Balancing Creativity and Addiction in the Music Industry

Obsession can drive success or lead to destruction, as seen in the lives of artists battling addiction.

### The Duality of Obsession: Creativity, Addiction, and Balance
* 🎨 Dr. Drey emphasized the importance of a strong work ethic, stating that "**you don't have to be on every day, just most days**," which resonated with the idea that **creativity cannot be forced daily**.
* 💔 The discussion of a friend's tragic death due to addiction illustrated how **obsession can lead to ruin**, as the same energy that drives success can also **spiral into addiction**.
* 🔥 "One can serve you, one can ruin you," highlights the critical choice of how to **channel one's passions and obsessions**, akin to directing fire to either **cook food or burn down a house**.
* 🎶 The speaker shared a **deep love for music**, influenced by the past **50 years**, and reflected on a time of **wealth and happiness** before being drawn into a **chaotic lifestyle** through fame and relationships.
* 🌟 The relationship with a famous girl introduced a lifestyle filled with **excess**, leading to a downward spiral marked by **substance abuse** and a **loss of focus**.
* 😔 The speaker recounted experiences with iconic figures like Janet Jackson and DMX, revealing the **challenges of maintaining relationships** while battling **personal demons and addiction**.
* 💔 Despite attempts to help friends like DMX, the struggle with addiction proved difficult, culminating in a **tragic loss that left a profound impact** on the speaker.
* 🌌 The narrative serves as a cautionary tale about the **thin line between enjoying life and escaping from it**, emphasizing that while the highs can be **exhilarating**, the inevitable lows can be **devastating**.

the Jogan experience I just remember Dr. Drey telling me yo because his work ethic is crazy he says you don't have to be on every day just most days and it stuck with me and I was like yeah man like you know you got to be

known for being the guy that hit home runs almost every time not every time but almost every time well when you're dealing with something that involves creativity you it can't be every day it's not possible you're asking too much of the muse yeah you know but that's

also the problem with like being a workaholic you're going hard all the time you're you're constantly working and you're going to have your hits as and you're going to have your misses and that's just a part of the process I go

hard with everything that I do whether it be a bad thing or a good thing yeah like I most people do I got like you know the same energy I give to that to the music and [ __ ] I was given to like the wrong things for a while a good

friend of mine we were talking about a buddy of ours that died died from uh pills and uh he was super clean he was a professional pool player like a really like world class pool player super clean never did anything never drank never smoked got in a car accident [ __ ] his

back up started getting on pills and pain pills to him he chased pain pills the way he chased being the best in the world at pool the same thing that got him to be a wizard at playing pool that same obsession got him down that same obsession got wrapped up in the pills

and he died he died young and we were talking about him like that is what it is that's that's where obsession and addiction cross paths one can serve you one can ruin you and they're they're the same energy it's just how you channel the fire you could

channel the fire to wood and cook your food or you can channel it to your house and now you're [ __ ] like where do you put the fire how do you how do you direct it and if you direct it the right way you can have an amazing life and do

all kinds of cool [ __ ] and have a great time and meet cool people and have a fun life or you could do it the wrong way and just be on Skid Row yeah covered in scabs it's hard to balance sometimes things that are take over your soul like

pills and [ __ ] like that later I want to talk to you about I got into like the the business of rehab not for money I got into the business of rehab to help people but but that's later um honestly like I got my whole life was just all

music music music I loved music I loved going in my [ __ ] car and just listening to the things I love like music I love music of the 70s and I love Marvin Gaye I like all this [ __ ] I

love Marvin incredible music Earth Wind & Fire and this that like I just that's where it all comes from so I base my music on the past 50 years of music 100 years of music and um I was doing good I smoked pounds of weed made my music

lived a very healthy life and became very rich and I was in a bubble for so long that one day I'm living in a house that uh um Ana Trump recently just bought it was my house on Indian Creek Island okay which I owned outright I bought the

house for cash from the um Widow of the founder of Southern Wine and Spirits and I bought this house was [ __ ] massive topiary Gardens and incredible thing I was living a healthy life and I wasn't in my mind like cool

