Eminem Celebrates 18 Years of Sobriety By Showing Off New Chip

Eminem is celebrating a big anniversary, and it’s got nothing to do with his debut album, Infinite, turning 30 years old this year.

The Detroit-born rapper is celebrating 18 years of sobriety and shared the news on Instagram.

Ironically, on 4/20, he posted a photo of himself wearing a D-Nice To tha Rescue T-shirt while holding up a sobriety chip. The shiny golden coin with black detailing features the typical markings that read  “to thine own self be true” and is inscribed with “unity, service, recovery” on each side of a triangle.

But what’s most special is the XVIII inside the triangle, noting the 18 years that Eminem has been sober.

In the caption, he is again recognizing that he hasn’t used substances in almost two decades, alongside an Olympic medal emoji.

Em was infamously a drug user in the late 90s and early aughts, which often influenced the brashness that was so celebrated in his early music, earning him classic albums like The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show.

But he had his first wake-up call in 2005 and again around 2009 after suffering from a relapse when he tried to avoid pain pills while recovering from a knee surgery.

It was only then that he admitted he had addiction issues, and even gave his mother some grace after being the subject of his rage in so many songs.

“It never once hit me that drug addiction runs in my family. Now that I understand that I’m an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it,” he previously told VIBE.

Once sober, and on the precipice of releasing the aptly titled Relapse album, he proclaimed, “I’m back.”

“Rap was my drug. It used to get me high, and then it stopped getting me high. Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that … now rap’s getting me high again.”

His comments were flooded with well-wishes from folks like fellow Detroit rapper Big Sean, telling him to “Keep it up,” D-Nice—who he rep’d on his shirt—and Questlove.

See social media’s hyping up Em on his announcement below.