CELEBRITIES
Flavor Flav donates unique gift while meeting with Harvard students
The legendary musician is trying to change his ways, and make a difference for the younger generation.
Iconic rapper Flavor Flav attended an event at Ivy League college, Harvard University, on Tuesday, where he was the guest of honor.
Flavor Flav, whose real name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., shared with the public earlier this year that he is recovering from addiction. He has been sober for six years, and is now ready to talk about it — as well as make a difference in the lives of others.
What was Flavor Flav doing at Harvard?
While he was at Harvard, Drayton Jr. volunteered at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, read an Emily Dickinson poem and talked with students, and made a unique donation.
Drayton Jr. chose Dickinson’s 1896 poem ‘A Clock Stopped’, and gave a lesson in the language arts by tying the century-and-a-half-old poem to how the rapper has changed his views on life over time — and how his own art, his song lyrics, reflect that.
The 64-year-old music legend also donated a significant souvenir, one of his signature clock necklaces. The piece went to Harvard’s Hip Hop Archive Research Institute, whose mission as per their website is to “facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture and responsible leadership through Hiphop.”
Harvard professors Henry Louis Gates and Tommie Shelby accepted the clock necklace for the organization.
When did Flavor Fav open up about addiction?
Flavor Flav, who earlier in 2023 confessed on DJ Akademiks’ ‘Off The Record’ Spotify podcast that he used to have a drug addiction where he spent up to $1 million a year on drugs, is now six and a half years sober.
“I maintained myself very well while I was on that,” Drayton Jr. said. “I kept it hidden. There was a time I was spending $2400-$2600 a day for six years, you do the math. And that was how much I spent on drugs.”
“I sold a lot but I was my best customer, he continued. “I had a lot of money but I was just doing the wrong things with my money.”
“Back in the days, when we used to make drug records, we used to talk about selling drugs,” he confessed. “Talking about who can make the most money off drugs, who’s balling off selling drugs. It was a competition thing to all of the hustlers.”
“God wanted me to live because he knew I was a mouthpiece for the world so I can teach people about the mistakes that I made.”