It’s an infamous moment in Hip Hop that is still discussed today. In the early 1990s, the Rap world was shaken by a reported assault against journalist Dee Barnes at the hands of Dr. Dre. During the time when N.W.A. was beefing with Ice Cube, Barnes interviewed both acts and was noted as saying that N.W.A. had “bad energy.” Her interview with Cube reportedly rubbed Dre the wrong way and later, he violently assaulted her at a party while his bodyguard reportedly held off patrons at gunpoint. Dre even spoke about this incident with Rolling Stone in 1991.
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“People talk all this sh*t, but you know, somebody f*ck with me, I’m gonna f*ck with them,” he said at the time. “I just did it, you know. Ain’t nothing you can do now by talking about it. Besides, it ain’t no big thing—I just threw her through a door.” Barnes alleges that Dre punched her in the back of the head, kicked her in her ribs, and slammed her head against a brick wall.
Recently Dr. Dre’s estranged wife Nicole Young requested a restraining order during their divorce proceedings because she claims she endured domestic violence during their marriage. Nicole also alleges that Dr. Dre issued lyrical threats on a leaked track, but a judge didn’t believe she proved her case and denied her request. When the news circulated, Barnes took to Twitter to share that it all brought back memories.
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“This news triggered me… I was also denied restraining order after being brutally assaulted and receiving threats from #DrDre,” wrote Barnes. “I’m logging off need a mental health break.” This all comes in the wake of Love & Hip Hop Hollywood star Moniece Slaughter’s claims that she was threatened by Dr. Dre after she came forward to confirm that the megaproducer was carrying on a romance with Apryl Jones.
In July 2017, Dre offered an apology to Barnes for the assault. “I f*cked up, I paid for it, I’m sorry for it, and I apologize for it,” he said. “I have this dark cloud that follows me, and it’s going to be attached to me forever. It’s a major blemish on who I am as a man.”
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