Dr. Dre Apologetic About Beating Female Journalist: I was out of my f*cking mind.

Dr. Dre, Dee Barnes

Dr. Dre Apologetic About Beating Woman

During his HBO documentary, ‘The Defiant One’s’, Dr. Dre admits that he physically attacked female journalist, Dee Barnes.

Here’s the backstory: In 1990, Barnes did an interview with Ice Cube, in which the rapper discusses his leaving N.W.A. at the height of their feud. The group, feeling they had been negatively portrayed, sought retaliation. On January 27, 1991 Dr. Dre encountered Barnes at a record release party in Hollywood. According to Rolling Stone reporter Alan Light:

He picked her up by her hair and “began slamming her head and the right side of her body repeatedly against a brick wall near the stairway” as his bodyguard held off the crowd with a gun. After Dre tried to throw her down the stairs and failed, he began kicking her in the ribs and hands. She escaped and ran into the women’s rest room. Dre followed her and “grabbed her from behind by the hair again and proceeded to punch her in the back of the head.”

N.W.A. promoter Doug Young claims that he attempted to intervene to restrain Dre, but that he was punched in the mouth by Dre’s bodyguard. At the time, Dr. Dre explained the incident saying:

People talk all this sh*t, but you know, somebody f*ck with me, I’m gonna f*ck with them. 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 sued in February 1991. Barnes filed assault charges and brought a $22.75 million lawsuit against Dr. Dre, who pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to the assault. He was fined $2,500, placed on two years’ probation, and ordered to perform 240 hours of community service and produce an anti-violence public service announcement.  The lawsuit was settled out of court.

Fast forward to the present day and in his documentary, Dre says:

Any man who puts his hands on a female is fucking idiot. He’s out of his fucking mind, and I was out of my fucking mind at the time. I fucked up, I paid for it, I’m sorry for it, and I apologize for it. 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.

“six degrees of separation” @drdre @sistadbarnes @WESTCOASTDOC #TheDefiantOnes @Hughes2Society @HBO pic.twitter.com/KyoXdRtSiv

— Sista Dee Barnes?? (@sistadbarnes) July 11, 2017

Check out The Defiant Ones on HBO.

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