Shawty Lo's Diabetes Destroyers!

by **J The Kidd** Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:03 am

Shawty Lo won Breakthrough Artist of the Year at Ozone Magazine’s
third annual awards show held on Monday evening at the George R. Brown
Convention Center in Houston, Texas. About his win, Shawty Lo said “It
was an honor just to be nominated but to win is a good feeling and to
win for Breakthrough Artist is a blessing because I feel like I did
just that this past year. I also really appreciate the fans for
supporting me through it all and I also thank God for allowing me to
keep doing what I love to do.” The rising MC was also nominated for
four other awards including Album of the Year.

In addition to working on his sophomore CD currently entitled Carlos,
as well as a putting the finishing touches on an autobiographical book,
Shawty Lo recently delved into acting, landing his first major movie
role in the upcoming feature film Black Bag. As if his plate wasn’t
full enough, the busy entrepreneur is also participating in the
American Diabetes Association’s Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes walk
on September 20th to be held at Atlanta’s Grant Park where he is
encouraging people to join him in the walk and/or sponsor his team, the
Diabetes Destroyers. Shawty Lo was diagnosed with the illness in 2001.

[STORY BELOW]

Carlos “Shawty Lo” Walker’s Diabetes Story

My name is Carlos “Shawty Lo” Walker. I’m from Atlanta, Bankhead to be
exact and I launched D4L Records and founded the popular rap group D4L
(Fabo, Mook B, Stuntman and yours truly). We released a CD called “Down
For Life” in 2005, which was certified gold and I was also the
Executive Producer of that project. We had the hit singles “Betcha
Can’t Do It Like Me” and “Laffy Taffy”. A lot of our success came from
the song “Laffy Taffy” because it broke records as the most downloaded
song in the history of music according to the 2007 Guinness Book of the
World Records. It was also a multi-platinum ring tone and scored a
prestigious ASCAP award. On February 26th 2008, I released my first
solo album “Units In The City” on D4L Records/Asylum but before all
this, 2001, I was diagnosed with Diabetes.
It was crazy when I first found out. I was doing a lot of urinating,
having to go to the bathroom like every 20 minutes. I remember one
night lying in bed and it was like I was having an out of body
experience; I could see myself sleeping. When I first went to the
hospital, the doctors said I could have been, was supposed to be like
in a coma because my blood sugar was so high - over 1600. They couldn’t
believe it was that high, saying most people would either be dead or in
a coma. It seemed like I could barely walk, like I weighed 300 pounds.
All this had gone on for about a week before I went to the hospital.
When they checked me in, that’s when they found out, I was diabetic. I
didn’t take it seriously at first. It took me having to go to the
hospital 2 or 3 times before it really sunk in. I was in denial. I just
didn’t want to accept that I had diabetes, but my family really clamped
down on me. If you’ve ever seen the movie Soul Food, that’s how my
family is. We’re real tough and we were raised to be that way and take
care of each other. When my grandmamma died, our family came together;
my mama, my aunties, all my family. It took all their help to make me
do right and realize that I had to make some changes and how serious
diabetes was and that it could take my life. And ever since then, I’ve
been pretty good.
My daddy is diabetic and we just found out my mama has it too. I try to
exercise, drink plenty of water and take vitamins but lately I’ve been
so busy on the road that I don’t do all that stuff as often as I’d
like; but I do the best that I can. My work schedule affects my
diabetes a little bit because when you’re traveling as much as I do,
there’s not too many places to stop off and get a good wholesome meal
and sometimes I end up just eating what’s convenient. But I’m about to
put in my rider that I need to have special meals prepared for me when
I do shows cause I can’t be eating crazy.
Diabetes is not the end of the world, but it is a lifestyle change and
that’s hard because you’ve been stuck in your own ways for so long,
eating and doing whatever. It’s hard to change that up. When you first
find out, it’s hard, but in time, you learn to accept change and just
take one day at a time; small steps. I think once you start eating
right and get into a workout habit and stay focused and believe in
yourself, you’ll get through it. Staying as healthy as I can is a
priority. It’s about longevity and having a quality life because you
can lose limbs or even go blind from diabetes. That’s something people
don’t really know; you can lose legs, toes, feet, have kidney problems
and heart problems. Anything I can do to help raise awareness about
diabetes, I will be there, not only because I have it, but because it’s
a disease that affects millions of people. Everybody knows at least one
person that has diabetes, so it’s like when we participate in events,
walks and things of that nature, we’re really helping somebody we care
about and ourselves because you never know when it can affect you.