Andre Brown is known in the Hip Hop world as Doctor Dré, the former host of the trailblazing MTV Yo! MTV Raps show, which helped bring rap videos to the commercial forefront. Now, he’d also like to be known as a guy fighting to help raise diabetes awareness and contribute to prevention efforts, as he’s now lost his sight to the disease.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Dré spoke on the current state of his health. “My stubbornness put me where I’m at. Now my energy is going to change that. We got young people, grown people, old, all having this. We can prevent this. We can cure this. I have an idea how to do it.”
Part of Brown’s idea involves a show that he’s pitching to his former place of employment, MTV, that will document Brown’s struggles, surgery and recovery, but unfortunately, despite the help of ex-Def Jam exec Bill Adler, his pitches have fallen by the wayside.
“These are people I’ve known for 30 years, and they haven’t gotten back to me,” says Adler. “Dré just wants to share his enthusiasm with people. There are plenty of other folks who star in reality shows who are plainly narcissists, who are convinced every absurd thing out of their mouth has to be captured by a television camera. That is not Dré.”
