Rapper “Trick Daddy” revealed on The Rickey Smiley Morning Show today (March 23) to promote his autobiography Magic City: Trials of a Native Son.
During the interview, he made the shocking revelation that he suffers from Lupus, an incurable autoimmune disease, which makes the immune system attacks the body’s cells and tissue.
Lupus affects all major organs in the human body, including the heart, kidneys and nervous system.
“I went to the doctor like 12 years ago. He took all kinds of tests, because I was tryin
g to get rid of what we call dry skin, she did biopsies and blood tests and swab tests. She told me I have lupus. I am allergic highly to the sun, that’s my worst enemy. It’s like an AK-47 with a double clip on it. I could jeopardize kidney and liver failure from the treatment and the medication.”
The disease, which affects African-American and Hispanics in disproportionate numbers, particularly women.
The rapper also learned that a close female friend had the disease, when he noticed a visible change in her appearance.
“A lot of people try to cover it up with regular make up. It makes your skin pigmented. You can go from dark to light and not light to dark. You have to cover it up and conceal it…my mama had 11 children from 10 different men. If she can live with that I know, I can live with this.”
The disease has already taken the life of prominent Hip-Hop producer James “J. Dilla” Yancey, who died from complications of the disease on February 19, 2006, just three days after his 32nd birthday. source
This is really sad news. I have a friend who has been suffering from Lupus from childhood thru adulthood (more than 30 years) and is still alive and kicking it today even after going through two kidney transplants. Another friend who died within a year of aquiring the disease, so apparently it affects people differently. Prayers for Trick Daddy, I’m sure with his positive attitude, he can be one of the stronger ones fighting this battle. Everything is literally a state of mind.
UPDATED 3/31/2009: Trick Daddy recently spoke with hophipdx and says that he has stopped all treatment of the disease that could kill him. At this point, I’m not really sure if I’m mad at him being that as much as I hate to say it, the doctor is not always right. If anybody knows your body, it’s you.
“I stopped taking any medicine that they was giving me,” Trick told DX, “because for every medicine they gave me I had to take a test or another medicine every thirty days or so to make sure that medicine wasn’t causing side effects – dealing with kidney or liver failure…I just said all together I ain’t taking no medicine.”
Trick was initially using expensive prescription sunscreen to protect his skin (that he explained was “greasy or oily and uncomfortable”), and taking cortisone shots to treat lesions that appeared on his body.
“If there’s one thing I want people to know, do not accept those steroid shots for [lesion] flare ups,” said Trick of the cortisone injections. “They leave scarring. They leave indentations in your skin. Trust me. I used to get these shots in my face and in my beard. So I let my hair grow…’cause the breakouts are in the hairy areas more so than other [areas]. So I [grew a] beard, [but] after awhile I was like, ‘F*** it, I’ll just shave…’”
“With my friends I joke about me having to always look in the mirror and make sure my face ain’t too f***** up,” said Trick of how he copes with his own symptoms. “Or, I joke about me forgetting that I can’t go outside with my tank top on… I learned as a kid to joke about my mama being on welfare, and to joke about our lights was off, and to joke about all those things. ‘Cause if I can laugh at it, then you couldn’t make me cry about it.”
[mashshare]
