The D.O.C. delivered his first verse in nearly 15 years via Codefendants’ new album, This Is Crime Wave, something nobody necessarily saw coming.

In November 1989, a mere three months after The D.O.C. dropped his platinum-certified solo album No One Can Do It Better, the Death Row Records co-founder fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the side of a Los Angeles freeway. Because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, he flew out of the rear window and slammed face-first into a tree. His injuries required 21 hours of plastic surgery and more than two weeks in the hospital. When he eventually woke up, he realized he’d been left with the inability to speak—but it wasn’t caused by the accident itself. A procedure he underwent during the medical melée had crushed his larynx, which he didn’t learn until years later.

Needless to say, he didn’t think he’d ever rap again.

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