Former Yo! MTV Raps co-host Doctor Dre has gone blind and lost a toe since he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over a decade ago. In an interview with the New York Times, Dre explained how he didn't take his health seriously even after his diagnosis in the early 2000s.

Dre has been blind for three years.

"My stubbornness put me where I’m at. Now my energy is going to change that,” Doctor Dre told New York Times. “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.”

Born Andre Brown, Doctor Dre and his former partner Ed Lover became pop culture fixtures during their tenure as hosts of Yo! MTV Raps from 1988 to 1995. The duo even starred in their own feature film, the slapstick comedy Who's the Man? in 1993.

Dre is expected to undergo weight-loss surgery to help in curbing the disease's effects. His surgery is expected to be featured in a reality television series he's developing with Bill Adler, author and former Def Jam publicist. Adler says that despite Dre's history within the industry, there haven't been many people who have offered to tell this story.

“These are people I’ve known for 30 years, and they haven’t gotten back to me,” Adler told the Times. “Dre 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 Dre.”

Hopefully, this will be a project that someone is willing to get behind. Hip-hop and health issues have generated major headlines as of late with the deaths of luminaries such as Guru, Heavy D and Nate Dogg. A Tribe Called Quest's Phife Dawg passed away in March after over two decades of battling diabetes.

More From HOT 99.1