Young Dro opens up at the BET Awards about mentoring Clayton County youth, mental health, 5 years of sober, and new music with T.I. and Metro Boomin.
At the BET Awards, Young Dro pulled up to The Rickey Smiley Morning Show and got candid about the work that means the most to him right now: mentoring Black youth in Clayton County, breaking the silence around mental health, celebrating five years of sobriety, and lining up new music with T.I. and Metro Boomin. The Atlanta legend made one thing clear—just because you don’t hear his name buzzing around the city doesn’t mean he isn’t busy. He’s got boots on the ground, and he’s building something that lasts.
This is more than a comeback story. It’s a portrait of a hip-hop veteran using his platform to heal, teach, and show up for the people who need him most. Here’s everything Young Dro covered on the show, plus the context behind his journey.
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When Gary With Da Tea asked Young Dro where he’s been, the answer wasn’t about studios or stages. It was about service.
“I’ve been in the community, but with boots on the ground,” Dro said. “It still takes the village.”
These days, the rapper born D’Juan Hart is mentoring students across four Clayton County schools:
His focus? Teaching behavioral and mental health—and helping young people understand that taking care of their minds is just as important as taking care of their bodies. This isn’t a brand-new lane for Dro, either. Back in 2023, he launched a “guns down initiative,” touring Georgia schools to talk about nonviolence and steer Black youth away from the cycles that claim too many young lives. The mentorship work he’s doing now is the natural next chapter of that mission.
The most powerful part of the conversation came when Dro spoke openly about mental health in the Black community—a subject still wrapped in silence and stigma for far too many.
“Growing up in the Black community, if you had mental health problems, they just put you in the back room,” he reflected. “Nobody talked about it.”
Dro is changing that by leading with his own truth. He shared that he’s lived with bipolar disorder for more than 30 years, takes lithium to manage it, and is thriving.
“Mental health is just like physical health. Everybody has it,” he explained. “When you fall down and hurt your knee, you go to the doctor. So why don’t we take care of this here?”
His message to Black men especially: there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. By naming his own experience out loud, Dro joins a growing chorus of Black men using their voices to normalize the conversation—and he’s doing it in classrooms where it can reach kids early.
For Young Dro, the mission is rooted in faith. He described himself as a religious person who serves God, and connected that belief directly to his work on mental wellness.
“If your mind ain’t together, how can you take care of your household?” he asked. “You got kids that want food, you gotta take care of your wife, your mama.”
When Rickey Smiley noted that he hasn’t heard Dro’s name ringing through the streets lately, Dro had a simple response: “I’m doing my Father’s business.”
Here’s the twist that makes the mentorship work even sweeter—by the time Dro arrived in those Clayton County classrooms, he’d already gone viral on TikTok. The students knew exactly who he was.
So he gave them a show.
“They thought they were so cool,” he laughed, describing how performing for the kids helped him connect. That bridge matters. When students see a celebrity pouring real time and energy into them, the lesson lands differently. It tells them: if he can make it through and come back to help, so can I.
Dro’s appearance at the BET Awards wasn’t only about the youth work. He’s also out supporting his brother T.I., who just released his twelfth and final studio album, Kill the King, on June 26.
“I’m on, like, two songs on there,” Dro said. “I’m out here supporting my brother.”
The collaboration is no surprise. Dro signed to T.I.’s Grand Hustle label back in 2004, and his debut album Best Thang Smokin’ (2006) shot to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 behind the top-ten hit “Shoulder Lean.” Nearly two decades later, the two are still locked in.
Dro isn’t slowing down on the music front. He laid out a packed release schedule:
For longtime fans, the P$C reunion is a full-circle moment—the Grand Hustle collective helped define Atlanta’s sound in the 2000s, and bringing it back signals Dro still has plenty in the tank.
Music isn’t the only project keeping Dro busy. He revealed that he’s appearing in two upcoming T.I. films:
Dro kept it humble about the details—”Tip can tell you more, I’m just in them”—but the moves show how far his lane has expanded beyond the mic.
The friendship between Young Dro and T.I. runs deep. Three decades deep, in fact.
“We’ve been friends 30 years, since we was young,” Dro said. “Usually people don’t keep the people around. But we still around.”
This year carries even more weight. Dro is celebrating 20 years of Best Thang Smokin’ and—most importantly—five years of sobriety.
“Especially in this business,” he noted, acknowledging how rare and hard-won that milestone is.
The conversation’s most moving moment came when Dro talked about family. He has three children: an oldest daughter, a second daughter who just graduated high school, and a 10-year-old son.
It was his oldest daughter’s struggle that pushed him toward recovery.
“That’s what kicked me off to actually go to rehab. She had picked up using,” Dro shared. “So I went and got the help and I changed. I thought that would be the beginning of helping her change—seeing me change.”
That’s the kind of honesty that turns a celebrity interview into something real. Dro didn’t just get sober for himself; he did it to model the change he hoped his daughter could find.
Dro isn’t finished growing his family, either. He told the hosts he wants one more child—and then he wants to adopt.
“I feel like there’s a child out there that needs to be wrapped around, hugged up,” he said.
Given how he’s giving back to youth across Clayton County, the desire to adopt fits right into the picture. This is a man whose purpose is pouring into the next generation, whether in a classroom or under his own roof.
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