10:32 PM
Joell Ortiz Connects Healthy Living, Overweight Emcees & Hip Hop's Marketing
10:32 PMExclusive: Joell Ortiz details his lifestyle changes, how it affects his music and why you should opt for fruits and veggies instead of Ne...
Exclusive: Joell Ortiz details his lifestyle
changes, how it affects his music and why you should opt for fruits and
veggies instead of Newports during your next bodega visit.
During a casual listen, it sounds like Joell Ortiz is having a great time on his 2007 single, “Brooklyn Bullshit.” “So what I ask for an ace on your cigarette / On the first and third I’m happy ‘cause all the fiends get a check,” he rhymed. But by his own admission, Joell says that behind the jovial talk of chipping in for a bag of weed and buying beers on credit was an excellently crafted rhyme about essentially poisoning himself with an unhealthy lifestyle.
“I was living what you call the rock star life—nightlife heavy, and diners at 5:00 or 6:00 am,” Joell explained. “I was eating cheeseburger deluxes and things of that nature and just not taking care of myself.”
Despite the preventable deaths of emcees such as DJ Screw and Big Pun, living a healthy lifestyle has long been one of Hip Hop’s taboo topics for some. Conventional thinking holds that we would rather have our favorite emcees healthy so they are around longer. Granted this isn’t new territory, as artists such as 50 Cent, dead prez and others have released products to help incorporate their own healthy lifestyles with their musical careers and business interests. But in the wake of New Year’s resolutions of shedding weight and living better—resolutions that often don’t make it to March—Joell Ortiz lays out a non-preachy blueprint for a balanced way of living. The Brooklyn emcee is considered dope by many regardless of his weight. But here, he explains how he woke up one fall morning in 2012 and decided to change his way of living.
Joell Ortiz Speaks On Changing His Lifestyle & How It Affects His Music
HipHopDX: What does September 3, 2012 mean to you?
Joell Ortiz: Oh, I woke up that day, and a long time before that day I tried doing the same
“I was living what you call the rock star life—nightlife heavy, and diners at 5:00 or 6:00 am,” Joell explained. “I was eating cheeseburger deluxes and things of that nature and just not taking care of myself.”
Despite the preventable deaths of emcees such as DJ Screw and Big Pun, living a healthy lifestyle has long been one of Hip Hop’s taboo topics for some. Conventional thinking holds that we would rather have our favorite emcees healthy so they are around longer. Granted this isn’t new territory, as artists such as 50 Cent, dead prez and others have released products to help incorporate their own healthy lifestyles with their musical careers and business interests. But in the wake of New Year’s resolutions of shedding weight and living better—resolutions that often don’t make it to March—Joell Ortiz lays out a non-preachy blueprint for a balanced way of living. The Brooklyn emcee is considered dope by many regardless of his weight. But here, he explains how he woke up one fall morning in 2012 and decided to change his way of living.
Joell Ortiz Speaks On Changing His Lifestyle & How It Affects His Music
HipHopDX: What does September 3, 2012 mean to you?
Joell Ortiz: Oh, I woke up that day, and a long time before that day I tried doing the same
