Eminem: Hip-hop ‘saved’ me

Eminem believes hip-hop ”saved his life”.

The 41-year-old rapper claims his musical talent stopped him from destroying his life because he knew he was good at it, which gave him an incentive to pursue it as a career and make a name for himself.

He said: ”Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else. I think they have a word for that — what do they call it? Idiot savant?”

However, the ‘Berzerk’ star – who was hospitalised in 2007 after a suspected methadone overdose – admits he’s fallen off the bandwagon a number of times, which could have ended his career.

Speaking to Rolling Stones magazine, he explained: ”I relapsed on drugs. It was a little creepy. I certainly had some dark times with that s***, mostly due to taking a lot of pills and f****** drooling on myself. It was a s***** time.

”I know I probably shaved a few years off my life.”

Eminem recently admitted he is unsure of what to expect from the future, but knows he’ll never quit music completely.

He said earlier this week: ”I don’t know what the plan is for the near future but I do know there’ll be other things coming up, other projects things like that that I’ll probably get into working on. I always write and I probably always will.

”At whatever point I decide I’m probably going to put the mic down, whatever happens with that, I do feel I always want something to do with the music. So whether it’s producing or whatever ends up happening I just want something to do with it. Music is always going to be in my head along with myself that’s trapped in it.”