When Losing Your Voice Leads to Finding Your Purpose

🔥 OMG, I got to interview Hip Hop Legend The D.O.C.! 🔥

Last week I sat on stage at the Yale Innovation Summit next to a true legend of hip hop — Tracy “The D.O.C.” Curry. I was actually pinching myself. How frickin’ cool?

I was trying to find some threads and meaning to turn this into a blog post about learnings for CEOs, but frankly, I am just really proud and thankful that I had this opportunity to help him tell his story.

Many in the audience knew NWA was, but not That DOC wrote many of their early lyrics, co-founded Death Row Records, mentored Snoop Dogg and Eminem, and saw his own debut album No One Can Do It Better climb to number one on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart in 1989. In 2022, he was even awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

As he ascended to the top of the game, a tragic car crash resulted in a crushed larynx and stole the voice that had just made him famous. When I asked him to tell us about the accident that changed everything, he paused and the auditorium went silent.

Today he pours his energy and superpowers into DOC Cares and the forthcoming Dreams Experience Academy (DEA) in South Dallas. The program gives teenagers practical paths into media, technology, and entertainment—options he never saw at fifteen. He has partnered with my friend (and podcast guest) Chris Gannett and Gannett Partners to build and grow these great programs.

A new chapter is also taking shape. DOC is using artificial-intelligence tools to recreate his voice for a new album, and his life story film, which premiered at Tribeca, is expected to reach a wide audience in 2026.

I left the stage grateful. Grateful to give a legend the space to speak. Grateful to hear a story that moves from rise, through loss, into purposeful rebuilding. Mostly grateful for the reminder that the work we are meant to do can arrive through circumstances we would never choose.

Thanks for reading. If this story resonates, let me know where you are finding your own voice right now.

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