Christopher Lee Rios (November 10, 1971 - February 7, 2000), known professionally as Big Pun (short for Big Punisher), was an influential American rapper. His untimely death at the age of 28 shocked the hip-hop community and brought attention to his long-standing battle with obesity. This article explores Big Pun's life, his rise to fame, his struggles with weight, and the methods he employed to combat it.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Born to Puerto Rican parents in the South Bronx, New York City, Christopher Lee Rios had a turbulent childhood. Despite these challenges, Rios was an avid reader and enjoyed playing basketball and boxing. As a teenager, he experienced a period of homelessness and became a father at a young age. At 18, Rios weighed 180 pounds. From then on, the rapper’s weight became the center of his insecurities - and it eventually led to Big Pun’s death. Rios struggled with depression stemming from his turbulent childhood, and he coped with it by overeating.
Big Pun's music career began in the late 1980s. In the early '90s, he adopted the name Big Moon Dog and formed a rap group called the Full-A-Clips Crew. He later changed his stage name to Big Punisher, eventually shortened to Big Pun.
Rise to Fame
Big Pun's big break came in 1995 when he was featured on Fat Joe's second album. He then joined up with a group of Latino rappers known as the Terror Squad. In 1997, Big Pun began recording songs for his debut album Capital Punishment. Suitably impressed, the rapper hired Knobody to remix "I'm not a Player". The remixed song, featuring Joe and titled "Still Not a Player", became Big Pun's first major mainstream hit and major breakthrough for Knobody. However, his real success began when he released his first album, Capital Punishment, in 1998. The album became the first album by a solo Hispanic rapper to go platinum and topped the R&B/hip-hop charts and sold more than two million copies, making Big Pun the first Latino rapper to go platinum. Big Pun became a member of Terror Squad, a New York-based group of rappers founded by Fat Joe, with most of the roster supplied by the now-defunct Full-A-Clips who released their debut album The Album in 1999.
Big Pun was proud of his Puerto Rican heritage and became an icon within his community. Weighing around 400 pounds at the time of the album’s release, Big Pun grew heavier as he became more successful.
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Weight Struggles and Attempts at Weight Loss
Rios struggled with weight issues his entire adult life. At 18, he weighed 180 pounds (82 kg), which increased to 300 pounds (140 kg) at 21. His weight fluctuated in the early 1990s between obese and morbidly obese.
By 1999, Big Pun's friends and fellow rappers were deeply concerned about his obesity. They urged him to enroll in a diet program run by Duke University, and he lost nearly 100 pounds. He reportedly responded to the life’s stresses by eating more and became overweight. However, he quickly regained all of the weight and more.
Big Pun's wife, Liza Rios, later explained that he was severely depressed and constantly eating behind closed doors, trying to hide his struggles from his friends and associates.
The Methods Big Pun Used to Combat Weight Gain
While details about Big Pun's specific diet and exercise routines are scarce, it is known that he attempted the following:
- Duke University Diet Program: In 1999, concerned about his health, Big Pun's friends urged him to enroll in a diet program run by Duke University. He managed to lose almost 100 pounds through this program.
- General Attempts to Diet: Although Big Pun tried to lose weight several times, he was unable to overcome his food addiction.
Death and Legacy
Big Pun was set to perform on Saturday Night Live alongside Fat Joe and Jennifer Lopez on Feb. 5, 2000, but he dropped out because he wasn't feeling well. The rapper and his family were staying at a hotel in White Plains, New York, while their home underwent renovations, and he started having trouble breathing in their room. On February 7, 2000, he suffered a heart attack and respiratory failure and was rushed to White Plains Hospital, where he died at the age of 28 after paramedics were unable to revive him.
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An autopsy revealed that the rapper weighed 698 pounds at the time of his death. The medical examiner found that his heart was three times larger than it should have been.
The news of Big Pun's death devastated his closest friends. Fat Joe recalled, “We all felt guilty. We all felt like, ‘Was there something we could have did?’ We wasn’t educated on nutrition. We didn’t really know what a carb was."
A reported 9,000 fans attended Big Pun's wake the week after his death. And as his casket was wheeled into a hearse following his private funeral, someone began playing his song "Still Not a Playa," and people danced and sang in the street.
Big Pun's second album, Yeeeah Baby, completed after his death, was released in April 2000. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and earned gold record status within three months of its release. A posthumous compilation album, Endangered Species, was released in April 2001.
Although his career came to an early, tragic end, Big Pun continued to inspire both those who knew him and those who loved his music. "People loved his charisma, his whole aura,” Fat Joe later explained of his friend. “They would love his lyrics, his breath control, his being able to tongue-twist so many words, his punch lines, his being able to make a song about pain and hurt and being able to make a song about good times."
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Tributes and Posthumous Recognition
In 2004, Triple Seis released the track "Harsh Reality", which samples Big Pun's "You Ain't a Killer" and credits Pun as a featured artist. In 2005, Cuban Link released "Letter to Pun" which was Cuban's second tribute song to Pun, the previous being "Flowers for the Dead" from Cuban's 24K album. On March 22, 2021, the intersection of East Fordham Rd and Grand Concourse in his native Bronx was named "Big Pun Plaza" in Pun's honor.