Foxy Brown Almost So Def

Has anyone heard about Foxy Brown going deaf. She is suffering from a condition called sudden and severe sensorineural hearing loss, which affects about 1 in every 10k every year & is said to be caused by a viral infection. This is hit especially as a recording artist. The sad thing about it is that she had symptoms for a while & did nothing about it & could have possibly avoided going totally deaf.

This is a true testament that we need to listen to our bodies!

Excerpt from RWD Hip-Hop Online:

The Ill Nana recently told People Magazine that she has been deaf for nearly four months. She said that she was diagnosed with severe sudden neural hearing loss back in May 2005. The condition reportedly affects one in 10000 people without warning and is usually traced to a viral infection. “I pressed the volume [of the TV] to maybe 60. Nothing,” Brown said of the morning she uncovered her hearing defect. “I ran outside to my truck and honked the horn. Nothing. I ran back inside and dialled a number on the phone. Nothing. Then I started breaking down in tears and screaming and I couldn't even hear myself scream. That's when I knew there was a problem.” Sufferers usually lose hearing in one ear and the condition can be reversed if treated early. However Foxy failed to notice the signs and hasn’t responded well to treatment so far. “Her case is severe,” says Dr. Anil Lalwani, an otologist whom Brown has consulted. “In only one or two percent of the cases are both ears affected.”

“There were signs for a few days before. My phone would be ringing and my Blackberry would be going off and people would be ‘Yo Foxy, your Blackberry.’ And I'd hear it. It would be a delayed reaction but I'd still hear it,” Fox revealed. “One day I was in the studio, putting the finishing touches on my fourth album, Black Roses, and my friend Jay-Z walked in to approve the mix. As soon as he heard it he was like, ‘Yo, what's that? Does this sound normal to you?’ I was like ‘Of course it does. What do you mean?’ Then he told me, ‘Baby Girl, we have a problem because this is ridiculously loud. I could never put this on the radio.”

Fox had, had difficulties hearing callers during a radio station interview and struggled to hear the funeral director during her aunt’s funeral. It was at the funeral that she told Jigga that she thought she was going deaf. Fox then visited a doctor, but the medication she was put on failed. She still didn’t admit to her hearing difficulties and read people’s lips to figure out what they were saying. Naomi Campbell then took her to a specialist for surgery which improved her hearing up to 20%, but it hasn’t improved anymore since.

Dr. Lalwani is going to provide Foxy with an implant which would give “much more auditory information. It would let her use a telephone, and it may be sufficient for her to get tonality back and be a musician.”

The album Black Roses has been completed but no release date has been mentioned as of yet, with Foxy also taking an indefinite break from recording.