Eminem Is Celebrating His 12th Year Of Sobriety

Eminem may have made his name in the rap game with drugged-up raps about pill popping, but he gave all that up years ago — 12 years ago, to be precise. The 47-year-old rapper celebrated 12 years of sobriety yesterday, posting a photo of his 12-year chip emblazoned with the slogan “One day at a time.” “Clean dozen, in the books!” he wrote. “I’m not afraid.”

While some fans weren’t entirely happy with his musical output after giving up drugs and alcohol, his 2010 album Recovery was one of his most successful albums, debuting at No. 1 and selling over 5.7 million copies worldwide by the end of its release year. Since then, the reclusive Em has released four more albums — three within the last two years — and seen his fair share of ups and downs. However, celebrating 12 years of sobriety is an absolute victory that no bad critical review can take away from him.

Em reportedly tried to give up his addiction to prescription pills in 2008, two years before the release of Recovery. Although he’d had a previous stint in rehab, he told XXL in 2009, “I wasn’t ready mentally. I wasn’t ready to give up the drugs. I didn’t really think I had a problem. Basically, I went in, and I came out. I relapsed, and I spent the next three years struggling with it. Also, at that time, I felt like I wanted to pull back, because my drug problem had got so bad. I felt like, Maybe if I take a break, maybe this will help. I started to get into the producer role more… I can still be out there with my music, like with the Re-Up album, but I don’t have to be in the spotlight the whole time.”