Eric James "Badlands" Booker, also known by his online pseudonym BadlandsChugs, is an American competitive eater, rapper, and YouTuber. He holds seven Major League Eating recognized world records, three Guinness World Records, is a four-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. Booker is 6 ft 5 1/4 in (1.96 m) tall and weighs 400 lb.

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. 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, 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:

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).