Big Pun dies

Why it matters

Big Pun's heart attack on February 7, 2000, was the result of a chronic obesity-and-cardiac condition his cardiologists had been warning him about for at least two years. He had tried to lose weight. He had failed to lose weight. By the end he was approximately 700 pounds and not able to walk distances. He died at 28. The specific detail of weight does not erase the rap. The rap is the part that matters. Pun's breath control was almost paradoxical given his body: he could ride extended multi-syllabic-rhyme passages on a single breath that most lighter-bodied MCs could not match. He had been planning his second LP (eventually released posthumously as Yeeeah Baby) and a Terror Squad group album. The deaths of Big L (February 1999) and Big Pun (February 2000) within twelve months took two of the most technically gifted New York MCs of the late 90s out of the conversation. The Bronx specifically lost almost an entire generation between Pun and L. You can hear what was about to come on the Pun verses he did manage to record. You cannot hear what he was going to write at 32. He was 28.