Erick Sermon Recalls 'Pains' Before Heart Attack
'Go out there and check yourself, it don't matter which age you are,' 42-year-old EPMD rap vet tells 'Sway in the Morning.'

By Rob Markman

Rap veteran Erick Sermon is on the road to recovery after suffering a mild heart attack last week, he tells MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway.

The EPMD rapper/producer called into Shade 45's "Sway in the Morning" radio show on Tuesday (November 15) and described to listeners how things unfolded. After recording a track last Wednesday, the Green-Eyed Bandit was relaxing when he started to feel discomfort.

"I sat on the sofa and I got two sharp pains on my left-hand side," Sermon, 42, told Sway from the hospital where he has been recovering for the past five days.

The platinum producer didn't think much of the pain, though, and instead of seeking help, just shifted to a better position on the couch and kept watching TV. The next afternoon, Sermon began experiencing the pains in his side again and decided to head to the hospital. "When I got there, as soon as I hit the door, my whole left side cramped up on me and the heart palpitations started going really fast again and I started to get the pains again," he recalled.

The Long Island, New York, rap star seemed to have taken action just in the nick of time. According to Sermon, his blood pressure was "200 over 190," and if he would've waited much longer, things could have gotten far more serious.

"If I didn't get there in time, I would've suffered a stroke first, then I really would've been in trouble," he said."So when I got to the emergency room, they did all these tests and said that the heart attack was a mild one."

Sermon's health scare came just days after another hip-hop icon, Heavy D, died suddenly. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the 44-year-old rapper/actor's death. And in October, Rick Ross had his own health issues, suffering two seizures in one day; the Miami rapper has slowly been getting back into the swing of things.

Sermon, who is still in the hospital after undergoing a procedure to unclog his arteries, warned listeners to take their health seriously. "Go out there and check yourself, it don't matter which age you are," he urged.

With health in hip-hop becoming such an important topic of late, rapper N.O.R.E. will stop by "RapFix Live" on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET to discuss the steps he's taken to shed pounds and live healthy. Ross and Meek Mill will also check in on this week's live stream.

Tune in to "Sway in the Morning," on SiriusXM Radio's Shade 45, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon ET.