(CelebrityAccess) — Bushwick Bill, one of the founding members of the seminal Houston rap collective Geto Boys, revealed to TMZ that he was suffering from stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
According to TMZ, the 52-year-old artist, whose real name is Richard Shaw, was diagnosed in February and is currently undergoing treatment, but said it was too early to make a prognosis.
However, Shaw told TMZ that he plans to keep working to regain his health but noted that he’s not afraid of death.
Shaw joined the group in 1986 as “Little Billy” a dancer, but quickly made a name for himself alongside William “Willie D” Dennis and Brad “Scarface” Jordan as one of the group’s most recognized members.
Shaw was also featured on the cover of the band’s 1991 album “We Can’t Be Stopped” which shows Shaw in the hospital after shooting himself in the eye in a drunken altercation with his girlfriend.
“It still hurts me to look at that cover because that was a personal thing I went through… I still feel the pain from the fact I’ve got a bullet in my brain… I think it was pretty wrong to do it, even though I went along with the program at first,” he told Brian Coleman in 2007.
