Legendary hip-hop star Erick Sermon is planning to lose weight and get healthy after he was struck down by a heart attack last week (ends13Nov11).
The EPMD star was admitted to hospital on Thursday (10Nov11) after suffering palpitations and crippling pains across the left side of his body.
Doctors told the rapper he made it to the emergency room just in time as he would have had a stroke had he waited any longer.
Speaking about his health scare, Sermon tells U.S. radio DJ Sway Calloway, "I sat on the sofa and I got two sharp pains on my left hand side. I started getting heart palpitations, like if you work out... I said, 'Let me go to the emergency room.'
"When I got there, as soon as I hit the door, my whole left side cramped up on me and the heart palpitations were going really, really fast. My blood pressure reading was 200 over 190.
"If I didn't make it there in time, I would have suffered a stroke first. Then I would have been in trouble. They did all these tests and figured out that the heart attack was a mild one."
Now the 42 year old is getting serious about slimming down and improving his health, while urging fans to look after their bodies too.
He says, "It doesn't matter what age you are. If you don't check your heart out, you could have something going on that you don't know about. There's so much stuff that interferes with your heart, as far as the food that you eat, if you're smoking, or drinking. That heart gets affected quick (sic).
"I'm 285 pounds. I've been 285 pounds since 2001. I want to take off the 30 pounds. I don't wanna be small but I know I wanna take off that weight."