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It's been a few weeks now and it looks like everything is back to normal. After suffering two seizures, Rick Ross is back on his grind, we seem to be healing from losing Heavy D, and Eric Sermon has assured everybody he's alright after suffering a heart attack. However, there's something that hip hop really needs to take away from all of this that really hasn't been addressed in our culture...health.

While Heavy D and Eric Sermon's cases may not have been as evident, Rick Ross has spoken openly about the causes for his seizures - mainly sleep. "Grindin'" has always been a staple of hip hop. Ask any person that has had any success what the key is, and they'll attribute it to the grind. People always talk about how they gave their all to their dreams, sacrificing many things to get what they wanted, especially sleep.

Although sacrifices do need to be made, and there will be some nights where you get less sleep, we need to start pay attention to how our lifestyles and choices affect our long-term health. There is no point in doing all the work for all the spoils and we aren't able to enjoy them. I fight this on a constant basis myself. Even as I write this, I knowthat my schedule doesn't allow for a lot of sleep, but I constantly tell myself that it's simply the price I have to pay for success. There will be times when I find things to work on and stay up until the early hours of the morning because I want to feel like I'm being productive instead of wasting time away by sleeping. However, I'm trying to make more of an effort to go to sleep and find better times to do work because I feel the lack of sleep wearing on me.

I think we take our youth and health for granted. Hip Hop and the people in it are all still young. We haven't seen the effects of the lifestyles we choose to live, but eventually these things catch up. Rick Ross was just a glimpse of what can happen when we don't take care of ourselves, but I'm not sure how serious people really took it. This goes for more than just sleep, too. Although sleep is the focus of this blog because of hip hop's approach to the grind, this also goes for all other things that affect our health: diet, heavy drinking/smoking, exercise, etc.

New artist Rapsody (check her out if you haven't already) has a song on her Thank Her Now mixtape called "Sky Fallin' (My Mind)" in which she talks about her journey to where she is now and how she only slept three hours a night. Similar stories can probably be found amongst most people that are successful, but one question still remains - is it necessary? In the case of Rapsody, perhaps it was. She documents how she went to work, went home for a little while, and then headed to the studio to knock out tracks before getting ready for work the following day. Maybe her schedule didn't allow for much sleep if she was going to focus on her passion, but for many of us, that isn't the case. We constantly talk about losing sleep in the name of working, but spend countless hours doing other things that prevent us from being productive. We try to fit as many things into our day as possible and so instead of sacrificing time with our friends, watching sports, going to the movies, etc., we choose to sacrifice rest and rejuvenating our bodies so we can be more productive the following day.

I think part of us thrives on being able to function on little sleep and still become successful. It's just part of that story we're able to tell. When we finally make it and we get to let people know about what it took to make it, we have come to glamorize lack of rest. It is supposed to somehow prove how dedicated we are. Yet, if we want to remain sharp and live long, prosperous lives with as few complications as possible, we will have to learn how to better manage our time so that we can stay on the grind and still get enough sleep at night. Let's make sure that we not only work hard and gain success, but that we take care of ourselves so that we spend more time enjoying the success than we did working for it.

What do you think about the idea of grinding in hip hop? Has health been sacrificed? Is sleep overrated? Leave all thoughts and comments below. Send any e-mails to straightouttahiphop@gmail.com.

Peace.