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Legendary MC and honorary A Tribe Called Quest member Consequence has revealed he has been diagnosed with lupus.

According to HipHopDx, the veteran MC announced his diagnosis to fans during a listening session for his new EP, Things Are Different Now, via Zoom on Monday (September 28). During the live streaming event, the “Disperse”, who had already been diagnosed previously with Type II diabetes, revealed that the diagnosis came after he couldn’t figure out what was going on with his health and feared it was COVID-19.

While explaining the significance of each song, it was while playing his single, “Lost In A Million”, when Consequence reportedly explained how he ultimately figured out he had lupus.

“Around October 2019, I was overseeing the mixes for Kanye’s Jesus Is King album and we stayed up wild late,” he said. “We was doing these listening sessions where we go to Detroit, Jamaica, taking wild flights. On the last flight, I got back to New York and then I shot a video for ‘Complex Con.’ Somewhere between the flight and Caiden had actually jumped on my back, I had developed a crink in my neck, which I thought would go away in a finger snap.”

But Cons was wrong — the pain reportedly “stuck around” causing the rapper to seek medical attention from his primary physician, who ultimately prescribed muscle relaxers which led to inflammation in his whole body.

“I was already Type II diabetic with no diabetes symptoms,” Consequence said. “I was subject to anything autoimmune-related. I went to Paris — I don’t want this to sound like rich n-gga problems because I almost died — but I’m flying from one jet from Los Angeles to Paris and Paris to Los Angeles, and I get to L.A. and I can’t fucking move. So I go to urgent care — and this is when COVID was first shaking — so I was was like, ‘F*ck, maybe I got COVID.’

“I’m in the urgent care and the lady is like I don’t know if we need to do the q-tip or not, so I’m like, ‘Let’s not do it.’ I went back to New York and stayed in the crib for like three weeks. Then the quarantine was actually in effect, and I started getting worse and worse and worse. I actually gotta thank Kim Kardashian ’cause it got the point I called Ye and he had her call me, and they set me up with an urgent care in Uptown ’cause it was not going away.”

It was then that Consequence was given a swab test and doctors discovered the accurate diagnosis of lupus, something he described as “your whole body being on fire.”

“All my cells were on fire and that’s why I couldn’t move and shit,” Consequence continued. “I was fucked up, never in my life fucked up like this. But God’s will is God’s will. Eventually, it was discovered what it was. Literally, I’m so fucking crazy I flew to Wyoming at 107 pounds. I put a picture up of me and Caiden’s birthday party and I was probably like a buck-fourteen, but I was happy because I worked to get to that because I got hit with a double whammy. My diabetes went from Type II to Type 1 with the lupus ’cause I had to take steroid that runs your sugar up. Because I didn’t know none of this shit, I was still eating the same shit and it was actually melting from the inside.”

The rapper also revealed that while he was fighting hard at gaining his weight back, it was the body-shaming that he suffered as a result of his dramatically thin appearance that lit the fire to push him to go forward and release music.

Despite wanting to jump back into music, Consequence revealed that he lost his voice for two months and the uncertainly of his condition had him facing death for the first time, adding that the health scare temporarily stripped away his courage and bravado, often leaving him in tears.

“I have what Dilla had and what Phife had as a combo Happy Meal [laughs],” Consequence said. “To be honest with you, I’m learning every day. I didn’t even know I would get my way back. I didn’t know I would get my strength back at all. So I’m definitely in a space where I’m taking everything literally a step at a time, a day at a time. I don’t know where their situations went wrong. I’m assuming a lot of it is diet ’cause I know with me, I’ve to reformulate how I eat about four times in the last two months. I’m fine ’cause I went through the adjustment period, but when I was first going through everything, it was like coming at me 100 miles per hour. I’m not going to lie, it was very, very difficult. It still is difficult.”

Since the diagnosis. Consequence has overcome the initial shock and focused on bettering his health. According to HipHopDx, the rapper has gained about 20 or 25 pounds and is now taking his medications, hitting the gym, and focusing on music.

Things Are Different Now EP is scheduled to b released on October 23.

Consequence Reveals Lupus Diagnosis  was originally published on hiphopwired.com