HIP-HOP’S STATE OF

EMERGENCY: OUR HEALTH CRISIS

State of Union Address to

the Hip-Hop Generation by Supa Nova Slom, The Hip Hop Medicine Man

Part I: “Hip-Hop Is Dying”

Dear Hip-Hop Generation:

This

is a call to my fellow hip-hop artists, community, and generation at large:

WAKE UP!!! HIP-HOP IS DYING!!!! IT IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND WE ARE IN AN

URGENT HEALTH CRISIS! HIP-HOP ARTISTS ARE DYING, OUR FAMILIES ARE DYING, AND

THE HIP-HOP GENERATION IS THE FIRST GENERATION THAT MAY NOT OUT LIVE THEIR

PARENTS!!!

As

we mourn the passing of hip-hop icon Guru, I challenge all of his peers and

fans to not let his death be in vain. 

There is no reason that Guru and so many others under 45 should be

passing away at the rates they are. 

Every MC, B-Boy, DJ, Graf Artist, sista in the club, college student,

brutha on the corner, G, and hustler is personally suffering from or knows

someone battling cancer, arthritis, diabetes, asthma, hypertension, obesity, or

one of many other illnesses, most of which are caused or worsened by the foods

eat. 

Don’t

think for one minute your aunties, big mamas, and parents are the only ones

battling these sicknesses. The entire African-American and Latino communities

lead in all the statistics for all of these crippling diseases and people under

40 are being hit at younger and younger ages.  According to the Office of Minority health, about one in

four African-American women are overweight or obese and nearly 20% of

African-American children ages 6-17 are termed obese.  This is means that 20% of our children are at high risk for

high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and a slew of other obesity

associated diseases.

It

is the fast food and over-processed pre-packaged US food culture that has

driven us to this place and if we do not act soon we may not be able to turn

back.  You still think this does

not apply to you or perhaps you just need some extra reinforcement. Read the

list below of mainstream celebrities who have battled major life threatening

health conditions:

MC Breed- Dead at 37- Kidney Failure

J. Dilla- Dead at 32- Cardiac Arrest

Big Pun- Dead at 28- Heart Attack

Nate Dogg- 40- 2 Strokes at 38- Partially Paralyzed

Alonzo Mourning- 40- Kidney Disease: Kidney Transplant

at age 33

Missy Elliot-38 High Blood Pressure- Takes Pills Daily

Ghostface killa- 39 Diagnosed at 26 with Type 1

Diabetes

Lil Boosie – diagnosed at age 20 with Diabetes-

Takes insulin 3 times a day

Phife Dawg- 39- Type 1 Diabetes and Has Had a Kidney

Transplant

Angie Stone- 48-Type 2 Diabetes and High Blood

Pressure

Halle Berry- 43- Type 1 Diabetes

This

is only a short list of famous people who have disclosed their health status to

the public and it clearly shows you don’t have to be old, poor, overweight, or

living in the hood to be sick. 

Beyond being a hip-hop artist, I am a second-generation holistic health

advocate.  I have traveled on the

road with Erykah Badu as her wellness consultant and over the years I have

encountered countless celebrities dealing with minor and major ailments.  On the personal front I am sick and

tired of losing young people and reading outlandish statistics.  At this point NOBODY IS EXEMPT.  Everyone is vulnerable to these

diseases and unless we make some immediate major changes to incorporate

healthier eating habits and lifestyle practices we may not live to see 50. 

If

you are living on the American diet YOU TOO ARE A WALKING TICKING TIME BOMB

ready to explode at any moment for the build up of fast food, fried foods,

candy, sodas, sugar drinks, chemical additives and I am talking to you in this

letter. Most people know McDonalds, Popeyes, Wendy’s, Snickers, Twix, etc. are

bad for them but they continue to eat them every single day so I ask everyone

at what point are we going to wake up!!!

People’s

number one excuse is eating healthy cost too much but yet most of these are the

same people that spend hundreds of dollars on Jordans, Coach, Prada, car rims

and other material indulgences. 

When we tell these same people who may buy two or three bottles in the

club to go buy a juicer they say it is too expensive or laugh it off.  Our priorities are horribly messed up

when it comes to spending money and taking care of ourselves.  People care more about what they look

like from the outside then they do about how their bodies feel on the

inside.  They are more concerned

with being able to participate in the Pass the Courvoisier Blame it on the

Alcohol lifestyle than learning to do away with the same sicknesses that force

them to take medication daily. 

They would rather invest in overly expensive shoes than work to prevent

diabetes that could one day lead to amputations and no options to wear shoes.

I

recently wrote a book called The Remedy: The Five-Week Power Plan to Detox

Your System, Combat the Fat, and Rebuild Your Mind and Body.  It is

the first comprehensive wellness book written with the hip-hop generation in

mind and features testimonies by Melyssa Ford, Hype Williams, Tyson Beckford,

Erykah Badu, Chuck D., and Jim Jones sharing simple things they do to maintain

healthy active lives.  I provide

the step-by-step plan to remedy your body and work to prevent future sickness

thru diet, exercise, and positive thinking.  In this Hip-Hop’s State of Emergency series I will share

some of these easy to incorporate tips and tools that can change your entire

life with small things like drinking water and eating green vegetables.  For all of you who think it costs too

much money I will provide inexpensive meal plans and easy to make home remedies.

