The hip hop community is in mourning following the deaths of DMX and Black Rob, but amid the many tributes, there’s been speculation about the possible ways these tragic occurrences could have been prevented. The questions and negative commentary prompted a response from Royce da 5’9”, who proceeded to teach his followers a few things about addiction.

In a recent Instagram video, the Grammy-nominated rapper noted practices in the music industry and shared his beliefs that artists were “hired to kill” themselves.

“When we become artists, hip hop artists, I’m talking about Black culture, make rappers, say other rappers names in a competitive spirit, we used to be worried about beef on track spilling over off to the streets,” said Royce.

“Now we are worried about street beef spilling over to tracks because that escalates everything. So, I came to the conclusion that we’ve been hired to kill ourselves.”

Royce addressed some of the people who called others out for failing to provide more assistance to DMX and Black Rob by criticizing them for speaking on issues they know nothing about.

“We’ve come from all these different places of judgement, we eat all the wrong food, we go to the funerals of people who died a little bit sooner than us,” he continued. “We pass judgement. We say, ‘Yo, y’all weren’t there. Y’all weren’t there for him. So he made a choice. He had to choose to become an addict.’ Everybody talking like that about DMX, you don’t know shit about addiction. ‘Where the fuck is Puff? Why he hadn’t help Black Rob? Wassup with JAY-Z? Did he buy the masters?’

“Y’all don’t know shit about Puff, you don’t know shit about JAY-Z, you don’t know shit about the record business,” he went on.

In a further attempt to explain how artists are “hired to fucking kill ourselves,” Royce explained that many of them tend to engage in behaviors they know may result in their demise. “We go to the funeral, we eat the same food as we eat in the past and put the motherfucker in the casket,” he said. “To grieve, to process, and to get ourselves to that process we do the same drugs, we drink the same liquor, the same syrup, we pop the same pills. All the same shit that we do in the studio because we told ourselves that’s what we need to create. And we wanna make it so bad that we’re willing to leave it all in the ring. We’re willing to leave it all on the floor, put it all on the line.”

The MC then asked people to “stop talking shit” and let both Black Rob and DMX rest in peace, adding a few words of advice to the younger generation in hopes to prevent more premature deaths.

“You’re looking at your future. If you’re doing all the same — illicit drugs and drinking, and all of that shit — you’re looking at your future,” he continued. “If you’re online talking about what you gonna do to a nigga when you see him, you’re looking at your future. That’s imminent death, my nigga. We ain’t here for nothing but [to] make music, we are not here for all this extra shit. So, get off Clubhouse for a minute and just do some reflecting. And think about people that you love.”