Legendary rapper Busta Rhymes is opening up about experiencing a wake up call to lose weight after suffering an “asthma attack” following sex.
After dropping more than 100 pounds over the last few years, 51-year-old Busta Rhymes speaks with Men’s Health magazine for the new cover story recognizing the 50th year of Hip-Hop; and aside from talking about keeping his lyrical form in tip-top shape, he also talked about his physical.
The “Break Ya Neck” rapper opened up about his weight loss and wellness journey, and specifically revealed what compelled him to take his health more seriously. He is crediting his major weight loss to having experienced some post-coital breathing issues.
Before we get into the story of Busta’s wake up call to lose weight, he explained how he stays fit after being asked, “How did you keep in such great shape in your early career?” He admitted, “I think I stay in better shape now, because I was in horrible shape in 2018 and 2019. I never been as heavy as I was in my life until that time. I was about 340 pounds, and I was having all kinds of ailments happen.”
He continued, “Like blood pressure was becoming serious, and I ain’t like the way I was sounding when I would just sit in the backseat and my driver was driving me around and I was just breathing. So, I ain’t want to go through that sh*t no more. I think the a** beating that it took for like two years to get that weight off is why I do everything that I can to keep it off.”
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Among those ailments he experienced when he was heavier was something that felt like an asthma attack, that he experienced after going to pound town with his now-ex.
He said, “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 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.”
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He continued to describe the moment as something like a “mindf**k,” adding that he was trying to keep himself calm while not letting his then-ex know something was wrong. When he got his breathing under control, he said the woman checked him about his weight, not even knowing that he’d experienced some type of breathing attack after sex.
He recalled, “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 was slim, you was cut, you had your sh*t right. I need you to get back to who I fell in love with.’”
Following his breathing attack after sex, Busta said he had another wake up call about a day or two later when he went to give his son a pound and the boy slapped him on the stomach instead. He said, “[Even though] he was just being funny, 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.'”
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