Busta Rhymes recently recalled how a post-sex asthma attack prompted him to take his health seriously.
The 51-year-old Hip Hop legend is one of six rappers (Method Man, 50 Cent, Common, Ludacris, Wiz Khalifa) gracing Men’s Health Magazine’s special issue celebrating the culture’s 50th birthday.
Busta Rhymes, whose real name is Trevor Smith had eaten and drunk himself up to 340 pounds, which triggered multiple health issues that threatened his life.
The “Gimme Some More” rapper admitted the 2014 passing of his father sent him spiraling because he never properly dealt with it.
That had to do with me never properly dealing with the loss of my father.
My dad died in 2014 and I drowned myself in work. I just kept drinking, smoking, eating bad—the whole nasty—and recording a bunch of songs just to escape the pain.
I also had a 90 percent blockage in my throat because of polyps on my vocal cords, and my breathing was bad.
Busta Rhymes revealed it was a post-sex asthma attack that scared him into getting serious about his health.
One night I was getting ready to have, make, you know…I was getting ready to have an intimate moment with my ex.
I had a breathing issue after the intimate interaction.
I was having a really difficult time breathing, so I got up and I walked out of the bedroom so she wouldn’t panic seeing me trying to keep myself calm.
I was trying to inhale, and it felt like it wasn’t working.
I felt like I was having like an asthma attack—but I don’t have asthma.
So I walked out of the bedroom and went into the living room, and I was forcing myself to inhale, to relax.
That was scaring me so much that it was a mindf**k, because I had to stay calm and make sure she didn’t hear me panic or hear me struggle to breathe.
I’m butt-a** naked in the living room, trying to calm myself down.
When I came back in the room once I got right, I laid back down next to her and she said something to me that really f**ked me up.
She was like, “Yo, this is not who I fell in love with.”
She didn’t know what had happened outside, but she was looking at my body and the weight.
She was like, “You gotta lose this weight. This breathing is scaring me. When I met you, you wasn’t like a musclehead, but you, you was slim, you was cut, you had your s**t right. I need you to get back to who I fell in love with.”
Then, there was an interaction between Busta Rhymes and his son that prompted him to finally undergo surgery.
A day or two later, I came out of the bedroom.
I put my hand out to give my son a pound, and this n—-a slapped me on the stomach.
I was like, “Man, don’t touch my body.
If I reach you to give you a handshake, don’t touch my body or touch my side or my stomach.”
He was just being funny, but these things never happened when I had a six-pack.
Those are two moments that really made me say, “Right, I gotta fix all of this.”
The third moment was when security and my son took about 45 minutes to get me up in a crib [when he passed out in the car in 2019].
I was also scared about surgery for the polyps on my vocal cords because my voice is how I feed my family—the voice is the dragon.
I ran from the surgery as long as I could, but after that weekend I saw the doctor and he looked at my throat and he said I could die in my sleep.
That’s when I got surgery and started to get back in shape.
Busta Rhymes has since lost over 100 pounds and he is truly living his best life.
Read more of his interview at Men’s Health Magazine.
Oh, and before you go…check out Bussa Buss’ latest single, “Beach Ball,” featuring BIA.
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