Remembering Rapper Prodigy As A Cure For Sickle Cell Emerges
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The FDA’s approval of gene-editing therapy to effectively treat sickle cell disease has many people hopeful while also thinking about the many lives lost to the disease. One of the most high profile people in the entertainment world with sickle cell was hip-hop artist Prodigy, who died of related complications in 2017. Kai invites you to listen back to an episode of WYNC’s podcast “The Realness,” which documents the rapper's life and experiences in the music industry. As a kid with sickle cell anemia, Prodigy was told he'd barely make it to adulthood, but the work of doctors, athletes, Hollywood stars and the Black Panthers helped transform his fate.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody this is |
| 0:05.4 | this is Kai here at notes from America we have been watching headlines about |
| 0:10.7 | some recent health news with particularly high interest. |
| 0:14.0 | A new therapy that uses gene editing technology called CRISPR |
| 0:19.0 | to eliminate the awful pain caused by sickle cell disease has been approved by the FDA. |
| 0:25.2 | And this is a game changer for tens of thousands of Americans who are living with sickle cell, |
| 0:31.2 | who are way disproportionately black Americans. |
| 0:35.5 | If you haven't yet, you should check out our episode |
| 0:37.9 | about that breakthrough treatment. |
| 0:39.3 | It's called what the new cure for Sickle Cell Disease |
| 0:42.2 | really means. You can scroll back in your feed to find it. |
| 0:46.0 | But this historic news also brought to mind someone who battled sickle cell disease in the |
| 0:51.0 | spotlight for many years, The rapper Prodigy. Prodigy is best |
| 0:56.1 | known as one half of the hip-hop duo Mob Deep along with his recording partner |
| 1:00.6 | Havik. Prodigy passed away in 2017 of complications related to this disease. |
| 1:06.8 | And the following year, some of my colleagues at WNY worked to tell the story of his life in a really special audio series called The Realness. |
| 1:17.2 | And so I want to share an episode of The Realness with you, which documents the |
| 1:20.8 | rapper's early life and diagnosis and the forces that helped him beat the |
| 1:26.4 | medical odds for so long. It also offers a fascinating social history of sickle cell research |
| 1:32.4 | and treatment, history that really has led to this |
| 1:36.2 | moment we're in now in the news so check it out and I hope you enjoy. |
| 1:47.0 | Hey everyone, just a quick heads up. The realness contains some strong language. What's up, big brother? How you doing man? |
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