Aging hip-hop stars say they are focusing on their health

51-year-old rapper Melle Mel says he suffers chronic bronchitis from being around marijuana and cigarette smoke when he was performing.

LOS ANGELES — Hip-hop may need a checkup.

The culture that in the 1990s lost its brightest stars to gun violence has in recent years seen a series of notable rappers die of drug and health-related causes. Since 2011, hip-pop pioneer Heavy D, singer and rap chorus specialist Nate Dogg and New York rapper Tim Dog all died of ailments in their 40s. Kriss Kross rapper Chris Kelly was found dead last week in Atlanta of a suspected drug overdose at 34.

Some of the genre's elder statesmen say they're worried about the culture's focus on youth, current emphasis on freewheeling partying and "you only live once" ethos, as popularized by Drake's 2011 hit "The Motto."

"Hip-hop being a lifestyle culture ... a part of American culture, you have to be mindful that somebody is going to grow old, age," said rap pioneer Melle Mel. "At some point somebody has to realize that hip-hop has to learn how to grow up. It's way too juvenile and it's been that way for too long."

The 51-year-old rapper, who memorably warned in 1982's "The Message" about urban youth who "lived so fast and died so young," said he suffers chronic bronchitis from being around marijuana and cigarette smoke when he was performing. Of course, heavy drug use in hip-hop or rock is hardly new: Cowboy of his Furious Five group died in 1989 "basically from getting high," Melle Mel said.

"It's not really worth it to literally party yourself to death. It's like committing suicide," he added. "You have to choose between what makes you feel good and what makes you think you feel good."

Other influential rappers who've died in their 30s in the last decade include Southern rap pioneer Pimp C and Wu-Tang Clan's Ol Dirty Bastard, both from drug overdose.

Lifestyle isn't to blame for all fatal health problems in hip-hop. Smooth-voiced Midwesterner MC Breed died of kidney failure in 2008 at age 37. Soulful producer J Dilla died in 2006 at age 32 of complications from lupus. Cancer killed rappers Guru in 2010 at 48 and Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys last year at 47.

One of the genre's top stars, Lil Wayne, has inadvertently focused attention on the issue. After he was hospitalized for multiple seizures, the 30-year-old rapper told a Los Angeles radio station in March that he's an epileptic.

As some of the genre's more well-known figures hit their late 30s and 40s, they've figured out ways to keep up appearances in public while also keeping their health. 50 Cent said he rarely drinks alcohol anymore. That "bottle full of bub" he's holding in nightclubs nowadays isn't what you think.

"I want to live a good long healthy life. So I'm health-conscious," the 37-year-old rapper-actor said. "You never see me drink. If you did see me with a bottle, it had ginger ale in it."

Though he's still a heavy marijuana smoker, Snoop Dogg said he stopped drinking alcohol at clubs six years ago after suspecting that a woman put the sedative Rohypnol — widely known as a "date-rape drug" — in one of his drinks.

"I used to drink alcohol as a fashion statement. If you in the club, they bringing you bottles, bringing you drinks. And you're just drinking because you're drinking. I don't do that anymore. I drink water or cranberry juice," he said. "I'm not cheap. I just don't want to do this to my body anymore. I want to survive."