6 Musicians and Their Relationship to Sobriety
Recent studies and trends have shown that Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly going sober, or cutting back on the amount of alcohol they consume. Young adults are finding better ways to cope with stress outside of alcohol, such as through yoga or meditation, and there’s an increased interest in mocktails or monthly detoxes, such as “Dry January” or “Sober October.”
Sobriety within the music industry is nothing new. Straight edge, or “sXe,” was birthed from the early 1980s punk scene and challenged the notion that heavy music went hand-in-hand with heavy drug use. A growing list of artists claim sobriety is a small or large part of their identity. Some of these artists are highlighted below.
Getty
TYLER, THE CREATOR
Tyler, the Creator, doesn’t allow drugs or alcohol during recording sessions. In 2018, while he was recording “Potato Salad,” an ASAP Rocky collaboration, he noticed someone in the studio was smoking weed. He took the blunt out of their hand, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it. Tyler, the Creator said “This is a distraction. This needs to stop. We are here to work. Not to hang out...We’re drug-free at night.”
While he’s done drugs or drank in the past, the idea of drinking never appealed to him. “I’ve never seen anyone drunk like, ‘Damn, I want to be that.’ So I guess I just naturally got it pushed into my head that I have no reason to go over there and get fucking drunk.”
Francis Wolff
ERIC DOLPHY
Eric Dolphy was a multi-instrumentalist who played the flute, clarinet, and alto saxophone, and even influenced classical composers of the time. He became a “master” of all three instruments and performed in bebop bands led by Roy Porter and Gerald Wilson, and lead bands with saxophonist John Coltrane, who performed in Miles Davis’s quintet, and double bassist Charles Mingus, whose band he joined in 1964, among others.
Dolphy never drank alcohol or did drugs, but the reason behind that is a mystery. He did, however, have undiagnosed diabetes. While in Berlin, he fell into a diabetic coma. The doctors did not know this, and assumed he was the stereotypical black jazz drug addict. They put him on a detox program, and he died as a result. He was 36 years old.
After his untimely death, he was inducted in the DownBeat Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 1964. He released seven albums during his lifetime and released dozens posthumously.
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
50 CENT
Although 50 has his own line of alcoholic beverages, Le Chemin du Roi, has endorsed EFFEN Vodka, and in his songs he frequently raps about both, he actually doesn’t drink or do drugs himself. He recalls having an experience that made him stay away from it, and that he hasn’t had a drink since. He saw rapping about this lifestyle as an opportunity to stardom. He believed his audience were also users, and that it would be more accepting. Because everyone was getting high around him, it actually reinforced his decision to not partake.
50 Cent’s 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin debuted at #1 on the Billboard Records. His single “In da Club” was the most listened to radio song in history within a week of its premiere. Since then, he has sold over 30 million albums and has garnered over 27 awards, including 13 Billboard Music Awards and a Grammy.
CHYNNA
Chynna wanted to work behind the scenes in the entertainment industry and spent much of her teenage years in various music studios. She made headlines with 2013’s “Selfie” and 2014’s “Glen Coco.” In August 2016, she released her Ninety mixtapes on her birthday – the same day that she was three months sober from opioids, and during her most gruesome days of sobriety.
Fans and fellow artists alike reached out to tell her they were going through a similar experience. Her goal was to assure others that they weren’t alone while not making her whole career about being an anti-drug activist. Her mother passed away a year later. She was graduating from rehab, and still remained sober.
She uses dark topics such as death and drugs as “cathartic impulses” to bring about her music, and hopes that her songs help the “angry people with too much pride to show how angry they are.”
CAB CALLOWAY
Although Cabell “Cab” Calloway was set to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a lawyer, the Baltimore dive bars that jazz bands frequented led him to become one of jazz’s most prominent band leaders.
Drug use during the jazz era had a certain appeal. Long hours of dancing and musicians playing resulted in pain and injuries. Many songs related to depression and problems with self-esteem. Drugs temporarily relieved the pain, both physically and psychologically, which caused many artists to succumb to addiction. Segregation and limited opportunities were frequently exploited by white managers and promoters during this time. Despite this, Cab never did drugs. In fact, He reportedly fired any band members caught with drugs.
He was the first black musician to sell over a million records from a single song and had a nationally syndicated radio show. He’s received a myriad of awards, including a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 and a Grammy Hal of Fame Award for “Minnie the Moocher,” and a 1993 National Medal of Arts. Played in all-white spaces decades before the civil rights movement pushed for integration.
His song “Kick the gong around” referred to smoking opium, and was based on an actual woman who succumbed to her cocaine addiction. This and songs like“Reefer Man,” which he recorded in 1932, depicted the “dark side” of jazz without glorifying it.
LIL YACHTY
Lil Yachty does not drink alcohol or do drugs. He said he cares about his character. Yachty’s positive, fun-loving spirit makes him easier for some listeners to enjoy.
He noticed that other rappers do not get many endorsements because of their image, which is something he also cares about. He’s gotten endorsements for Sprite, Nautica, Urban Outfitters, and Target. However, his 2017 song titled “Broccoli,” with rapper D.R.A.M., was his most successful track to date, making it to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It was also nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 2017 Grammys. The song is about smoking weed.