but I was like happy I was cool that was as cool as it gets because I was balanced and healthy and doing what I love to do but I felt like I was yearning for some something bad or I don't know what I was yearning for but

this girl ended up showing up at my doorstep very famous girl and look I'm not playing the blame game or anything but it's just a course of events happen Paris shows up at my door initially to work on music and we ended up connecting

and I learned this whole new way of life like with Paparazzi and being like next to her and then excuse me inevitably hooking up with her and we're now on item and [ __ ] and we're you know kind of like we're having tons of

fun we're good friends but I think we're both using each other in a certain way like where I'm like like so excited to be next to this girl who's like the coolest most famous girl in the world she's like my girl and like she's next

to she her passion was at that time music and she was like next to me who I'm the number one music producer in the world at the time and um it went on and then inevitably the NTI led to [ __ ] cocaine and that she don't lie

don't lie first year year and a half going here on planes and srop and St BS and the flyest [ __ ] you could do and flyest the best [ __ ] Coke and all all that [ __ ] just having a blast and then

it just goes bad and then it's just like you have a relationship you've seen the movie Blow and oh yeah you seen how hot Penelope Cruz and do were like in the beginning they like into each other then just go of course all like there's no

happy ending your foundation gets rotted out under you yeah and like my a-list life was like you know was born there and like I was now like in that situation and then it ended up with Kim Kardashian and all these different things and like she wasn't even famous

at that point but like you know she's cool man she's always been a great person and like for the I gained a lot of respect for her when she started working for criminal and prison reform yeah that's it just shows like she that [ __ ] from the heart too she's advocacy

for people that are wrongfully accused yeah man she's done a lot of good things she's that lady's gotten a lot of people out of jail yeah I look as long as I've known Kim she's never been anything but just a super sweet person and that's

awesome I met her before the fame like I we dated before the fame and you know I just I was a hot mess like I was the [ __ ] up one when we were together like I just was not focused I was just thinking about strippers and drugs and

this and that and was just at I was still on a high level but I was living a [ __ ] up life I had a session now I I moved to Palm Island from Indian Creek because everything I was doing I was trying to impress Paris and like I knew

that everybody wanted to be on Star Island and Palm Island and like close to the party South Beach was it was South Beach South Beach right I didn't know that where I was living already was the big daddy like those houses you have to be a you everybody's there like BOS

everybody's there now like where I was I'm I move to this house on Palm Island I go from a 90 foot yacht to a much bigger I take these leaps just trying to impress her and just blow her mind even though she didn't need that but um I was

doing it yeah it was all some weird mental like thing like I felt like a lot of people get caught in that spiral when they start making money I didn't want to be famous I wanted to be the most famous I wanted biggest boss not just a boss I had to be

that guy boy and when I lost everything it was like it's bad news and lud I had Janet Jackson at my house to do a session pre or post nipple at the Super Bowl I don't even remember I don't remember the nipples but I remember this

Sweet, cool lady. When I met Janet, I was told to not even like really like talk to her, like more like like talk to like somebody and like, you know, it was like it was like a like yeah, was like pass your message and tell this person they're going to like

relay it, like even in the same room, to the point where within a few hours, but you're collaborating with music just for the first few like minutes, this happened and then like, dude, we became like homies, like it was like immediate. Like I was like [ __ ]

That, well, sometimes it's the handlers that [ __ ] things. I've seen people that they they give themselves extra importance by like saying, if you want to talk to her, you have to talk to me first, you know, that kind of creating a drawl for

creating like a little bit of insecurity on your part, too, like uh, don't address Miss Jackson right, address me, I'll address Mrs. Jackson. That's exactly probably she might not even know about all this. We were by the end of the day, I was like, you know, I was smoking my I was

smoking my weed, she was like I was telling her about the different kinds I had and these these New York plastic jars and this and that and like, just cool as hell. But Flash Forward, so now she's coming to to Palm Island to work, I

