Dr. Dre's hospitalization for a brain aneurysm in 2021 was a harrowing experience that included three strokes in a two-week period, the legendary producer recently said.
“It's something you can't control and it just happens, and during those two weeks I had three strokes,” he said on the March 14 episode of the SiriusXM podcast “This Life of Mine… With James Corden.”
The “Next Episode” and “Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang” rapper also noted that he initially dismissed his first symptom: pain behind the ear.
“I just woke up and I felt something right behind my right ear, and I almost felt the worst pain I've ever felt, and I got up and went about my day and thought I could just lie down and take a nap,” the icon recalled. hip hop.
“My son had a friend who was there and she said, 'No, we have to take you to the hospital,' so they took me to urgent care and I got to urgent care and they said, 'No, this is serious.' Next thing you know, I'm passing out. “
The Compton-born philanthropist and media mogul, whose real name is Andre Young, said he was unconscious and passed out and ended up in an ICU for two weeks; There he heard the doctors tell him: “You don't know how lucky you are.” He added that he did not realize that he had hypertension because he had always taken care of his health. (He previously told The Times that he “never saw that coming.”)
“I asked questions like, 'What could I have done to avoid this?' and no one could give me an answer. “I had no idea I had high blood pressure or anything like that because I’m worried about my health,” he told Corden. “I lift weights, run and do everything I can to stay healthy. I said, 'Would that have been avoided if I had exercised a little more or eaten differently or something?' It's like, no. That's hereditary. High blood pressure in black men, that's exactly what it is. They call him the silent killer. “You just have no idea, so you know, you have to keep your s– in check.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, brain aneurysms form and grow because blood flowing through a vessel puts pressure on a weak area of its wall, which can increase the size of the aneurysm. If the aneurysm leaks or ruptures, it causes bleeding in the brain, known as a hemorrhagic stroke.
Dre did not elaborate on the type of stroke he suffered or its effects. But the experience, he said, did not necessarily result in a significant change in what he had been doing or in how he wanted to live his life.
“I'm not saying, 'Okay, I'm going to go crazy because who knows if the lights will go out tomorrow.' I don’t think about it that way,” she said. “I just think it was something that just happened to me. It definitely makes you appreciate being alive. That is sure.
“When you go through that situation, it's crazy. Especially when she was on her way home from the hospital because that couldn't possibly have happened. I don't know. It's crazy, so now I know I had no control over it. It's just something that could happen out of nowhere. You wake up and say, 'S—. OK. I'm here.”
The rapper, who rose to fame with rap group NWA and became a major producer and co-founder of Beats Electronics, previously said his doctors did not believe he would survive the ordeal.
“I'm at Cedars-Sinai Hospital and they weren't letting anyone in, meaning visitors or family or anything like that, because of COVID, but they allowed my family in,” he said on the “Workout the Duda” podcast in 2022. “Later I found out that they called them so they could say goodbye for the last time because they thought I had left here.”
Dre said he “didn't know it was that serious” at the time, but remembered the constant check-ups and treatments he received during his recovery.
The multiple Grammy Award winner has bounced back since the health crisis, performing with other hip-hop legends just over a year later during his hometown Super Bowl LVI halftime show and receiving the Dr. Dre Award Inaugural Global Impact at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
And, on Tuesday, he will receive star number 2,775 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Legendary radio host Big Boy will emcee the ceremony and longtime Dre collaborator Snoop Dogg and fellow music entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine will deliver remarks.
