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Rap may need a health checkup

poledriver

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
Messages
11,543
Rap may need a health checkup

HIP-hop may need a checkup.

The culture that in the 1990s lost its brightest stars to gun violence has in recent years seen a series of notable rappers die of drug- and health-related causes.

Since 2011, hip-pop pioneer Heavy D, singer and rap chorus specialist Nate Dogg and New York rapper Tim Dog all died of ailments in their 40s.

Kriss Kross rapper Chris Kelly was found dead last week in Atlanta of a suspected drug overdose at 34.

Some of the genre's elder statesmen say they're worried about the culture's focus on youth, current emphasis on freewheeling partying and "you only live once" ethos, as popularised by Drake's 2011 hit The Motto.

"Hip-hop being a lifestyle culture...a part of American culture, you have to be mindful that somebody is going to grow old, age," said rap pioneer Melle Mel.

"At some point somebody has to realise that hip-hop has to learn how to grow up. It's way too juvenile and it's been that way for too long."

The 51-year-old rapper, who memorably warned in 1982's The Message about urban youth who "lived so fast and died so young," said he suffers chronic bronchitis from being around marijuana and cigarette smoke when he was performing.

Of course, heavy drug use in hip-hop or rock is hardly new: Cowboy of his Furious Five group died in 1989 "basically from getting high," Melle Mel said.

"It's not really worth it to literally party yourself to death. It's like committing suicide," he added. "You have to choose between what makes you feel good and what makes you think you feel good."

Other influential rappers who've died in their 30s in the last decade include Southern rap pioneer Pimp C and Wu-Tang Clan's Ol Dirty Bastard, both from drug overdose.

Lifestyle isn't to blame for all fatal health problems in hip-hop.

Smooth-voiced Midwesterner MC Breed died of kidney failure in 2008 at age 37.

Soulful producer J Dilla died in 2006 at age 32 of complications from lupus. Cancer killed rappers Guru in 2010 at 48 and Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys last year at 47.

One of the genre's top stars, Lil Wayne, has inadvertently focused attention on the issue. After he was hospitalised for multiple seizures, the 30-year-old rapper told a Los Angeles radio station in March that he's an epileptic.

As some of the genre's more well-known figures hit their late 30s and 40s, they've figured out ways to keep up appearances in public while also keeping their health.

50 Cent said he rarely drinks alcohol anymore. That "bottle full of bub" he's holding in nightclubs nowadays isn't what you think.

"I want to live a good long healthy life. So I'm health-conscious," the 37-year-old rapper-actor said. "You never see me drink. If you did see me with a bottle, it had ginger ale in it."

Though he's still a heavy marijuana smoker, Snoop Dogg said he stopped drinking alcohol at clubs six years ago after suspecting that a woman put the sedative Rohypnol - widely known as a "date-rape drug" - in one of his drinks.

"I used to drink alcohol as a fashion statement. If you in the club, they bringing you bottles, bringing you drinks. And you're just drinking because you're drinking. I don't do that anymore. I drink water or cranberry juice," he said.

"I'm not cheap. I just don't want to do this to my body anymore. I want to survive."

Snoop, 41, said his focus on health comes from his desire to remain competitive and relevant to a genre that's largely focused on youth.

"Because when we perform, we don't have as much energy," he said.

"So now we've got to get up and work out, do pushups or jumping jacks, or whatever we've got to do to keep ourselves looking good and feeling good. Because one thing about an old man - he don't ever want to feel like he old.

"So to me that's my personal push is to be able to compete with the youngsters and to be able to dance with them so to speak...Because when they welcome you into their world as far as being on a song, you're not old. You're accepted."

For producer and rapper RZA, hip-hop's emphasis on youth stems from an urban culture that since the '80s has had trouble planning for the future.

"They said we should be dead or in jail by the age of 25. And I think we live like that," the 43-year-old Wu-Tang Clan founder said.

"But what happens when you make it past 25? What happens when you make it to 30? What happens when you make it to 40? Are you prepared for life now?"

Influenced by "Eastern philosophy" and his famous obsession with martial arts films, RZA said he's been a vegetarian for 15 years and practices qigong movement and breathing.

"Think of the great artists like Biggie Smalls and Tupac, who made some of the greatest hip-hop music of all time. But they didn't make it past 25," he said.

"They didn't even become a man. ODB was just becoming a man. What I want to tell the hip-hop generation out there is that: There's a chance you're going to become a man. Be prepared for it."


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainmen...up/story-e6frfmq9-1226637247109#ixzz2ScQ10hYs
 
I didn't know Breed and Nate Dogg were dead.

Is the mortality rate of rappers higher than the mortality rate of the general young population? Some of my own friends have died from shit like riding motorcycles, suicide and heroin.

In every subculture, some people die and most survive. I'm sure this is true even for the abstinent Mormons.
 
^ It didn't say he's dead?

