Two flights diverted as rapper suffers seizures

Rick Ross reportedly suffered seizures on two separate flights. Photo / AP

Rapper Rick Ross has been hospitalised in Alabama after suffering two medical scares in six hours that required planes to be diverted.

The first scare came on Friday afternoon as Ross was on a Delta Air Lines flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Memphis, Tennessee, where Ross was to appear at a University of Memphis basketball event that night.

The plane returned to Florida after Ross suffered an unspecified medical problem. He was treated at a Fort Lauderdale hospital, and he even tweeted afterward: "Memphis here I come."

But after Ross hopped a Memphis-bound private jet, it made an unscheduled landing in Birmingham, Alabama, because the 34-year-old singer experienced another medical problem, Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner told a crowd Friday night.

"On his way to Memphis," Pastner said, "he had to make another emergency landing, in Birmingham. He got really sick again, and they had to rush him to the emergency room".

WMC-TV in Memphis reported that Ross suffered a second medical seizure and had been hospitalised.

The news station said the University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital would not comment on his condition.

The Miami-based gangsta rapper gained fame with his husky voice and lyrics that spotlighted the grimier side of Miami life. He has become one of rap's most popular figures in recent years.

Ross has a new album entitled God Forgives, I Don't, due out in December.

- AP