The Hip-Hop Community needs to get real serious about it’s health and it’s future. For a genre that parties hard and rides everything till the wheels fall off, we need to go hard in other aspects of life, so we can stop saying “Gone Too Soon”.

We just lost Phife Dawg to Diabetes and he was 45. We lost Sean Price last August and he was 43. Then of course we can’t forget about Big Pun, Guru and Heavy D. All gone before the age of 50 years old.

All the smoking, drinking, drugs and no sleep is going to take a toll on any person. Add that to poor eating choices and we are all cutting our lives short. No man or woman is invincible and health scares are very real! I know it’s a process and some of us were truly raised to over indulge, “eat what’s in the house” or what was affordable and around the way, but as we get older, we definitely need to be conscious of our health, lifestyle and what we put in our bodies.

Blacks and hispanics especially need to start using our insurance on family doctors. I’m bad at this myself. If OTC or sleep can’t solve it, I let it linger. That’s a bad motto that I’m honestly trying to break. I know; All this stuff cost, but even if you can get 2-3 visits a year that’s 2-3 more times than you’ve probably went in the last 5.

Salute to Style P for putting Jucies for Life in the hood. We need more of those in our predominate black and hispanic communities across the nation. Salute to Dr. Ian Smith for doing Urban Radio to promote his book and TV shows and educating the hip-hop community on what to eat and how every little bit helps.

Respect to all the drug and drink free emcee’s out there and to the ones that stay in the gym and “Respect the temple”. We need them thrusted to the forefront more and we need to join in.

http://www.menshealth.com/video/ll-cool-j-0

Part of Hip-Hop living forever is our pioneers staying around a long time. We got to make sure our heroes are living till their 60’s and 70’s and beyond like many others.

Last year I started running and decrease my intake of fried food and fast food. I notice a big change. I don’t feel as sluggish as I used to and I can maintain weight better. I’m also trying to get a gallon of water in everyday. I buy water more and can keep a 6 pack of Sprite for 2 months. It’s all a process but I’m getting better every week. I wanted to share that just to be clear that I’m in this health struggle too! I have a young daughter and I want to live to see her be my age at least and have more kids. It’s got to start with making the right choices in streets and in the grocery stores.

Let get our health together hip-hop! Our future and our culture need us more than ever!