One of the genre's top stars, Lil Wayne, has inadvertently focused attention on the issue. After he was hospitalised for multiple seizures, the 30-year-old rapper told a Los Angeles radio station in March that he's an epileptic.
 
i think they should distinguish rap from hiphop. Both were created and popularized by drugs in one way or another. I fucking love listening to Leak Bros (Cage and Tame1 album all about PCP) and songs/albums dedicated to drugs lol. I don't want to hear some clean shit hiphop about drinking cranberry juice and water, go fuck yourselves media, drugs produce great music.

little wayne is probably retarded, switch to morphine or something fuck. RZA's quote is the only blurb that makes sense.
 
They didn't mention eminem who battled addiction with prescription meds and said he nearly died and I think had to go into rehab.
 
i think they should distinguish rap from hiphop. Both were created and popularized by drugs in one way or another. I fucking love listening to Leak Bros (Cage and Tame1 album all about PCP) and songs/albums dedicated to drugs lol. I don't want to hear some clean shit hiphop about drinking cranberry juice and water, go fuck yourselves media, drugs produce great music.

little wayne is probably retarded, switch to morphine or something fuck. RZA's quote is the only blurb that makes sense.

I fuck with Eastern Conference and the Leak Brothers as well but you seem to be implying hip-hip has to be affiliated with drugs. Canibus is arguably one of the illest lyricists alive and dude is stone cold sober. Non-Phixion was dope as fuck and they spoke on drugs. Both Guru and Dilla were inarguable hip-hop rather than commercial rap.

There is certainly a hip-hop/rap divide I will grant you that, but both sides have excellent artists that use and don't use drugs. To be hip-hop doesn't mean you got to get wet everyday.

They didn't mention eminem who battled addiction with prescription meds and said he nearly died and I think had to go into rehab.

They were talking about people who died. Battling addiction != dead
 
Yeah, but they were also taking quotes from alive rappers too, I was just mentioning they could have included eminem who nearly died from drug abuse and addiction or taken a quote from one of his many interviews etc. It seems like it would have fit into this kind of article, him being a rapper, and american and rapping about drugs and stuff, and ironically nearly dying from them and battling addiction with them etc.
 
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I fuck with Eastern Conference and the Leak Brothers as well but you seem to be implying hip-hip has to be affiliated with drugs. Canibus is arguably one of the illest lyricists alive and dude is stone cold sober. Non-Phixion was dope as fuck and they spoke on drugs. Both Guru and Dilla were inarguable hip-hop rather than commercial rap.

There is certainly a hip-hop/rap divide I will grant you that, but both sides have excellent artists that use and don't use drugs. To be hip-hop doesn't mean you got to get wet everyday.



They were talking about people who died. Battling addiction != dead

i still listen to non-phixion every day. Never listened to Canibus and feel reluctant based on the fact he is stone cold sober, was he a past drug user at least? lol

i wasn't implying that hiphop has to be affiliated with drugs but the majority of the best artists IMO are the ones have/had issues with drugs. I was saying the entire hiphop industry and culture has been intertwined with drugs in one way or another; from using crack money to fund albums to writing lyrics about how crack destroyed their communities. Sure you don't have to use drugs to make great music but the hiphop i enjoy these days is the old shit like non-phixion, old necro, weathermen, jedi mind trick and cage. I'm not sure if cage is sober now or not but he's still making drug influenced songs and lyrics. Took me a while to appreciate his new shit but after a while i came around.

you seem to know your underground hiphop more than i do, any recommendations based on my preferences? not to derail the thread but if there's someone on cage's level i haven't listened to it'd make a big difference to my quality of life. I've tried to get into la coka nostra and other stuff that some of the non-phixion crew went on to do and didn't really like it. I wish they'd just do another album.

i know artists who have gotten sober and went back to drugs just because their music went to shit, i do agree with you though, i wasn't clear in my first post.

I'm pretty sure eminem clarified in one of his songs that he didn't do heroin or all these types of drugs, mainly just smoked weed and did minor shit like mushrooms.
 
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^ I wouldn't say that Canibus is the best lyricist ever but he is well worth listening to sober or not. His name kinda implies that he does use drugs, but it could be past drug use I suppose.

To be honest I don't think the article has much of a point, people of all groups die from all sorts of reasons and just because you can rattle off 5 or 10 or even more dead rappers in the last decade doesn't mean shit, it is still a fraction of successful rappers. I will concede that being famous probably does make you atleast slightly more likely to die from a drug overdose or drug related health problems because you are around it heaps and can afford it.
 
Though he's still a heavy marijuana smoker, Snoop Dogg said he stopped drinking alcohol at clubs six years ago after suspecting that a woman put the sedative Rohypnol - widely known as a "date-rape drug" - in one of his drinks.

Wow, I'm amazed he was willing to admit this.
 
Never listened to Canibus and feel reluctant based on the fact he is stone cold sober

Canibus got kicked out of the army for smoking cannabis.
He has some amazing stuff but a lot of mediocre as well.

I prefer drug induced music of all kinds, dat creativity. I only discriminate against sober rappers that are preachy about everything.
 
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