“It’s hard to believe I’m doing this,” DJ Semtex opens his book. “I never considered for one moment that I would be writing about an experience like this.” As an acclaimed DJ, producer and radio host, he spent years telling other people’s stories, now it’s time to tell his. As Serious as Cancer is an unflinching portrait of the man behind the decks and his unexpected face-off with the C-word.

“All I know is I’ve never faced anything as serious as cancer before.” (DJ Semtex)

“I got a question as serious as cancer,” Rakim raps on his iconic 1987 album Paid in Full. Semtex leans on the popularised hip hop trope in his tell-all: When you’ve got everything going for you, what do you do when one word turns your whole world upside down? The book charts the four-month period in early 2023 from a sudden concerning discovery to his diagnosis with kidney cancer, treatment and finally recovery. Semtex takes us on this journey with a gut-wrenching honesty and searing specificity that will resonate with anyone whose life has been touched by the disease and move even those who have not been personally affected by it.

Semtex reflects on his past, family, career, the National Health Service that saved his life and hip hop’s relationship with cancer. But above all, As Serious as Cancer is an exploration of the self. Vulnerable, insightful and compelling, Semtex ponders finding yourself face-to-face with your own mortality–“The darkest cloud over a life that I had worked so hard to build and still many more dreams to pursue.” He details the mental anguish and physical toll of figuring your way out of a health crisis; Navigating your life’s work and treatment–and how ultimately passion is the greatest medicine for despair. At its core, As Serious as Cancer is about resilience and the indomitable human spirit. “I had no intention of giving up,” he writes, “I wasn’t ready to die, I was ready to live.”