Timbaland is speaking with striking clarity about just how close his battle with prescription pills brought him to death.
During a recent interview with B High ATL, the legendary producer reflected on addiction, divorce, and other difficult periods of his life while discussing his late friend Chris Cornell. Timbaland said his OxyContin addiction reached a point where he later realized his drug use itself had become a form of self-destruction.
“I ain’t never think about suicide, but then I said, you know what? I was committing suicide every day,” Timbaland said. “I didn’t say it, but I was doing it.”
Timbaland also recalled his then wife witnessing him stop breathing while he was asleep, an experience that forced the producer to confront how dangerous his dependence had become.
“When you go there and go to them pills, you killing yourself. I was killing myself slowly or fastly, I don’t know. But God had his hands on me,” he said.
The admission adds another chapter to a story Timbaland has been telling publicly for years. Timbaland previously revealed that he became dependent on OxyContin after taking pain medication connected to nerve problems stemming from a gunshot injury he suffered as a teenager. He described reaching a frightening point where he woke up gasping for air and ultimately began weaning himself off the drug.
In a later conversation, Timbaland said his prescription drug use initially involved Vicodin before escalating to as much as 160 milligrams of OxyContin per day. He also credited Jay-Z and Drake with confronting him about his behavior during that period. More recently, Timbaland said his strongest work came before his drug use, telling an interviewer that addiction coincided with what he now views as a creative decline.
Timbaland’s story is deeply personal, but he is far from the only major Black artist to publicly confront dependence on prescription pills and opioids.
T.I. spoke openly about developing a dependence on painkillers after dental procedures. According to an Associated Press report, the rapper said he had been prescribed OxyContin and hydrocodone following extensive dental work. He continued taking pain medication after the physical pain subsided and later underwent individual and group therapy as he addressed his use of pills and codeine.
ScHoolboy Q has been similarly candid about prescription drug addiction. In a 2014 interview carried by NPR Illinois, the Los Angeles rapper said he had been addicted for roughly two years and described using Percocet, Valium, Xanax and codeine. He also explained how that period became part of the story behind his album “Oxymoron,” particularly the relationship between selling prescription drugs and eventually becoming addicted himself.
Bow Wow has also described a dangerous relationship with lean, the drink commonly made with codeine cough syrup. In a 2024 interview reported by Us Weekly, Bow Wow said his use became particularly heavy around the time he and Omarion were making their 2007 collaborative album “Face Off.” He recalled eventually collapsing after a performance and being hospitalized, an experience he has described as a turning point.
For Juice WRLD, prescription opioids and codeine were subjects he discussed both in his music and interviews before his death at 21. Juice WRLD had previously spoken about being dependent on drugs, including his experiences with Percocet and lean. Following his death, his mother, Carmela Wallace, publicly addressed addiction and said she hoped the conversations her son started would help other people facing similar battles.
Kodak Black has spoken publicly about Percocet use as well. In 2024, Kodak discussed reducing his pill use and changing his relationship with sobriety. He later said he planned to stop performing “Super Gremlin” because of a lyric about Percocet that no longer reflected the direction he wanted for himself.
Travie McCoy has also described years of opioid addiction. In a 2025 interview with People, the Gym Class Heroes frontman said his opioid use began after a knee injury and developed into a nine-year battle before a lengthy stay in treatment. At the time of the interview, McCoy said he had been sober from opiates for more than 13 years.
Prince’s story belongs in the broader conversation, though with an important distinction. Unlike Timbaland, T.I. and others who personally discussed their addiction publicly, much of what became known about Prince’s opioid problem emerged after his death. According to CBS News and the Associated Press, Prince died in 2016 from an accidental fentanyl overdose. Investigators later uncovered evidence of prescription opioid use, including oxycodone that a doctor acknowledged prescribing under an associate’s name for privacy. Authorities also found numerous pills at Paisley Park while investigating where the fentanyl that killed Prince originated.
Taken together, those stories show how prescription pill and opioid addiction has touched artists across generations and genres, sometimes beginning with legitimate treatment for physical pain and sometimes developing through recreational use. Timbaland’s latest comments stand out because he is able to describe that period from the other side, looking back at a dependence that once became so severe that simply going to sleep could become dangerous.
Years after first revealing his OxyContin addiction, Timbaland is no longer describing it as just a difficult chapter in his career. He is describing survival.
