A doctor’s finding about his heart has reshaped what NBA YoungBoy wants from the rest of his career. The 26-year-old rapper, born Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, now intends to step back from touring and studio work.
He received the diagnosis during his Make America Slime Again tour in 2025, and he told nobody at the time.
NBA YoungBoy discusses his heart condition and plans for one final tour
“A doctor told me that the left side of my heart was swollen,” Gaulden said on the August 11 episode of the Open Thoughts podcast, hosted by Funny Marco. “My heart kind of still is like enlarged on this little side.”
He kept the news private and worked through it. “I never told nobody. I just kept doing every show,” said the artist, who also performs as YoungBoy Never Broke Again. He thinks the music carried what he would not say out loud, adding, “But that explains the music though, right? She’s hurting.”
His plans now have a clear ceiling. The “Bandit” rapper wants one or two more albums out of himself, and the next one, currently called All Dogs Go to Heaven, should land before his birthday on Oct. 20. Live shows get even less runway. “I’m going to tour one more time throughout my whole life, and that’s it,” he said.
Gaulden has nine records behind him and stays open about what else might follow. On the question of returning to America, he left no such room. “Never in life,” he said.
The Baton Rouge, La., native has stayed in Korea since arriving there for the first time in 2026. Donald Trump pardoned him in 2025 over gun-related charges that had brought a 23-month federal prison sentence.
Korea suits him, though his status there has limits. “It’s like it’s very safe here and very clean,” he said, before conceding, “I can’t be in my ‘home’ until they give me a visa, right?”
Whatever he decides about staying in Asia, home holds little pull. “I used to always feel like I never had the opportunity to get away or to leave that place,” Gaulden said. “So it was like I don’t have no problem with being away. It’s nothing there for me at all.”
One thing does keep him tied to it. “The most important thing is my kids, [who are] there. But that’s what they got planes for,” he added.
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Reported by ashnagaur on Reality Tea.