left her at my house for like seven or eight hours because I wanted to go to the Gold Rush and go get some blow and hang out with strippers. It was just like, are you [ __ ] serious? Like, you're really gonna do that? Like, you don't see it

at the time because it's out of your [mind] you're out of your [mind] out of my mind out of my tits It's just so much things like that when you have so much money and you have power

and fame it's like you have too much possibility yeah there's too many things that can entice you and if you're doing blow and going to strip clubs all the time it's just like more titties in my face please let's keep doing it let's

keep partying let's stay up it's selfish it's and it's and you're not thinking about it cuz your what do he saying Good Fellas ah your brain's going to mush something it's in Balance it's true it's imbalance it's like what we're talking

about you need a balance the A-list parties turned to B-list parties the beist turns to C-list the C-list turns to [D-list] Street urchins you know what I mean I remember I've had some [pretty]

funny moments though like I remember having a party it was like a Super Bowl party had like seven or 800 people at my house and like everybody's like fizzling out it's now like 9 in the morning 10: in the morning

I think Snoop was there Mike EPS was there different people were hanging out lingering chilling like family people now now it's like friends and [family] and like there's a knock on my door at like 10:00 a.m. and it's Pamela

Anderson and that [person] was the funniest [person] in my house living with me at that time was one of my favorite people and um I knew he was upstairs like sleeping or whatever my good friend DMX God Rest

his soul and um Pamela was showing up and I was like yo ex yo ex check this out I was all geeked out I'm like so thinking it's so funny that I got Pamela coming to my house at 10: in the morning and he comes over the the um the railing

of my house and he's like looks over he's like Baywatch and then he just walk back away walk back in the [room] thing okay X was like X was living with me man and like it was like the blind leading the blind I'm a Coke addict and he was a

crack addict and I'm like trying to help him I'm like man you really need to get clean man like what the [heck] is really yeah so I'm like yo you need to go to rehab I'm like um so I I get him I

convince him like to avoid like a jail sentencing for something a charge he had whatever he went to rehab and like getting his [life] together the place that I had gone that didn't really work for me but I had him

there I really did care about him I wanted him off that [stuff] like whatever that was like a worse evil or a faster suicide than I was even on and um he ran out of the place I got a call from him the place was directly across the street

from Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida, and he's like, calls me, he's like, "Yo, what's up?" I'm like, "How are you calling me? You don't have phone privileges like that in there." He's like, "I'm across the street from the rehab at the Hard Rock with one

of the nurses and like, I'm like, "Oh my, you're kidding me!" I was like, "Yo, X, cover yourself up, come back to my house. I'm going to talk to these people, let you back in." They wouldn't let him back in, it was like real tough

[____] own this place and he ended up, because it was court-ordered, he had to go away. I'm at the Montage one morning a couple days later and my security is like, "Yo, dog, there's 50 Federal agents here. Wo, wo, wo, like crazy [____]"

bro, it was like I couldn't believe it. I felt horrible. And then you flash forward to not so long ago, I was heavily involved in a rehab center in um, in California, in Studio City, where we used cannabis for healing, and it came to my attention that

he was on his last legs. X was in bad shape. So um, I was able to make a meeting happen. My uh, partner Steve Lael, if you know who Steve Lael is, um, managed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and all these people, like, real legend, um, we were partners on this place

and uh, we had X come in. He had infa, he was one rock away from death, like, you know, that kind of thing. So we convinced him, we put him on a private plane to Washington to do a detox. He went, he went to do the whole detox and his plan was to

leave the detox and come to our facility in-patient and do rehab. He never made it back on the plane to head back and we never saw him again. And like I was me trying to save a man's life. I really loved man, he was like such a special guy, but like such a

special performer, man. There's there's one of the greatest ever to do it. Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt. The power that that guy had in his voice, it was amazing. But wild people make wild [ __ ] and I'm one of them. Sometimes you

can't control, you can't calculate, or yeah. I mean, going back to Kennison, I mean that did him in. When I mean he died in a car accident, but he, his, he was falling apart because it was all cocaine, cocaine and drinking, and uh, the

wildest of the Wilds all get caught up in that life, cuz it's you, you escape yourself. It's an escape. I was just about to say, yeah, it's an escape. The difference between enjoying yourself and an escape is, but you bro, like the come

down like after, like cuz after a while, like that, like getting [ __ ] up and going to sleep doesn't work. It's like, it's like now you want to go for two days or three days. The way you feel at the end of that run is no good, bro. It's

