A Tribe Called Quest

07/18/2021

Divabetic Remembers Biz Markie

Rapper Biz Markie has died. He was 57 years old.

Markie, whose real name was Marcel Theo Hall, was a rapper, producer, and DJ in his career but will forever be known for his quirky 1989 single “Just a Friend.”

The rapper was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2011, but said in 2014 that he lost 140 pounds since the diagnosis due to healthy lifestyle changes.

“I wanted to live,” Markie told ABC News at the time. “Since I have to be a diabetic, If I didn’t make the changes, it was going to make the diabetes worse. I’m trying to get off [diabetes medications]. The way you gotta do it is lose the weight. I’m off half my meds, I just got to get off the rest.”

“They said I could lose my feet,” he added. “They said I could lose body parts. A lot of things could happen.”

Mr. Divabetic talks with entertainer Keith Anthony Fluitt and Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES about DJ Frankie Knuckles’s foot amputation and lower limb amputations related to diabetes on July’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast.

‘Just A Friend’ was Biz Markie’s only song to chart in the top 100, but it cemented his legacy in hip-hop forever. The song’s video, which featured the rapper don a powder-white wig as he played the piano and belted out the classic chorus: “You, you’ve got what I need/ but you say he’s just a friend/ and you say he’s just a friend/ oh baby, you, you’ve got what I need.” helped to make the tune iconic.

Biz Markie also appeared in several films and TV shows, including “Men in Black II,” as a narrator on the adult puppet show “Crank Yankers,” and on the children’s series “Yo Gabba Gabba!” with his “Biz’s Beat of the Day.”

“The weirdest thing about my fame is that when I’m thinking that it’s almost over, it just sparks back up,” Biz Markie told the Post. “I made ‘Just a Friend’ in ’89. Some people’s records die — it sprouts up. Now it’s 30 years later, and it’s sprouted up again in commercials. They’re not letting me die. The public, the fans, they like me around.”

“I’m going to be Biz Markie until I die,” he said. “Even after I die, I’m going to be Biz Markie.“

Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest also passed away from the same complications back in 2016. The iconic rapper and lyricist passed away at the age of 45 after facing a battle with his diabetes diagnosis.

We’re focusing on ‘KIDNEYS and DIABETES’ on this episode of Diabetes Late Nite with musical inspiration from A Tribe Called Quest.

LISTEN NOW

Phife Dawg, born Malik Taylor, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in May of 1990. Experiencing constant thirst and bathroom visits, his grandmother, a nurse, tested him for diabetes after a performance in Connecticut. Initially, Phife admitted he did not take his diagnosis seriously and maintained the same lifestyle.

“It’s really a sickness,” Taylor said in Beats, Rhymes & Life, Michael Rapaport’s candid 2011 documentary on the group. “Like straight-up drugs. I’m just addicted to sugar.”

Phife’s initial resistance to treatment made it necessary for him to go on dialysis followed by a kidney transplant in 2008. This past March he died at age 45.

“When you learn you have diabetes, the first word you have to learn is acceptance,” he said during an interview with dLife TV hoping to encourage others to learn from his mistakes.

June’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast guests include MaryAnn Nicolay DTR, Dr. Braxton Cosby, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES, Poet Lorraine Brooks, Funny Man Mike, Arnon Krongrad, MD, Catherine Lawrence, and Mama Rose Marie.

We will be featuring selected songs from their first album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, released in 1990, courtesy of SONY MUSIC.

05/21/2017

John Oliver Takes on the Corruption in Kidney Dialysis Industry & We Love It!

“Because federal guidelines do not require doctors to be on site at for-profit dialysis clinics, DaVita patients often reported feeling rushed, with employees allegedly cutting corners for the sake of speed,” said John Oliver, the host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” on a recent episode.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s wrong with for-profit dialysis clinics in the United States according to our favorite late night comedian, who is not just as joke-teller, but he’s also a truth-teller.

“When I was working at DaVita, the priorities for transitioning patients was to get them on dialysis and get the next patient on as soon as possible,” Megallan Handford, a former DaVita told Oliver. “You would have sometimes 15, maybe 25 minutes to get that next patient on the machine, so you were not properly disinfecting.”

John Oliver explained dialysis as a process in which a person is hooked up to a machine that removes blood out of the body, cleans it, then returns it to circulation. “Think of it as a Brita pitcher for your blood,” he said.

And he urged people to learn about the for-profit dialysis industry, however boring it may seem, because an increasing number of people in the United States suffer from kidney disease and rely on the “exhausting process” of dialysis to stay alive.

The Washington Post article stated kidney disease is the ninth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oliver also cited a 2010 ProPublica investigation that revealed the United States “continues to have one of the industrialized world’s highest mortality rates for dialysis care” despite spending more on it than other nations, by some accounts.

“So we’re spending the most to essentially get the least,” Oliver said. “We’re basically paying for a fully loaded Lamborghini and receiving a drunk donkey on roller skates.”

Oliver recounted the history of how the country’s for-profit dialysis industry came to be — the result, he said, of good intentions mixed with “bad incentives, poor oversight and profiteering.”

Toward the end of his segment, John Oliver emphasized that problems with the for-profit dialysis industry were not limited to DaVita.

He also called for better government oversight, as well as improved incentives for kidney transplants and health care “to keep out of dialysis in the first place.”

Oliver also praised those who were willing to donate one of their two kidneys while still alive. READ MORE

What does diabetes do to the kidneys?

