by Jeroslyn JoVonn
March 18, 2024
“Next thing you know, I’m blacking out. I’m in and out of consciousness, and I ended up in the ICU. I was there for two weeks,” Dre shared. “I’m hearing the doctors coming in and [saying,] ‘You don’t know how lucky you are.'”
Dr. Dre is opening up about the newfound appreciation for life he developed after suffering three strokes following his 2021 brain aneurysm.
The hip-hop mogul sat down for a candid chat on SiriusXM’s This Life of Mine with James Corden, where he went back three years to recall the “three strokes” he experienced after being hospitalized for a brain aneurysm. The traumatic health scare helped Dre (real name Andre Young) “appreciate being alive” more than he ever had before.
The Death Row Records co-founder was home spending time with his son when he felt a strange feeling behind his “right ear” that soon developed into “the worst pain” he’d ever encountered.
“I got up and I went on about my day, and I thought that I could just lay down and take a nap. My son had a female friend that was there and was like, ‘No, we need to take you to the hospital,’” Dre recalled.
After stopping at an urgent care, staff told the Beats By Dre creator that his condition was too “serious” and he needed to go to a hospital.
“Next thing you know, I’m blacking out. I’m in and out of consciousness, and I ended up in the ICU. I was there for two weeks,” Dre shared. “I’m hearing the doctors coming in and [saying,] ‘You don’t know how lucky you are.’”
Considering Dre’s love for fitness and maintaining his physical health, he wondered if there was more he could’ve done to prevent the aneurysm. However, he soon learned how hereditary the condition is for Black men.
“Nobody could give me an answer. I had no idea that I had high blood pressure or anything like that because I’m on my health s—. I’m lifting weights, I’m running, I’m doing everything I can to keep myself healthy,” Dre said.
“High blood pressure in Black men, that’s just what it is. They call it the silent killer. You just have no idea, so you know, you have to keep your s— checked.”
He left the hospital with a newfound appreciation for life. Buthe didn’t make any drastic lifestyle changes since the aneurysm was something he “has no control” over and “could happen out of the blue.”
Dre wasn’t in clear after the health scare, and he encountered three separate strokes in the two weeks following his aneurysm.
“It’s just something that you can’t control that just happens and during those two weeks, I had three strokes,” he said.
Dr. Dre bounced back one year later with a legendary Super Bowl halftime performance that featured himself, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar. Last month he took home the inaugural Global Impact Award at the Grammys ahead of receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 19.
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