Dr. Dre Says He Had ‘Three Strokes’ Following 2021 Brain Aneurysm: ‘Makes You Appreciate Being Alive’

Three years after suffering a brain aneurysm, Dr. Dre reflects on his health challenges.

In a new interview on SiriusXM This Life of Mine with James Cordenthe rapper and record producer revealed that he had “three strokes” while in the hospital for a brain aneurysm in 2021 and how the experience made him “appreciate being alive.”

Reflecting on the beginning of the ordeal, Dr. Dre recalled waking up with an abnormal sensation behind his “right ear,” which soon turned into the “worst pain” he had ever suffered. “I got up and went about my day, and I thought I might as well just lie down and take a nap. My son had a friend who was there and she said, ‘No, we have to take you to the hospital,'” he said.

dr. Dre says doctors feared the worst when he was hospitalized for a brain aneurysm

Dre at the Grammy Awards in February 2023 in Los Angeles. Kevin Winter/Getty

Dre decided to go to an urgent care facility instead, but doctors said his situation was too “serious” and required a trip to the hospital. “The next thing you know, I’m passing out. I go in and pass out, and I ended up in intensive care. I was there for two weeks,” he detailed. “I hear the doctors coming and [saying,] ‘You don’t know how lucky you are.'”

At the time, the Death Row Records co-founder wondered if he could have “prevented” the aneurysm by focusing more on his physical health. “No one could give me an answer. I had no idea I had high blood pressure or anything because I’m on my health, s—. I lift weights, I run, I do everything I can keep healthy,” said Dre.

Eventually, the Grammy winner learned that the condition was “hereditary” and could not be prevented. “High blood pressure in black people, that’s what it is. They call it the silent killer. You just have no idea, so you know, you’ve got to control your s—,” he advised.

Eminem says Dr. Dre’s aneurysm inspired him and Snoop Dogg to end ‘stupid’ feud: ‘We talked about it’

dr. Dre. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Such an intense experience might lead others to change their outlook on life, but Dre hasn’t made any “significant” changes since then. “I’m not like, ‘OK, I’m just going to freak out because who knows if the lights are going to go out tomorrow.’ I don’t think about it that way,” he said. “I just think it’s something that just happened to me.”

However, he felt that such a health scare “makes you appreciate being alive” more than before. “When you go through that, it’s crazy, especially when I was coming home from the hospital because it couldn’t happen,” Dre reflected. “It’s crazy, so now I know I had no control over it. It’s just something that could happen out of the blue. You wake up and go, ‘S—. OK, I’m here.'”

Dre then revealed that his condition became more severe before he was clean. “It’s just something you can’t control that just happens and in those two weeks I had three strokes,” he said.

dr. Dre and Eminem in Cleveland in October 2021.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

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In 2022, Dre’s longtime collaborator Eminem spoke about how the Beats Electronics founder’s hospital stay led him and Snoop Dogg to end their feud.

“Me and Snoop had our little problem and then when Dre, when it happened with Dre, the brain aneurysm thing…” the “Without Me” singer, 51, told his longtime manager Paul Rosenberg on SiriusXM Paul Pod: Curtain Call 2. “We thought, bro, this is stupid. This is fucking stupid that we’re fighting now. Well, I don’t remember if I called him, or he called me, I can’t remember, but we talked.”

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Source: HIS Education