Scarface Thanks Jay-Z and DJ Khaled for a 'Lifeline' During Severe Health Scare

The Houston rapper battled COVID-19 and kidney failure in 2020, which left him unable to work.

August 17, 2025

Scarface recalled the time Jay-Z and DJ Khaled privately supported him during one of the darkest moments of his life.

In his recent interview with Shannon Sharpe for his Club Shay Shay podcast, the Houston rap icon was asked to share the story about how Jay-Z helped him at his worst.

Near the two-hour mark of the video linked above, Sharpe cited several examples where Hov helped out fellow hip-hop artists, such as Lil Wayne with his tax debt, allowing DMX to leave Def Jam, 21 Savage with securing an immigration lawyer, among others.

“So you remember when I caught the COVID and kidney failure and all that?” Scarface asked, referencing his declining health in 2020. “Jay-Z chucked me a lifeline … DJ Khaled chucked me a lifeline. So can’t nobody tell me shit about Jay-Z and DJ Khaled, because they chucked me a lifeline.

“I’m thankful, you know what I mean? ‘Cuz I wasn’t working. So shout out to Hov and DJ Khaled. When I talk to Jay-Z, I call him ‘the keeper of the culture,’ man, ‘cuz he do that big brother shit.”

On the other hand, when Sharpe asked the Geto Boys member if Jay-Z would do another album, Scarface implied that Hov was too well off to do so.

“Let me say this so I won’t be misunderstood. He don’t have no reason to rap no more,” he explained. “We rapped because we was hungry. We spoke our heart, we told our side of the story because we was starving, man, you know? We ain’t starving no more … That man not starving no more, man.”

Scarface’s health struggles began in March 2020 when he contracted COVID-19, which developed into “double bilateral pneumonia" and left him with kidney failure. In October 2020, the rapper publicly asked for help finding a donor on his X account, and by August 2021, his son Christopher Jordan donated one of his kidneys in a successful surgery.

ComplexCon returns to Las Vegas on October 25–26, 2025, with over 300 brands and live performances by Young Thug, YEAT & Friends, Peso Pluma, Central Cee, Ken Carson, and more. Get your tickets now.