Flavor Flav blew away $5 million on drugs in six years

Want the numbers on Flavor Flav’s life as a drug user? He says he spent $2,400 to $2,600 a day for six years on the most severe part of his cocaine and crack addiction.

“You do the math, and that’s how much I spent on drugs,” the rapper and hype man recently said on the Off the Record With DJ Akademiks podcast. (By the way, we did the math, and it’s between $5.3 million and $5.7 million.)

Flav – real name William Jonathan Drayton Jr. – has now been clean from coke and crack for 15 years and has been clean from alcohol and cigarettes for 2½ years. He believes God had a reason to keep him alive for 18 years of heavy drug use and dealing.

While he managed to keep his drug use fairly low most of the time, the rapper said, “No matter how many people around you are doing the same thing you are, at the end of the day it still is, it’s still a lonely world.” It’s a dark world. I just thank God for letting me put it out.”

Flav says he believes God let him live because he could be a leader and a mouthpiece to help others get off drugs.

“I feel like God let me live through this so I can teach people the mistakes I’ve made … and hopefully they won’t make them,” he said. “Drugs are easy to get and bloody hard to get rid of.”

The Public Enemy hype man had to change everything in his life, which he did by moving away from New York and out west.

“That’s why I went to California, because I wanted to change my people, my places and my stuff,” he said. “And as long as you do that, you’re on the mend.”

His recovery wasn’t magical: “It took me a while to recover, man,” the 63-year-old rapper said. “I won’t lie. Took a little minute. It was’nt easy.”

But he sees a big new problem for people trying to get clean these days.

“Today’s society doesn’t shame drugs,” he said. “[It’s] Claim drugs.” Where rappers once made music about selling drugs, they now make music about using drugs.

“I want to try to reverse the process because I know what it’s done to me and my life,” Flav said. “And it hasn’t done my life any good.”

But don’t go crazy over Flav’s chosen lifestyle, mind you. He’s still not a choirboy.

“Nevertheless, I still smoke my weed. You know, I’m not squeaky clean!” the Flavor of Love veteran told DJ Akademiks. “You know, weed is natural. It’s from Earth. … Weed is healthier than cigarettes, it’s a lot healthier than cokes and crack and heroin and mollies and percocets and xanaxes and ecstasies.

“So I’d rather just smoke my weed and get my little kick,” Flav said. “Go into the studio, sit down, write something and bam, go record. Just keep my power.”