With diabetes, the small blood vessels in the body are injured according to the National Kidney foundation. When the blood vessels in the kidneys are injured, your kidneys cannot clean your blood properly. Your body will retain more water and salt than it should, which can result in weight gain and ankle swelling. You may have protein in your urine. Also, waste materials will build up in your blood.

Diabetes also may cause damage to nerves in your body. This can cause difficulty in emptying your bladder. The pressure resulting from your full bladder can back up and injure the kidneys. Also, if urine remains in your bladder for a long time, you can develop an infection from the rapid growth of bacteria in urine that has a high sugar level.

LISTEN NOW: Diabetes Late Nite podcast inspired by A Tribe Called Quest. We’re focusing on ‘KIDNEYS and DIABETES’ with musical inspiration from A Tribe Called Quest. Phife Dawg, born Malik Taylor, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in May of 1990. Experiencing constant thirst and bathroom visits, his grandmother, a nurse, tested him for diabetes after a performance in Connecticut. Initially, Phife admitted he did not take his diagnosis seriously, and maintained his same lifestyle.

“It’s really a sickness,” Taylor said in Beats, Rhymes & Life, Michael Rapaport’s candid 2011 documentary on the group. “Like straight-up drugs. I’m just addicted to sugar.”

Phife’s initial resistance to treatment made it necessary for him to go on dialysis followed by a kidney transplant in 2008. This past March he died at age 45.

“When you learn you have diabetes, the first word you have to learn is acceptance,” he said during an interview with dLife TV hoping to encourage others to learn from his mistakes.

June’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast guests include MaryAnn Nicolay DTR, Dr. Braxton Cosby, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDE, Poet Lorraine Brooks, Funny Man Mike, Arnon Krongrad, MD, Catherine Lawrence and Mama Rose Marie. We’re featuring songs from their first album, “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm”, released in 1990, courtesy of SONY MUSIC.

11/28/2016

House and R &B vocalist Colonel Abrams Died at Age 67

Colonel Abrams joins a long list of men from the R & B and Hip Hop music communities who died of diabetes health-related complications this year. The list includes Phife Dawg (‘A Tribe Called Quest’), Prince Be (‘P.M. Dawn’), and radio personalities Doug Banks and Vaughn Harper.

Diabetes is 60% more common in black Americans than in white Americans. Blacks are up to 2.5 times more likely to suffer a limb amputation and up to 5.6 times more likely to suffer kidney disease than other people with diabetes. Diabetes is also a significant contributor to erectile dysfunction. Because men are less likely to engage in the health care system, primary and secondary prevention efforts need to be implemented in culturally appropriate, male-oriented venues.

Last year, Colonel Abrams was reportedly homeless and suffering from diabetes, and a crowd-funding effort by fans and friends was launched to get him back on his feet.

Colonel Abrams stated in a video: “As most of you may or may not know, a lot of recording artist don’t have medical coverage or benefits.” He went on to say… “The Colonel is very ill with no permanent place of his own to live at this time and limited financial resources.”

The Detroit-born, Manhattan raised singer began playing both piano and guitar while still quite young. By the mid 1970s he became part of the band Heavy Impact. But it was nearly a decade later that Abrams really made a name for himself with the big 1985 hit “Trapped”. Colonel Abrams also sang on several tracks that are considered to have laid the groundwork for what is now considered global dance music including the songs, “How Soon We Forget” and “Not Gonna Let.”

According to Soul Tracks: “By the mid 1970s he became part of the band Heavy Impact. But it was nearly a decade later that Colonel Abrams really made a name for himself with the big hit ‘Music Is the Answer.’ It began a string of dance hits that capitalized on the electronic sounds that were popular in the mid ’80s … Abrams continued to chart on the Dance and R&B charts into the mid-’90s, and performed around the world into the new century. He also formed his own Colonel Records and released music sporadically through the early part of this decade.”

The rate of diabetes among people who are homeless is on the rise along with diabetes health-related deaths. People who are homeless don’t have the finances to afford to monitor their blood sugar levels on a regular basis and healthy food choices.

Jan Boyd, a registered nurse who works with Withers on Operation Safety Net said, “People on the street don’t usually seek medical care unless the symptoms are making them uncomfortable. With diabetes, discomfort comes too late.”

And life expectancy for a person without a home is just 45-49 years, according to a study done by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. The NHCHC also reports that the number one cause of death among the homeless population is complications related to chronic conditions like diabetes!

Dr. Jim Withers co-founded Operation Safety Net, which is part of the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pittsburg, PA. Operation Safety Net provides healthcare to people living on the street, but Withers describes it differently: “The program is providing people with hope,” he says.

“Our philosophy is to treat people where they are,” said Withers, who has been treating homeless people since 1992. Operation Safety Net has helped transition more than 850 chronically ill homeless people into permanent housing since it started, and many of those people have been living with diabetes.

We have experienced so many diabetes health-related deaths in the urban radio and music industry. It is my goal to find a way to share these stories as a way to teach today’s music fans about diabetes on our free monthly podcasts. If you have any suggestions let me know.

LISTEN: Diabetes Late Nite inspired by A Tribe Called Quest. Phife Dawg, born Malik Taylor, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in May of 1990. Experiencing constant thirst and bathroom visits, his grandmother, a nurse, tested him for diabetes after a performance in Connecticut. Initially, Phife admitted he did not take his diagnosis seriously, and maintained his same lifestyle.

“It’s really a sickness,” Taylor said in Beats, Rhymes & Life, Michael Rapaport’s candid 2011 documentary on the group. “Like straight-up drugs. I’m just addicted to sugar.”

Phife’s initial resistance to treatment made it necessary for him to go on dialysis followed by a kidney transplant in 2008. This past March he died at age 45.