Big

Pun passed we didn’t take heed. 

Nate Dogg had two strokes and not much was said. When we lost J. Dilla

finally people started to show some concern and when Phife Dawg exposed his

battle with diabetes, people began to realize there is an issue but still no

one has effectively challenged our generation on a widespread scale to reclaim

our wellness at every level.  Today

I challenge every one of you to stand up and take charge of your own

health. 

We

have just lost Guru and the entire hip-hop community is in mourning.  Let’s take the opportunity to seize the

time before we find ourselves back here again with the next artist or family

member dying too early and too soon. In the midst of street beefs, egotism,

misogyny, disunity, and materialism I call for unity amongst us all on the

issue of survival and health.  It’s

about time we get sick and tired of being sick and tired and DO SOMETHING.  In the memory of Guru let’s all get

GANGSTARR for our health and wellness.

If

you have any questions I invite you to email me at [email protected].

I am here to help you along your journey to saving our lives and becoming

wellness warriors.  The time is

now! 

Salute!

Supa Nova Slom

The Hip-Hop Medicine Man

  Supa Nova Slom is an author, artist, and activist from Brooklyn, NY.  Between his music and wellness

platforms he has worked with artists such as Erykah Badu, Jadakiss, The Game,

Ice-T, Common, and many more. 

He recently released a new song called, “Tastes So Good.” One-third of The Cosnarati, the hip-hop group Bill Cosby assembled and

executive produced, Supa Nova Slom is making a profound mark on music, culture,

and wellness. For more on The Remedy Book and Supa Nova Slom’s Five-Week Power

Plan to Detox Your System, Combat the Fat, and Rebuild Your Mind and Body

please visit www.theremedybook.com.

[Original Source]I’m not a whistle-blower, rat or any other term synonymous with snitch. With that said the following stories shall leave the guilty nameless. My agenda here is to crystallize my point, not expose wack behavior. Before I state my premise I’ll first explain my need to.

 Last month I received an assignment to interview a celebrity who was known as one of the best in their field but today remains a couple years shaded from limelight. Six weeks later I’m in the fallen star’s hometown discovering their delusion. His perception of his market value is a mis-perception. His goals are unrealistic because his plans to achieve them are unrealistic. It was a sad but educational day for me. The experience drove home (millionth time) that I should avoid meeting my heroes. They almost always disappoint.

Like in 2001 when I got hated on by a couple of the game’s top writers. At the time, one of ‘em was in my scribe top five. I was a pup. Had only gone pro two years prior. Somehow I managed to gain notoriety for a “fearless” interview style. Rolling Stone named me the “Hot Interviewer” in their famed “Hot Issue.” I get a call from the top 5 writer. Flattery quickly dissolved as the wordsmith began babbling about discussing my Rolling Stone profile with another esteemed writer. He wanted to contact me before anyone who overheard the conversation did first. I quickly deciphered: both writers were hating on me because I received such a huge publishing nod at such a ripe age. So ex-top 5 wanted to cop an early (guilty) plea. Diesel fuel­­––I got bigger. They got smaller.

The older heroes are indeed the biggest letdowns. They’re bitter, insecure and thus jealous of threatening youth. I began learning this when I interviewed one of the ‘90’s best producers in the new millennium. He was a full season cooler than the hottest producers at that time and vocal about it. He took subliminal shots at a few trackmasters and even called out a couple production prodigies. Welp, one of those prodigies had a very thorough family. The legendary got stepped to immediately and from what the young producer told me buckled like ‘Lo boots. Mr. Legend then phoned me, ignorant to my knowledge of his buckling, claiming he was misquoted. Refusing to waste words on wackness I simply put the recorder to the phone and played his words back to him.

The cake was taken, though, when I met one of my all-time favorite MCs. If I followed any scripture as a teen it was his rhyme book. It was still very early in my career and this rapper was on the brink of a rap beef. So guess who got sent to Miami to see if dude wanted to draw first blood? I found myself face-to-face with my hero, separated only by the table inside his trailer, my recorder and a fifth of Hennessy. As the bottle got lighter my questioning became more relentless. His answers produced more platitudes. I got my story––not a home run (rapper kept buntin’) but a winner. Then a week after our sit down the rapper began blowing up my two-way. It’s after 1am on a Saturday morning, I’m in a club and he’s requesting I keep his comments about 50 Cent and Prodigy out of the cover story. Mind you, I was celebrating my birthday. My respect for him never made it past age 24.

 Now how many of y’all have been disappointed by a hero? And can you guess the identities of my former heroes? Bonsu Thompson, The Rolling Stone 2001 “Hot Interviewer” has penned for mags like Details, XXL, Penthouse, SLAM and KING as well as notable brands such as MTV, VH1, Rocawear and Translation. Wanna keep up with the Brooklyn scribe? Follow him via Twitter.com/DreamzRreal