Flavor Flav Shares Update on Sobriety Following Relapse in April (Exclusive)

Flavor Flav is opening up about sobriety following his relapse in April.

The rapper spoke exclusively with PEOPLE while attending the 2025 Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) Gala in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sept. 18. During the conversation, he shared that he’s “back on track.”

“Right now it’s going very well. I’m back on point. I’m back on track. You know what I’m saying? And this is the way that I plan on staying for the rest of my life,” Fav, 66, said.

He then went on to share his advice for others currently on their own sobriety journeys.

“If you take a fall, don’t lay there and stay stuck,” he said, adding, “You got to get up off of that fall and you have to K-I-M — keep it moving. Operation no choice is now in progress. Either you keep it moving, or you stay stuck. And the name of the game is to keep it moving.”

The Public Enemy co-founder shared that he had “briefly relapsed” in a message to fans shared on his Instagram Stories on April 3. In the post, he said he was sharing the information on social media because he wanted to “hold myself publicly accountable.”

“I remain authentic to who I am and a large part of the past 4.5 years for me has been my sobriety journey. I think I’ve been an inspiration to many that if I could get sober, anyone can do it,” he wrote.

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He continued, “But just when you think it’s easy, it ain’t. I briefly relapsed. I say this to admit my mistake and publicly hold myself accountable. I am a human being who makes mistakes and it doesn’t make me a bad person. I hope those who are around me support my choice to be sober.”

“I went back to Day 1, again. Time didn’t stop, my journey continues,” he added at the end of his post.

During a 2023 appearance on the Off the Record with DJ Akademiks podcast, Flav revealed that prior to getting sober, he was spending “$2,400 to $2,600 a day … for six years straight” on drugs.

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He said he largely kept his drug use “hidden,” and outwardly maintained himself “very well,” despite being in the throes of addiction. He ultimately began his sobriety journey in 2020.

“I guess God wanted me to live. And he knows that I’m a mouthpiece to the world,” he said on the Off the Record podcast. “So, I feel that God let me live through that, so that way, I could teach people about the mistakes that I made. And hopefully, they won’t make them later on in life.”

In addition to openly sharing his experiences with substance addiction, Flav, born William Jonathan Drayton Jr., also uses his platform to promote mental health awareness. 

In October 2024, in honor of World Mental Health Day, the rapper spoke about the four-year anniversary of his sobriety, saying, “My mental health is an important part of my sobriety journey.” 

To honor the milestone, he offered to pay for the cost of subscriptions to a therapy app for the day.