Rick Ross’ Family, Friends Deny Life Support Reports

Rick Ross’ family is denying reports that the rapper is on life support following health complications and, possibly, even a heart attack.

The story started in the early hours of Thursday morning, when someone reportedly called 911 from Ross’ Miami mansion. According to TMZ, a person matching Ross’s description was found unresponsive, though they regained consciousness and became combative.

They were taken to an area hospital to be treated for respiratory issues. The outlet reported on Friday that Ross had been placed on a life support machine to replace the function of his heart and lungs.

When contacted in the evening, Ross’ family reportedly denied this claim. Not only that, they denied that the 42-year-old rapper was hospitalized at all, despite the reports from law enforcement and the hospital records obtained by The Blast and People. However, Ross’ ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child told PEOPLE to “pray for him.”

Fellow rapper Fat Trel addressed the health concerns in an Instagram post. He seemed to confirm that Ross was in the hospital recovering from something, though he too denied the life support factor.

“JUS TALKED 2 MY BIG HOMIE,” Trel wrote. “HE GOOD… HE IN DA HOSPITAL BUT HE IS NOT ON ‘LIFE SUPPORT’… HE GOOD.”

Ross has faced health concerns for many years. In October of 2011, he suffered from two seizures in one day, both on separate flights. He blamed the episode on sleep deprivation, but shortly after he began making drastic changes to his lifestyle and diet. Altogether, Ross lost 100 pounds.

Ross discussed his shift into healthy living in an interview with Men’s Health in September of 2016.

“I’m happy,” Ross said. “I’m still losing weight, and now I’m starting to build hard muscle in places.”

“If I quit all the things I loved cold turkey, I knew it would only be so long before I went back to my old ways,” Ross continued. “My advice for anyone looking to lose weight is to not make it feel like a job.”

Ross is an embattled figure in the hip-hop world. While he’s made some of the biggest gangsta rap hits of the last two decades, his authenticity has been called into question for years. In July of 2008, a website called The Smoking Gun published a photograph of Ross working as a correctional officer.

While the rapper’s lyrics are all about running a criminal empire and being an outlaw, he spent at least 18 months working for a prison. He later admitted that he’d taken the job to feed his family.