Tee Grizzley may be in the music business, an industry often riddled with excessive drug use and alcohol consumption, but that doesn’t automatically mean he’s a big partier. The rapper recently sat down with Ebro for a virtual interview via Apple Music to talk about his new mixtape, The Smartest. During their conversation, Tee discussed his sober lifestyle and explained his reasoning for avoiding these types of vices.

tee grizzley alcohol drink drugs smoke weed soberTheo Wargo/Getty Images for iHeartMedia

“All the older people drinking, they was abusive, the younger people that was drinking, they was too drunk and got killed at a club,” he explained. “People that was smoking, they fell asleep at the light with drugs on ’em and got locked up. So I always looked at it like y’all need to stay away from that.”

The subject hits incredibly close to home for Tee. Watching his mother be sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2011 for drug trafficking had a major impact on his decision to stay sober. The rapper touches on this difficult experience on his 2019 song, “Locked Up.”

As for his new tape, Tee was overjoyed that he was able to secure a feature from fellow Detroit man, Big Sean. “It means everything to me,” he said of Sean’s contribution on the song, “Trenches.” “It’s another one of those stamps that you need. If you from Detroit and you going crazy, you gotta have a song with Big Sean.” The project also includes features from Meek Mill, Lil Baby, Lil Keed, and more. Watch Tee Grizzley’s full conversation with Ebro below or click here:

[Via]