Video: Pharoahe Monch Writes Song About his Chronic Asthma

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*Rapper Pharoahe Monch, best known for his 1999 hit “Simon Says,” says he’s been battling a chronic asthma condition ever since he was a baby, and is just now going public with his health struggle after rapping about it his new single “Still Standing.”

Monch, diagnosed with the illness at 13 months old, tells XXLMag.com, “I didn’t know until I got older (that) you can’t do this or that as a kid, don’t run too fast because you might induce an asthma attack. It affects everything you do in terms of being a kid…

“I wanted to be a little bit more introspective on this song. I want to show the personal war that we go through. This is sort of a battle I deal with myself. It’s a battle for me every day with asthma. I have to eat right, exercise and go to the gym in order to stay healthy.”

But Monch, real name Troy Jamerson , admits the song almost didn’t get finished – he suffered an asthma attack shortly after recording collaborator Jill Scott’s vocals for the track and had to be briefly hospitalized.

Listen to the track below.