Traumatic events can be a defining turning point in a person’s life, but the tragic death of a parent can be earthshattering. Shyheim has been opening up about his successes and failures with VladTV now that he’s recently been released from prison after serving five years. The rapper was convicted of second-degree manslaughter following the death of a motorist during a car accident. As he’s becoming acclimated to life outside of prison walls, Shyheim is ready to share portions of his life story that many people never learned about the Wu-Tang-affiliated artist.

In 2009, back when Shyheim was in his early thirties, the rapper’s mother lost her life after overdosing on heroin. “Losing a mom at 30, that’s pretty young. So then, I was really, really lost,” he said. “I was lost before, but then I really started gettin’ out of control.” Shyheim admitted that his life took a turn back in the 1990s, but the death of his mother “added to the wounds and to the psychological trauma that was going on in my life.”

“You see your mom, the one that raised you on the floor gone,” Shyheim continued. “It does something to you. You’ll never be the same. I’ll never be the same as I was as that kid. From the trauma and the things that I went through.” He added, “The weird thing [that] started the happen [was] I would hear her voice clearly of everything she ever told me. That’s what would make me cry and that’s what would touch me. It’s just like, yo. What do you do? Where do you go from here?”

Shyheim said that there were people around him with the ability to change his life and remove him from troublesome situations, but didn’t. Check out his clip below where he also talks about learning how to be a good father.

The cause of Nick Gordon’s death earlier this year has been determined by his autopsy and toxicology report, and it appears he suffered a fatal heroin overdose. According to the reports, Gordon was hospitalized on New Year’s Day this year after he was found unresponsive and in cardiac arrest. He remained in the hospital for 7 hours before he died. Traces of Narcan, which is used to counteract of effects of an overdose, were found in his system.

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It was suspected already that Nick died of some kind of drug overdose. A man claiming to be Nick’s brother alleged that Nick had died from an overdose, and an audio clip from the 911 dispatch call reveals that Nick was not breathing and that he had “black stuff” coming out of his mouth when the police were called. It is common for black discharge to foam out of the mouth and nostrils after an opioid overdose.

Nick’s brother, Jack Walker Jr., broke the news of his death by writing, “GOD WHY I DID I HAVE TO LOSE MY BROTHER ON NEW YEARS… All I can do is cry.” Jack later blasted the media for creating a negative perception of Nick when his girlfriend and daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, Bobbi Kristina Brown, died. “Everything that the media’s been throwing at him, everything that life’s been throwing at him, yeah, it took a toll on him,” Jack revealed. “He lost somebody he really loved.” Nick was found civilly responsible for Bobbi’s death in 2015, after finding her face down in a bathtub. She died at 22 years old.