Eric James "Badlands" Booker, also known by his online pseudonym BadlandsChugs, is an American competitive eater,

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

, and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. He holds seven Major League Eating 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 British reference book published annually, list ...

'', is a four-time Nathan's Lemonade Chugging Contest champion, and competed in the

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 July 4 at Nathan's Famous' original, and best-known, restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell ...

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 Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. 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 gallons of water in a sitting position 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. Booker is also known for his YouTube channel, BadlandsChugs, in which he primarily performs soda chugging challenges, including

Mountain Dew Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew in some countries and colloquially known as Dew in some areas, is a soft drink brand owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage Bottler (company), bottlers Barney and A ...

, Sprite,

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. The drink is owned and manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was develope ...

, and milk. In 2019, over the span of a year, his YouTube channel amassed over 3 million subscribers. At the 2021

, 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, and repeated in 2023, setting a record of 23.08 seconds. In 2024, he continued his lemonade-chugging winning streak, breaking his 2023 record with a time of 21 seconds.

Accomplishments

Some of Booker's accomplishments include: *

Burritos A burrito (, ) or burro in Mexico is, historically, a regional name, among others, for what is known as a taco, a tortilla filled with food, in other parts of the country. The term ''burrito'' was regional, specifically from Guanajuato, Guerr ...

: 15

BurritoVille BurritoVille is/was a New York-based quick-service food chain serving Tex-Mex cuisine, established in 1992. Until 2008, there were 16 locations in Manhattan, one in Westbury, New York on Long Island, and one in Hoboken, NJ. The menu items consist ...

Candy bar A candy bar is a type of portable 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 wi ...

s: Two Pounds Chocolate Candy Bars / 6 minutes *

Cannoli Cannoli are Sicilian pastries consisting of a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling containing ricotta cheese. Their size ranges from . In mainland Italy, the food is commonly known as (). In culi ...

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

* Corned Beef

Hash Hash, hashes, hash mark, or hashing may refer to: Substances * Hash (food), a coarse mixture of ingredients, often based on minced meat * Hash (stew), a pork and onion-based gravy found in South Carolina * Hash, a nickname for hashish, a canna ...

: 4 pounds of hash / 1 minute 58 seconds *

Cheesecake Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese, quark or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies (or digestive biscuits), graham crackers, pastry, ...

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

Doughnut A doughnut or donut () is a type of pastry 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 fran ...

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 or matzo balls are Ashkenazi Jewish soup morsels made from a mixture of matzah meal, beaten eggs, water, and a fat, such as oil, margarine, or chicken fat. Known as knaidel in Yiddish ( pl., singular ; with numerous other transli ...

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

Onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), 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 which was classifie ...

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

Pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

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 ...

s: Entenmann's Pumpkin Pies / 12 Minutes/ November 22, 2004 *

Lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink. There are many varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In some parts of the world, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated, traditionally, homemade drink, using lemon juice, water, and a sw ...

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 Brook ...

chug contest / 1 gallon lemonade / 21 seconds / July 4, 2024 * 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 British reference book published annually, listi ...

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 sauce 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