How did Big Pun die in 2000?
Big Pun, a member of Fat Joe’s Terror Squad collective, was forging a fine career for himself in the late ’90s. But, early in the new millennium, his progress was cut tragically short. He died on February 7, 2000, aged just 28.
Pun had struggled with eating issues throughout the entirety of his adult life. His weight went up and down through the years, but it was always on the extreme end of things. He reportedly weighed close to 700 pounds at the time he died.
It was this extreme weight, and the health problems it induced, that claimed his life.
In the run-up to his untimely death, Pun had been scheduled to perform on Saturday Night Live alongside Fat Joe and Jennifer Lopez. He had to pull out of the show, though, because he was feeling unwell.
Two days later, Pun collapsed while he was staying in a hotel. He was rushed to hospital, but attempts to revive him proved to be in vain. He died in hospital, leaving behind a wife and three kids.
In the weeks after his death, reports emerged pertaining to what had happened to him. He’d suffered a massive heart attack, with a medical examiner telling the press that Pun had had an enlarged heart when he died. It was said to have been “about three times the normal size.”
“That is not healthy,” Dr Louis Roh stated plainly.
Pun and his family had been concerned about his weight for a long time, but the rapper had been unable to properly address it. He’d attended a weight-loss camp in 1999, where, according to reports, he actually managed to lose 100 pounds. But, unfortunately, he quit the programme early and, before long, he’d regained the weight that he’d lost.
In the wake of his death, his friend and collaborator Fat Joe described him as a “brother” in a statement. “To the hip-hop community, he was a living legend,” Joe went on. “To Latinos everywhere, he broke down barriers in the entertainment industry. But most importantly, he was a man, a husband and a father. He will be missed but never forgotten.”