Eric James Booker (born June 21, 1969), known professionally as Badlands Booker or BadlandsChugs, is an American

competitive eater Competitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to eat large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Contests are typically eight to ten minutes long, although some competitions c ...

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

personality. He holds seven

Major League Eating Major League Eating (MLE) is an organization that organises professional competitive eating events and television specials. The stated mission of Major League Eating is to maintain a safe environment for all events, to create a dynamic and enjoya ...

recognized world records, three

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

, is a two-time Nathan's Lemonade Chugging Contest champion, and competed in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest every year from 1997 to 2018.

Biography

By 20, Booker began training his chug skills and training to compete in food championships. Booker lives on Long Island. He is married to Regina Booker. Booker is 6 ft in (1.96 m) tall and weighs .

Competitive eating career

Booker trains for competitions by trying to stretch his stomach and develop jaw strength. He eats large amounts of fruit and vegetables and drinks a gallon of water in a sitting in order to stretch his stomach and chews over twenty pieces of gum at a time to build jaw strength. He maintains that competitive eating is a healthy sport and has lost weight since he began competing. As of 2022, he is ranked 27th by the

IFOCE Major League Eating (MLE) is an organization that organises professional competitive eating events and television specials. The stated mission of Major League Eating is to maintain a safe environment for all events, to create a dynamic and enjoya ...

. Booker is also known for his YouTube channel, BadlandsChugs, in which he primarily performs soda chugging challenges. In 2019, over the span of a year, his YouTube channel amassed over 3 million subscribers. At the 2021

Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest The Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition. It is held each year on Independence Day (United States), July 4th at Nathan's Famous, Nathan's Famous Corporation's original, ...

, Booker won a lemonade drinking contest, drinking a gallon of lemonade in under 40 seconds. He captured his second lemonade chugging contest title in 2022.

Accomplishments

Some of Booker's accomplishments include: *

Burritos A burrito (, ) is a dish in Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine that took form in Ciudad Juárez, consisting of a flour tortilla wrapped into a sealed cylindrical shape around various ingredients. The tortilla is sometimes lightly grilled or steamed t ...

: 15

Qdoba Qdoba ( ) is a chain of fast casual restaurants in the United States and Canada serving Mexican-style cuisine. After spending 15 years as a wholly owned subsidiary of Jack in the Box, the company was sold to a consortium of funds led by Apol ...

Candy bar A candy bar is a type of candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate with other ...

s: Two Pounds Chocolate Candy Bars / 6 minutes *

Cannoli Cannoli (; scn, cannola ) are Italian pastries consisting of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling containing ricotta—a staple of Sicilian cuisine. They range in size from . In mainland Italy, they are ...

: 16.5 cannoli in six minutes / 2004Amy's Robot (blog) Robot-on-the-Spot: The World Cheesecake Eating Championship

/ref> *

Corned Beef Corned beef, or salt beef in some of the Commonwealth of Nations, is Salt-cured meat, salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Sometimes, sugar and sp ...

Hash: 4 pounds of hash / 1 minute 58 seconds *

Cheesecake Cheesecake is a sweet dessert consisting of one or more layers. The main, and thickest, layer consists of a mixture of a soft, fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. If there is a bottom layer, it m ...

(Mini): 50 Mini-Cheesecakes / 6 minutes *

Doughnut A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franc ...

s: 49 glazed doughnuts / 8 minutes * Hamentaschen: 50 Hamentaschen / 6 minutes *Matzo Ball (Ben's Deli): 21 baseball-sized (half-pound) matzo balls / 5 minutes, 25 seconds / 2003 *

Matzo Balls Matzah balls ( yi, קניידלעך pl., singular ; with numerous other transliterations) or matzo balls are Ashkenazi Jewish soup dumplings made from a mixture of matzah meal, beaten eggs, water, and a fat, such as oil, margarine, or chi ...

(Ruthie & Gussie's): 30 matzo balls / 5 minutes, 25 seconds *Raw

Onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

s: 8.5 ounces Maui Onions (three onions)/ Whalers Village / 1 minute/ August 8, 2004 *

Pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

s: 9.5 one-pound bowls / 12 minutes *

Pumpkin pie Pumpkin pie is a dessert pie with a spiced, pumpkin-based custard filling. The pumpkin and pumpkin pie are both a symbol of harvest time, and pumpkin pie is generally eaten during the fall and early winter. In the United States and Canada it is u ...

Entenmann's Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for sale to the public. The company offers dessert cakes, donuts, cookies, cup cakes, loaf cakes, ...

Pumpkin Pies / 12 Minutes/ November 22, 2004 *

Lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using le ...

: Inaugural

Nathan's Famous Nathan's Famous, Inc. is an American company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the Bro ...

chug contest / 1 gallon lemonade / 37 seconds / July 4, 2021 * In May 2021, he set the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for the fastest time to drink two litres of soda (18.45 seconds). * In June 2022, he set two more Guinness World Records, drinking 1 liter of soda in 6.8 seconds and 1 liter of tomato juice in 1 minute and 18 seconds.

Music career

Since 2004, Booker has performed and recorded competitive eating themed hip-hop as Badlands Booker, and he frequently performs selections from his albums at competitions. Besides his own nine albums, Booker has also made guest appearances on albums by Jendor and Loser's Lounge. Much of the music used on his YouTube channel is created by himself and his son Brandon Booker (OKHIPHOP).

References

External links