Dr. Dre Opens Up About Near-Fatal Brain Aneurysm

When Dr. Dre was rushed to the hospital on Jan. 4, 2021, after suffering a brain aneurysm, he quickly assured fans that he was “doing great.” It turns out  that the original diagnosis was far more grim than even the legendary rapper and producer knew at the time.

Dre opened up about the severity of his condition during an episode of the Workout the Doubt podcast, admitting that ICU doctors allowed his family to come and say their goodbyes because they didn’t think he would survive the aneurysm.

“They weren’t allowing anybody to come up – meaning visitors or family or anything like that – because of COVID,” he explained. “But they allowed my family to come in [and] I found out later, they called them up so they could say their last goodbyes, because they thought I was outta here. I didn’t know it was that serious … Nobody told me. I had no idea. That was crazy.”

Dre’s two-week stay in the ICU came with a grueling recovery process. “Because of what was going on in my brain, they had to wake me up every hour, on the hour, for two weeks to do these tests [that were] basically like sobriety tests – touch your nose, rub your heel on your calf and all that shit,” he recalled.

Despite the exhaustion, he never feared any serious complications, let alone death. “I never felt like I was in trouble,” he said. “I felt like, ‘OK, I’m just going through [a] procedure, and I’m ready to go home. I’m hungry.’ I didn’t eat for two weeks. That was a really crazy experience.”

Dre was released from the hospital on Jan. 15, 2021, and a year later hit the Super Bowl stage with Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.