CALIFORNIA, United States, Monday March 18, 2013 – Amidst rumours that Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Wayne was in a coma and near death, his record label’s publicist said that he had suffered a seizure and was recovering.
While acknowledging reports of a medical issue, members of the New Orleans’ artist’s camp have strongly denied rumours that he was near death.
“Don’t believe the nonsense about comas and tubes to breathe … that’s false!!” tweeted Mack Maine, the president of Lil Wayne’s Young Money label, on Friday night.
Declining to go into detail, Maine revealed only that he and Lil Wayne had been watching the Syracuse University Orange play Georgetown in the Big East men’s basketball tournament.
“Wayne is alive and well!” the record label president posted on Twitter.
His statement was echoed by the rapper’s independent publicist Kia Selby, who said only, “Lil Wayne is doing well.” She shot down rumours that he was in a medically induced coma, as reported by celebrity website TMZ.
Twitter was bombarded with rumours, spreading fears of the worst for Wayne’s condition, but a Tweet purported to be authored by the rapper attempted to calm the storm.
“I’m good everybody,” read the message from Lil Wayne’s Twitter account. “Thnx for the prayers and love.”
Word of the severity of the hip-hop entertainer’s seizure was so rife that fellow rapper Drake arrived at the Los Angeles hospital where Lil Wayne was being treated, accompanied by an entourage of Wayne’s friends. They pulled up chairs in the hallway near his room and set up a vigil, according to a CNN report.
The public relations department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Los Angeles hospital where the rapper was reportedly undergoing treatment, neither confirmed nor denied that Wayne was a patient there.
Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Carter, is one of rap’s most successful artists. He won best rap album for “Tha Carter III” at the 2008 Grammy Awards, going on to bag another three the following year. Last September, Billboard reported that the rapper had tallied 109 hits on its Hot 100, surpassing the record previously held by Elvis Presley.