The one who remains is a recovering addict.
Dro has been open about his sobriety journey on Instagram since he began in 2021.
Prior to getting clean, Young Dro found himself in trouble with the law multiple times.
In 2019, the “Shoulder Lean” rapper received jail time after pleading guilty to one count of battery/family violence for allegedly hitting his girlfriend and throwing banana pudding in her face.
As part of his plea, Dro had to submit to a drug/alcohol evaluation within 30 days of his release. In addition, he was required to undergo domestic violence counseling, submit to random drug tests and forfeit all weapons.
In 2016, Dro received jail time after being found in violation of his probation. He was originally charged with one count of ‘theft by conversion’ last year and violated the terms of his agreement when found with a gun and marijuana on him by Georgia Southern University Police while driving in a school zone.