Bushwick Bill: Geto Boys rapper announces he has stage four pancreatic cancer

'It's not like I'm afraid of dying,' says Bushwick Bill

Bushwick Bill performs with the Geto Boys at the Growlers 6 festival at the LA Waterfront on 29 October, 2017 in San Pedro, California. ((Photo by Matt Cowan/Getty Images))

Rapper Bushwick Bill of the Texas hip hop group Geto Boys has announced that he has stage four pancreatic cancer.

Bushwick Bill, who joined the group in the 1980s as Little Billy, shared the diagnosis with TMZ on Wednesday.

He explained his doctors had found a mass on his pancreas, which couldn’t be explained by his diet or another possible medical condition.

Bushwick Bill – real name Richard Stephen Shaw – has told close family members about the diagnosis and said he was getting ready to tell his fellow Geto Boys members Scarface and Willie D.

“It’s not like I’m afraid of dying,” he added before referring to a 1991 incident during which he shot himself in the eye, which he recounts in the song “Ever So Clear”.

“I died and came back already in June 1991 so I know what it’s like on the other side,” Bushwick Bill said.

The 52-year-old rapper is now working on three albums, which he says he hopes provides residual income for his family.