Yo! MTV Raps legend Doctor Dré celebrated a birthday on Thursday (December 5), his 61st revolution around the sun. Born in Westbury, New York, the man born André Brown was a DJ at WBAU, the radio station of Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.
Along with three other DJs at the station, he formed the "Concept Crew." In 1986, they renamed themselves Original Concept and released their sole album in 1988, Straight from the Basement of Kooley High, on Def Jam Recordings.
Doctor Dre eventually became the co-host of Yo! MTV Raps in 1989 alongside Ed Lover. The U.S. version was originally hosted by Fab 5 Freddy before they took over, although Fab 5 Freddy proceeded to host on weekends. The original line-up of the show, starring only Fab as the host, premiered on MTV on August 6, 1988.
Doctor Dré previously DJ'ed for the Beastie Boys, guest starred on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and appeared in films like Who's The Man?
These days, he often speaks out on the importance of taking care of your health. He's battled Type II diabetes for years and had part of his right leg amputated in June 2020.
Speaking to RAPstation's Kyle Eustice at the time,the 61-year-old explained how an unfortunate accident led doctors to discover an unexpected diagnosis.
“I’ve felt very, very blessed by the overwhelming graciousness and blessings people have bestowed upon me and my family,” he said. “People need to understand I definitely want to be able to discuss this with everyone because people were like, ‘Oh, you could have did this. You could’ve did that. This was your fault.’ And I go, ‘Yes, it was my fault. What do you want me to tell you? No, it wasn’t?’ It doesn’t even sound correct.
"The problem was I fell down a flight of stairs. What most people don’t realize is that I had reversed my diabetes in March. This was early in the pandemic and my A1C was below seven, I never had an issue of kidney or heart or all the other symptoms that go along with it. My sugar was about between 100 and 130 consistently."
Dré also addressed all those critics who blamed his condition on his weight.
“I take the criticism as I take the blessings and I say they’re all motivation to do so many of the things, which is what I’m not only just planning, but what I’m going to do,” he said. “So I think because of the severity of it, it kind of saved my life. When I fell, I went to the doctor immediately. We were going back and forth and they did a culture on one of my ulcers to make sure the infection that was always inside of me didn’t get worse, but what it did is it actually expanded and started eating at the bone in my right ankle and my right foot."
He added, "The best thing to do was to amputate and it saved my life. If I didn’t, I could’ve gone septic and died, which is what my surgeon said. But they were all, ‘Oh, it’s going to be 50/50 for you. We don’t know until we get in there.’ And you know what? The master plan, the spirit above, the great one that put us all on this planet, has a better plan for me because it could have been so much worse.”
With that in his rearview, Dré remains optimistic about the future. Here's to many more years!
