Will the tech world ignore Dr. Dre's history of beating women?

[Toparaman]

The most famous incident, witnessed by many and widely-reported at the time, was Dre's beating of Dee Barnes in 1991. For those who don't know the details of the incident, watch this first-hand account.

Also, from a Rolling Stone article in 1991:

Last November the Fox TV rap video show Pump It Up ran a segment on N.W.A. in which it crosscut between members of the group dissing their former partner Ice Cube and a previous interview with Cube in which he bad-mouthed them. The members of N.W.A. decided that the clip made them look bad. On January 27th, Dre ran into Pump It Up host Dee Barnes at a record-release party in L.A.

According to a statement issued by Barnes, Dre picked her up and "began slamming her face and the right side of her body repeatedly against a wall near the stairway" as his bodyguard held off the crowd. 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 restroom. Dre followed her and "grabbed her from behind by the hair and proceeded to punch her in the back of the head." Finally, Dre and his bodyguard ran from the building.

Far from denying the attack, the members of N.W.A. insist that, as Ren says, "she deserved it – bitch deserved it." Eazy agrees: "Yeah, bitch had it coming."

"Coming like a motherfucker," Ren continues, "she shouldn't have done that." Barnes says that she was against running the piece in the first place, but Ren disagrees. "She's lying," he says. "She had something to do with it. She sure was in that scene with [Ice Cube]."

And Dre himself says: "People talk all this shit, but you know, somebody fucks with me, I'm gonna fuck 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, who first filed charges against Dre in February, is now pursuing a civil lawsuit alleging assault and battery, infliction of emotional distress and defamation. "Their whole philosophy has been that they're just telling stories, just reporting how it is on the streets," says Barnes. "But they've started believing this whole fantasy, getting caught up in their press, and they think they're invincible. They think they're living their songs."

Barnes says that she has continued to receive threats from associates of the band and that it took her this long to go public because "it really messed me up." "Dre was like a big brother to me," she says. "I still get very emotional about it." (Newsweek provided an alternative explanation for the delay, reporting that Barnes originally offered to drop the charges if Dre would help her own rap group with its music.) Says Barnes: "Now it's bigger than just me – one individual – getting slapped around. It's a campaign of them with a Number One album calling for violence against women. They've grown up with the mentality that it's okay to hit women, especially black women. Now there's a lot of kids listening and thinking it's okay to hit women who get out of line."

More recently, Ruthless Records singer Michel'le, who dated Dr. Dre in the '90s, also claimed abuse:

Michel’le: One of my boyfriends hit me and crooked it, so I had to try and straighten it and it took years because it cost a lot of money.

Wendy: One of your baby’s fathers broke your nose?

Absolutely.

And you stayed?

I stayed because my father had never told me he loved me until just the last three years, so I think I had to go back and figure that out. It’s in my book but getting beat was love to me. Believe it or not when I got with Suge he really didn’t beat me. I asked him, ‘Why aren’t you beating me? You don’t like me?’ I asked him that.

Well if it isn’t Suge, then the fingers are pointing at you Dr. Dre.

He knows it. It was very public. It was very, very public so that wasn’t a secret. I did five videos and we had to cover three black eyes. It seemed like the day before a video, I would get a black eye and we had to cover it. I truly, truly, truly loved him, but it was okay and I truly thought he loved me. I didn’t take it as anything bad, nor did I grow up seeing it in my household.

There is zero known history of Dre ever physically assaulting a man.

Maybe Dre has reformed since those days, and has made amends with Dee Barnes and Michel'le. Who knows? No one has brought the topic up to him, Eminem reference aside. Getting an interview with Dre is so rare and restricted that journalists don't want to screw up their opportunity.

However, now that Dr. Dre is a key player for an international corporation, his past should not be ignored. It's unlikely that Dre is going to be any more open to interviews, but journalists can certainly ask Apple representatives how they can hire someone with a history of beating women.


EDIT: I've come around a bit on this issue after reading some of the points people have made here. Dre hasn't had any woman-beating incidents since the '90s, and it's probably safe to say he's left that behavior behind. I still don't think woman-beating can be chalked up to youthful indiscretions, but Dre did grow up in a really rough area. As for Dee Barnes and Michel'le, only they can say whether Dre finally did right by them.

 

[Zane]

I never even knew, so.

 

[BocoDragon]

He makes great records, so he gets the old "Polanski pass" to me!

 

[Jarrod38]

Because money can my your problems magically disappear.

 

[Ahasverus]

Well they would recognize beats is what he does best.

 

[GQman2121]

He made The Chronic. The Chronic.

 

[StoopKid]

Because money can my your problems magically disappear.

Cough Kobe

 

[Herr K]

If Mozilla's CEO had to step down for his homophobic activities, Dre should receive the same treatment. Hitting someone is way worse than giving money to prevent someone from marrying, in my opinion.

