Dee Barnes Speaks Out About Assault, ‘Dr. Dre Straddled Me And Beat Me Mercilessly’

In an essay published on Gawker entitled “Here’s What’s Missing From Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up” Dr. Dre assault victim Dee Barnes tells the story she feels Director F. Gary Gray left out of Straight Outta Compton – a film that she has described as, “revisionist history.”

The Gawker piece described an incident that reportedly took place on January 21, 1991, when Dr. Dre viciously attacked Barnes, a rapper and host of Pump It Up! It was reported that Dr. Dre was upset about a piece that Pump It Up! aired in November the previous year that portrayed Ice Cube insulting Dre and other NWA members.

After the attack, Barnes described the abuse she suffered at the hands of Dr. Dre. Barnes says that Dre kicked her, stomped on her fingers, and slammed her head against a wall. Dre then attempted to throw her down a flight of stairs. Rolling Stone later quoted Dre, “It ain’t no big thing – I just threw her through a door.”

Barnes writes that she sincerely thought Dre was going to kill her. Dre reportedly pleaded no contest to the charges. Dr. Dre and Barnes settled out of court in a civil suit.

At the time, MC Ren was quoted about Dre assaulting Barnes, “She deserved it – b***h deserved it.”

The now deceased Eazy-E also voiced his support of Dre, “Yeah, b***h had it coming.”

Barnes compares her assault at the hands of Dre to an attack she witnessed by a police officer on a 15-year-old black girl when Barnes first moved to California. Dre, “straddled me and beat me mercilessly on the floor of the women’s restroom at the Po Na Na Souk nightclub in 1991.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Barnes was grateful that the assault at the hands of Dre was not included in the film, stating, “I didn’t want to see a depiction of me getting beat up, just like I didn’t want to see a depiction of Dre beating up Michel’le, his one-time girlfriend.”

Though she was happy that she was not forced to sit through a fictional account of herself being victimized by Dre, Barnes wrote, “What should have been addressed is that it occurred. I found myself a casualty of Straight Outta Compton‘s revisionist history.”

Barnes discusses her time with Dre and other NWA members before they “blew up” fondly. She describes Straight Outta Compton as, “Accurately articulating the frustrations of young black men being constantly harassed… There is a direct connection between the oppression of black men and the violence perpetrated by black men against black women.”

Straight Outta Compton Director F. Gary Gray worked with Barnes as her cameraman on Pump It Up! It was Gray who filmed Ice Cube insulting Dre, ultimately resulting in Barnes’ assault. Barnes has this to say with regard to Gray.

“You may have noticed that Gary has been reluctant to address N.W.A.’s misogyny and Dre’s attack on me in interviews. I think a huge reason that Gary doesn’t want to address it is because then he’d have to explain his part in history. He’s obviously uncomfortable for a reason.”

The Inquisitr recently reported on Dr. Dre’s comments regarding the incident. Barnes can be seen here discussing violence in California, in 2014.

[Dee Barnes Screenshot Courtesy Rap Pages TV YouTube Account]