Rick Ross‘s interview with “Big Boy’s Neighborhood” in 2019 went viral on social media on March 23 after a clip surfaced of the rapper describing a sexual encounter gone wrong. Ross opened up about passing out during sex with an unknown woman as well as at a red light while under the influence of codeine, a recreational drug beverage prepped by combining cough syrup, a soft drink and hard candy.
The rapper visited the radio show to promote his 10th studio album, “Port of Miami 2.” During the interview, Big Boy asked the “Hustlin'” emcee about his “85-to-90 pound” weight loss and what influenced him to take health seriously.
Ross said at the 22:48 mark of the interview that his health became a priority following his 2018 seizure, and the doctors were suggesting he take a number of medications. “For me, it was just a real situation where I had a health scare; I had a seizure, I had to go to the hospital, and I woke up. It was like yo, here go some medicine for this and here go some for this, and oh let me take your blood pressure, oh you hypertensive you almost two weeks from having high blood pressure…I just said right then I’m finna make some changes.”
Ross also mentioned he probably had a total of five to six seizures within the past several years because he was drinking codeine and wasn’t properly resting. “I may have had a total of maybe four to five, six over the last four or five years, right. But you know mine came from not getting rest and I was drinking codeine and not sleeping, and basically my body just shut down.”
Following his 2018 seizure, the lyricist found it important for him to cut back on “certain things that weren’t important,” including codeine, he said at the 25:49 mark of the interview. He said while talking about his terrible sexual experience with an unknown woman who thought he “died” during the act. “I couldn’t do it [codeine] no more. I had started falling asleep at the red light I was having sex before I woke up and the girl just so,” he said, describing the female as screaming and crying.
Ross added what solidified his stance on taking health seriously occurred when he went to his doctor’s appointment — following his health scare — and saw men older than him in the office. He said on mark 26:59 the silence and trying to figure out what each person was there for changed him.
“I remember the first time I really had a doctor’s appointment and I went in sat in the office and it might have been me and maybe eight or nine more older, much older people in the doctor’s office and I remember none of us spoke to each other, but we all was looking at each other and you know it was just one of those feelings. I just remember one dude, one older dude looking at me like he just gave me a look like ‘homie, you a baby; you got your whole life in front of you. You better get your s–t together.’ That was basically what I saw … I watched him and I just was like you know what you the boss homie you gotta make these changes without nobody forcing you.”
Some people expressed after viewing the resurfaced clip that the sexual experience gone wrong was something that could’ve been omitted from the interview. While others brought up how traumatizing it could’ve been for the woman involved.
“Some things you just take to the grave.”
“He Should’ve Kept That To Himself☠️.”
“We did not need to know this.”
“Nah that’s trauma.”
“Nah this scary as shit 😭😭😭😭.”
“Shit that would traumatize my ass.”
Ross suffered a seizure in February 2018 and was admitted to a Miami hospital after he was found unconscious in his nearby home. He was ultimately released a few days later, after rumors circulated that he was on his deathbed. The Maybach Music founder shared in his memoir “Hurricanes” released the following year that he wasn’t on life support and he didn’t suffer a heart attack, as it was previously reported.
Ross told PEOPLE while promoting his book that codeine and other things contributed to his seizure. “It was the codeine. That mixed with the things I was drinking, the other drugs I was doing and on top of not resting. [I don’t think] one particular thing would have killed me. But everything combined?”
Since then the rapper changed his diet and his resting habits.
