Despite not having heard a human voice in six months, rapper Foxy Brown, 26, told reporters today (Dec. 15) she is “strong, resilient and fortunate” and is focused on the “necessary surgery” to restore her hearing.
Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, was diagnosed with “sudden and severe hearing loss” in May. Since that time, she has “spent many confusing, agonizing nights crying in isolation and sorrow.”
Standing with supporters including Russell and Kimora Simmons, rapper Doug E. Fresh and members of her legal and medical teams, Brown read a statement to reporters and then allowed friends, including medical consultant Laura Arias to address questions about her next steps.
“We’re moving forward with treatment,” said Arias. She refused to reveal specifics of the treatment, surgery, or length of recovery time involved, saying only that the next steps would begin early January.
Brown’s albums include her 1996 debut, “Ill Na Na,” 1999’s “Chyna Doll,” and 2001’s “Broken Silence.” She was working on her next set, “Black Roses,” when diagnosed with her hearing loss.
News of her condition spread last week while Brown was in a New York court on an unresolved 2004 assault charge. “She’s pretty much totally deaf now,” her attorney, Joseph Tacopina, told the judge. “She can’t hear me. We have to write things back and forth. Anything I have to communicate with her now has to be written.” Brown and Tacopina subsequently parted ways.
