Isaiah Rashad gets honest. The often reclusive TDE spitter is gearing up to release his new album The Sun’s Tirade, but before that, he’s opening up about the drug and alcohol issues that had him sidelined for the past two years.

Zay revealed his battle during an episode of the Juan Epstein podcast, saying he became addicted to Xanax and alcohol to the point where Top Dawg’s CEO, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, had to intervene.

“Top sent me home until I got my shit together,” he explained. “He sent me home from the squad. You ain’t heard from me. You ain’t heard me drop shit until I got my shit together. Now, I got my shit together. I’m cool. Like, ain’t nobody cool. I was addicted to some shit so it’s not like I don’t think about it every once in awhile. I just know I got a bigger goal to do.”

It was so bad that he almost got dropped from TDE. “I fucked up pretty bad,” he admitted. “I almost got dropped like three times.”

Thankfully, he was able to turn the situation around. “I got examples of what the outcome of that shit is,” he added. “I just don’t want to be one of those ni**as. Especially when you coming from Chattanooga, you coming from a small ass city, when you not doing some shit, I could feel my clout going away and I like my clout. I could feel my little power of words going away. Ain’t putting out no music, ni**as wonder what the fuck you doing. You either making the biggest shit ever or you fucking off. So everybody either knows or giving me the benefit of the doubt.”

Despite not going to rehab, Zay said he no longer uses Xanax and that he only drinks on occasion.

His album The Sun’s Tirade, the follow-up to 2014’s Cilvia Demo, is set to drop Friday (Sept. 2) featuring Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, and SZA.