Ed Lover and Doctor Dré became the faces of Yo! MTV Raps after the original host, Fab 5, stepped down.
Before MTV Raps, there wasn’t any television programming dedicated to Hip-Hop. The pair will forever be engraved in Hip-Hop history and helped pioneer the genre’s national influence on television.
Doctor Dré sat down with ABC 7’s, Here and Now, to talk about the legendary show’s rise and impact, and what he has going on now. The icon revealed that he’s dealing with serious health issues that are now impairing his eyesight.
“I’m a Type 2 Diabetic who’s lost his vision,” he said. “I have a foundation called the Doctor Dré V.I.C (Visually Impaired Can) Foundation. Basically, I’ve been going through a whole resurgence of my life. I stopped at one point and now I’m doing this. Through the blessings of the late-great Dick Gregory and some people he’d known, I’ve worked with some holistic doctors out there to change what goes in my body and actually work with trying to do the best to treat diabetes.”
Doctor Dré did share that his vision loss wasn’t because of his illness, but because he had his retinas reattached. He now has scar tissue behind his eyes from the procedure, but he says when it fluctuates, his vision briefly returns.
Although he felt like he was knocking on “death’s door” his faith kept him moving. Check out the full conversation below:
