The hip-hop star was admitted to a Houston, Texas hospital last month (Jun15) in the midst of the newly-reunited group's Office Space Tour.

Fellow group members Willie D and Bushwick Bill and representatives for Scarface did not disclose the reason behind the hospitalisation, but the 44 year old now reveals he was not taking care of himself and fell gravely ill.

He tells RollingStone.com, "I was really doing bad out on that road, man. Eating truck stop food. I put on, like, 10 pounds. It's just God's way of telling me, and my body's way, that I need to slow down and really get myself back together before I even consider going back on the road with the Geto Boys again."

Scarface initially thought he was suffering from a flu or asthma, but learned it was more serious.

He continues, "I think it had a lot to do with sweating my a** off and not completely drying off. Just onstage, offstage, hot, cold, hot, cold. Right when I got off the stage in Nebraska on 21 June (15), I was feeling a little funny, man. (I was like), 'Damn, I'm getting the chills, man. Am I coming down with the flu?' It kind of went away but I started coughing up mucus. The s**t I was coughing up was damn near the colour of some good-a** weed, maybe some spinach or something - it was that green.

"I tried to self-medicate or whatever and that s**t wasn't working. So I went to the doctor, had some blood work done, some X-rays done on my chest and found out that I had pneumonia."

The rapper is feeling "75 to 80 per cent better" after taking "tons and tons" of vitamins, but he is still awaiting test results about a spot doctors found on his lungs.

He adds, "The doctor said it looked suspicious (like) lung cancer. I'm not gonna say I got lung cancer because I don't smoke. So, let's just hope that that came from pneumonia."

It is unclear if Scarface will head back out on the road with his former bandmates or if they will continue with their reunion.

A crowdfunding campaign for the group's eighth album, Habeas Corpus, launched on Kickstarter.com last month failed to reach half its goal of $100,000 (GBP66,667).