Chris Brown was hooked on 'hood cocktail'

Singer Chris Brown. Photo / Getty Images

R&B star Chris Brown has blamed his drug use for his bad behaviour in recent years, insisting he became hooked on a potentially-fatal cough syrup concoction.

The Kiss Kiss hitmaker has found himself in trouble with the law on numerous occasions of late, and he served time behind bars earlier this year after getting kicked out of a court-ordered rehabilitation facility, where he was receiving anger management treatments following a fight outside a Washington, DC hotel, while he was still on probation for his 2009 assault on then-girlfriend Rihanna.

Brown admits his use of the "hood cocktail", a codeine-based cough syrup mixed with soda, and anxiety medication Xanax left him out of control and struggling to keep on top of his professional commitments.

In a candid interview with New York's Hot 97 radio show, he recalls, "I was off the syrup, the Xanax... that's the hood cocktail. I was falling asleep on video sets, I was cussing people out randomly. I was doing crazy stuff. I would wake up and be like, 'Aye, man, what time we shooting this video?' And they would be like, 'Dude, we shot it yesterday.' I'd be like, 'Damn!"'

Brown claims it took a little time for him to realise he needed to quit drinking the syrup: "(I realised), 'This ain't for me (sic).' As time progressed I was like, let me chill out. I don't want to be a zombie when I meet people. Or say the wrong thing, or end up punching somebody or doing something crazy... like I did... because I was under the influence of some bull."

Brown goes on to admit his drug use played a big part in his famous feud with love rival Drake, who he is convinced Rihanna began dating in 2010 to purposefully spite him.

He says, "She's going to get mad when I say this, but in a way I do (think she dated Drake to get revenge). It's understandable. It's the game, we young (sic). We do that at that age."

His fall out with Drake reached fever pitch in 2012, when the two stars' entourages clashed violently during a night out at a club in New York, but Brown admits that all happened "in the 'thug Chris Brown era"' and now he is on good terms with the rapper.

- WENN