Scott Storch Reflects on His Wild Partying Lifestyle and Trying to Save DMX

JRE Clips

The speaker recalls advice about maintaining a strong work ethic without daily pressure.

Creativity is discussed as something that cannot be forced daily.

The speaker reflects on the balance between consistent effort and accepting inevitable misses.

The speaker's personal experience with channeling energy into both positive and negative pursuits is mentioned.

Obsession, Addiction, and the Misuse of Energy

A story about a friend who died from an addiction, highlighting the dangers of obsession.

The speaker emphasizes the duality of obsession: it can be constructive or destructive.

The analogy of fire is used to illustrate how energy can be channeled positively or negatively.

The speaker contrasts the potential for a fulfilling life versus self-destruction due to misdirected energy.

The speaker's life revolved around music, detailing their love for music and their early success.

The speaker's musical influences and inspirations are mentioned.

The speaker describes a period of success, including wealth and a healthy lifestyle.

The speaker describes their luxurious lifestyle, living in a high-end house.

A Turning Point and the Onset of Addiction

A turning point in the speaker's life is introduced, marked by the arrival of a famous girl.

The speaker recounts the beginning of a relationship and the subsequent changes in lifestyle.

The speaker reflects on the complexities of the relationship and hints at mutual use.

The speaker describes the escalation of their lifestyle, including increased exposure to fame and parties.

The speaker details the progression into drug use, comparing it to the trajectory of a relationship in the movie 'Blow'.

The speaker discusses their relationship with Kim Kardashian and expresses respect for her work in criminal justice reform.

The speaker highlights Kim Kardashian's advocacy work and positive qualities.

The speaker shares their perspective on Kim Kardashian before her rise to fame.

The speaker describes their self-destructive behavior during a period of excess.

The speaker discusses their attempts to impress their partner through lavish displays of wealth.

Interactions with Janet Jackson and Subsequent Downward Spiral

The speaker recounts a session with Janet Jackson and the unexpected development of a friendship despite initial barriers.

The speaker discusses the role of handlers in creating artificial distance between artists and fans.

The speaker recounts prioritizing drug use and strippers over a collaboration with Janet Jackson.

The speaker reflects on their impaired judgment during this period.

The speaker connects the excess of money, power, and fame to the increased risk of self-destructive behavior.

Further Descent and Interactions with DMX

The speaker describes the decline in the quality of parties they attended as their life spiraled.

The speaker recounts a humorous encounter with Pamela Anderson at their house.

The speaker's interaction with DMX is described, highlighting their shared struggles with addiction.

The speaker shares a funny anecdote involving DMX's reaction to Pamela Anderson's arrival.

The speaker reflects on their co-dependent relationship with DMX.

The speaker recounts their efforts to help DMX get clean and into rehab.

The speaker details DMX's escape from rehab and subsequent events.

The speaker describes DMX's escape from rehab and the consequences.

The speaker discusses DMX's escape from rehab and their attempts to help him.

The speaker recounts a significant event involving federal agents.

The speaker describes their later involvement in a cannabis-based rehab center and their attempt to help DMX.

The speaker recounts the final efforts to help DMX, including arranging a private plane for detox.

The speaker shares the outcome of their efforts to help DMX, highlighting his death.

The speaker expresses their grief and reflects on DMX's talent.

The speaker reflects on the unpredictability of life and their own experiences.

The speaker discusses the allure of escapism through drugs and alcohol.

The speaker discusses the negative consequences of prolonged drug and alcohol abuse.

The speaker concludes by summarizing the detrimental effects of substance abuse.