One of the founding members of legendary rap group Geto Boys has announced he’s battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
In an interview with TMZ, Bushwick Bill made the revelation that he was diagnosed in February and is currently undergoing intensive chemotherapy treatments.
“We see a mass on your pancreas and we can’t understand it,” the 52-year-old rapper recalled. “It’s not alcohol, it’s not sugar, it’s not diabetes. They went through all kinds of stuff. And finally, by February 8, they said it was stage 4 [pancreatic] cancer.”
He asserts that it’s too early to tell how his body is responding to chemotherapy, but that he has no fears about what lies ahead.
“I figure keeping it to myself is not really helping nobody, and I’m not really afraid of dying because if anyone knows anything about me from [his 1992 song] ‘Ever So Clear,’ I died and came back already in June 1991, so I know what it’s like on the other side,” he said, referencing the incident in which he accidentally shot himself in the eye.
But should he lose his cancer battle, the “Who’s the Biggest” rapper has a contingency plan in place.
“The reason why I’m doing three albums right now is because I notice when most celebrities pass, they really don’t have nothing set up for their children and everything’s in disarray,” he said. “So, I figure old music will sell, yes, but if I have new music for them and I have a book and I have a documentary and I have any other endeavors that I get into now, at least they’ll have residual income from those things instead of just knowing that I’m their dad and my old records are selling. I’d rather just know for sure that I did my part.”
You can watch his interview with TMZ in its entirety below.