“You can possibly die tonight”: When Busta Rhymes realised he had to lose weight
Flipmode founder Busta Rhymes has changed his aesthetic over time. When he first arrived on the scene, the ‘Gimme Some More’ rhymer wore bright clothes and had an interesting, wacky delivery that made him extremely interesting.
With his dreadlocks and fast flows, everybody knew who Busta Rhymes was and recognised him. However, after the turn of the millennium, and into the 2000s, Rhymes began to put on weight and, after a series of family losses, began to enter a depression.
That said, he almost died as a result of his habits. After his father passed away and multiple people in his life became fatally ill, the ‘Touch It’ lyricist began drinking and eating some less-than-healthy food.
In an interview, Busta described his reaction to his father’s death, revealing, “I lost so much time not really being in the best place with him,” adding, “To have lost him and not been able to enjoy the better times with him, I was kinda cheated out of being able to have that with him. And that messed me up for a long time, actually.”
As a result of his father’s death, Busta Rhymes began to put his health on the back burner. The Brooklyn native soon began to let himself to the extent that he even had to face the prospect of an early demise.
Opening up about the serious health problems that followed, Busta Rhymes explained, “I was on two blood pressure medicines at the time, an acid reflux medicine, I had sleep apnea. And it was a real bad case of sleep apnea this particular evening.” The ‘I Know What You What’ emcee even detailed the effect it had on his family, disclosing, “My son got so scared at what he was seeing like, ‘damn, this is the closest to death that I’ve ever seen my father.'”
Busta Rhymes had seen the effects of being overweight as he was around rappers like Big Pun in the 1990s, who passed away in 2000 from various obesity-related conditions. Asserting how serious it was when he began to pile on the weight, Busta told GQ, “It’s a serious thing when you accumulate too much weight and get to the size where it starts to complicate a lot of other things: blood pressure, your respiratory, all kinds of shit.”
He continued, “As the doctor came into the room, he asked me if I was all right. And I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because I can hear you breathing really loud outside of the door before I even walked in here.'” After a checkup, the doctor urged Busta to go to the hospital because he had developed “polyps” in his throat.
Reflecting on the severity of the situation and what the doctor at UCLA told him, Busta divulged, “[The doctor said], ‘You have these polyps that have grown in your throat that are so big that have blocked 90% of your breathing passage. So if you go home this evening and you happen to catch a cold or sleep under a fan and a gland swell happens, that could block up the remaining 10% of your breathing passage, and you can possibly die tonight.”
It was at this moment that the Extinction Level Event creator realised he had to lose weight and he not only began to eat more healthily but stopped drinking alcohol and smoking weed entirely. While speaking to Men’s Health, the ‘Fire It Up’ artist unveiled, “A lot of artists now, understand the seriousness and significance of self-preservation: a healthy diet regimen, significant water intake, getting your sleep so your body can repair itself when you beat it up and you tear that muscle from the workouts. The most important thing in life is self-preservation.”