Lil Xan exposing his ex-manager of supplying him with drugs

Nicholas Diego Leanos, better known as Lil Xan is speaking out again after making news for saying his ex-manager aided his near-fatal drug addiction.

Lil Xan is a rapper who has had several near-death experiences as a result of his drug use and was an addict during the peak of his career in his early twenties.

The rapper accused his manager of feeding his drug addiction in an Instagram Live session, and he also called out the whole music industry for their complicit and predatory treatment of artists with substance abuse issues.

In a nearly 12-minute video titled “The Dangers of The Music Industry,” the 25-year-old artist claims that his former manager and former Shady Records/Aftermath artist Stat Quo provided him with drugs when withdrawal symptoms made it difficult for him to perform while on Nicki Minaj and Juice WRLD's The Nicki WRLD Tour in 2019.

 

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“They just want to keep you alive long enough to make their money, and if you die, it's even better for them because it's easier to manage a dead artist than an alive one,” Xan explained. 

A phone call he had with Stat just before going on Instagram Live, in which he alleges Stat denied ever giving Xan with narcotics, was the motivation for him publicly sharing his frustrations.

Xan alleges that his buddies had the wisdom to save screenshots that would allegedly confirm Xan's accusations if he died. He and an anonymous individual who can be heard on the live audio content that Xan asked for assistance, and the unknown speaker appeared to start claiming that Stat told Xan he couldn't acquire health insurance before Xan immediately cut them off. Mic reached out to Stat Quo for comment, but they didn't answer right away.

“So glad I could finally bring this story to light,” Xan captioned a screenshot of an article about his recent Instagram confession. “And I put 100% of the blame on him? No, I was a drug addict how could I! Am I telling you that he was doing nothing but speeding up my drug use by supplying me the very pills that could've killed me? YES! I'm making this public because I know in my heart this happens way too often and it's how we end up losing some of the greatest artists way too young…These people must answer for their crimes, I remember days on tour my security would have to check on me to see if I was still breathing! But as long as I was medicated enough to get on stage and make that bag for me and the team everything was all good lol what a joke.”

“Do you guys remember the whole Lil Peep story when his management was giving him drugs and it just wasn't helping out and all that? That happened to me on tour,” he explained. “My manager, well I don't even like to call him my manager anymore, Stat Quo, remember that name, Stat Quo.”

Peep's death, as well as Xan's near-death experience with heroin use, reignites a long-running discussion about record labels' responsibility for their artists' health.

Amy Winehouse gave her final performance three days before she died of alcohol poisoning. She checked out of Priory Clinic six weeks before her final gig after completing an examination as part of her preparation for the European tour she was about to embark on.

Winehouse's management firm, Metropolis, was chastised by fans and Island Records for booking her for a European tour so soon after her release from rehab.

Keeping an artist with addiction issues from performing boils down to protecting an artist from themselves, according to Jazz Summers, longtime manager of acts like The Verve and Wham!, who told The Independent that keeping an artist with addiction issues from performing boils down to protecting an artist from themselves.

“I've dealt with artists who are addicts. You are dealing with the addiction, not the person. Often it's the artist who wants to go out and perform and they get abusive if you try to stop them. They can appear fine until they get to the dressing room but they can relapse very quickly.”