In 2018, rapper Rick Ross made headlines not for his music but for reports that he had suffered a heart attack. Ross, in fact, had had a seizure, an experience he details in his newly released memoir, Hurricanes, People reports.

Ross said his hospitalization in March 2018, which he attributes to a number of factors—including drug abuse—inspired him to write the book.

He said his recreational use of the prescription opioid medication codeine and other substances, including alcohol, as well as a lack of rest contributed to his seizure. “[I don’t think] one particular thing would have killed me,” Ross notes in his memoir. “But everything combined?”

Ross has a history of seizures. The rapper says he refused to follow doctors’ orders and avoided taking his medication for lengthy periods of time to prove he was stronger than other people.

As a result, he says, “I ended up back in the hospital in a worse condition.”

People published an excerpt in which Ross describes being unable to breathe properly and going to take a shower after telling a friend who was with him to turn away police and paramedics who arrived to help him. Ross writes about the ordeal:

I’d been through this before. I’d be straight. But then I started coughing up blood in the shower. That had never happened before.

 

At that point Tomcat said I needed to go to the hospital. Short Legs came and took me to the closest one, where the doctors discovered I had aspiration pneumonia. Something had gotten into my lungs while I was having the seizure and caused an infection. I was sedated and hooked up to a breathing machine.

Since then, Ross has made major dietary and lifestyle changes. He’s no longer abusing codeine and has stopped drinking soda. Now, he downs lots of water, eats vegetables and gets plenty of rest.

On August 9, Ross released his 10th album, Port of Miami 2. He’s also at work on the upcoming sequel to Coming to America. “There’s nothing for me to complain about,” says the busy recording artist. “I’m just living and being much more genuine.”

Click here to learn how epilepsy caused actor Cameron Boyce’s fatal seizure.