 

[DominoKid]

Yes. People in general don't really give a shit about it beyond a punchline considering it happened like 20 years ago.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Meh, happened 20 years ago. I'm sure he's settled with those women and made amends. Now if this were like 5 years ago, there would be a point to this thread.

Really just sounds like bitterness over the entire deal, which at the end of the day really isn't that big of a deal for the end user who never liked Beats in the first place.

/shrug.

 

[PhoenixDark]

I doubt Apple cares considering there were no criminal charges. If people raise a stink about this and it effects Apple's bottom line then sure he'll be out the door...but that's not going to happen.

I don't think the Mozilla guy should have been fired either, as there was no evidence his presence posed any threat to the company losing enough supporters to matter.

 

[strikeselect]

He made The Chronic. The Chronic.

 

[Phoenix]

If the police and the court system didn't give enough shits to do something serious about it, don't expect the tech community to care much.

 

[Gvaz]

Well they would recognize beats is what he does best.

DEAD

Beats arent even good headphones

 

[braves01]

Dre should be held accountable and people should boycott Apple products until he is totally unaffiliated with the company and his name is dropped from the Beats brand.

 

[Phoenix]

Well they would recognize beats is what he does best.

Nice attempt, but bad delivery.... 3/5

 

[HI. BILLY MAYS HERE]

No one is gonna care about something that allegedly happened 20 years ago.

 

[Chichikov]

Now that Tim Dog is dead/faked his death, yeah, they'll probably will.

 

[mrkgoo]

Well they would recognize beats is what he does best.

I'm surprised there aren't more Beats by Dr. Dre puns.

I'm not entirely sure why this history would be relevant to him working in this company. What's his role? Is he a figurehead? Is he supposed to be a role model?

Is he still beating women?

 

[King_Moc]

Yes, because people in big corporations are accountable for anything, right? Fucking hell, America is a country that has free reign to murder throughout the world without consequence, and you think they're worried about a little thing like Dre being a prick?

 

[Acorn]

"Does it affect the money?" Is the only thing corporations care about.

 

[Zaptruder]

The nature of the crime means that it's past its social statute of limitations.

While society shouldn't look to implicitly encourage these sorts of harmful behaviours... it definetly needs to weigh that up against not hounding each other any and all over mistakes ever made.

 

[Cisce]

john lennon was a pretty abusive husband and father too.

 

[Squalor]

This allegedly happened over twenty years ago.

His record, as far as I can tell, has been spotless since.

There is nothing to talk about.

 

[entremet]

Why bring Dre's skeletons out when apple Google And Adobe colluded to keep wages down? A more systemic and vile sin since it was based on pure greed and happened with careful forethought.

 

[braves01]

Is he still beating women?

Probably. I bet he's still hitting women and corners in them low low's, girl.

We know he's still not loving police.

 

[JDSN]

Im sure if people raise hell about it he will get in trouble, I think people are misrepresenting the Mozilla thing to draw comparisons with this, dude recently backed an stance that indirectly affected a bunch of people and never backed down. If Dre went on the record to say that fucking up your partner is cool and supported a law that thwarted the efforts to end spousal abuse, then id be similar, otherwise people making the comparison sounds like the fellas that say "SEE THIS? BLACK CAN BE RACIST TOO!".

 

[Ninja Scooter]

After he made "Been there, Done that" that refreshed his record.

 

[HI. BILLY MAYS HERE]

 

[Derwind]

He does make good marketing for shitty headphones

Meh, happened 20 years ago. I'm sure he's settled with those women and made amends. Now if this were like 5 years ago, there would be a point to this thread.

Lol. Why? What happened in 2009 tha.... oh... yea...RiRi...

 

[Juice]

Why bring Dre's skeletons out when apple Google And Adobe colluded to keep wages down? A more systemic and vile sin since it was based on pure greed and happened with careful forethought.

This is totally a cogent argument

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

This allegedly happened over twenty years ago.

His record, as far as I can tell, has been spotless since.

There is nothing to talk about.

Allegedly? He admitted to it, and even bragged about it. Perhaps we should post the entire thing so that everyone has full perspective:

After her 1990 interview with Ice Cube in which the rapper discusses his leaving N.W.A. at the height of their feud,[2] the group, feeling they had been negatively portrayed, sought retaliation. On January 27, 1991 Dr. Dre would encounter 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."[3]

N.W.A.'s MC Ren later said "bitch deserved it", and Eazy-E "yeah, bitch had it coming." As Dr. Dre explained the incident, "People talk all this shit, but you know, somebody fuck with me, I'm gonna fuck 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, telling reporter Alan Light: "They've grown up with the mentality that it's okay to hit women, especially black women. Now there's a lot of kids listening and thinking it's okay to hit women who "get out of line.

 

[ssolitare]

Probably. I bet he's still hitting women and corners in them low low's, girl.

We know he's still not loving police.

Oh really.

 

[J10]

How are they gonna feel when they find out his current wife is white?

 

[marrec]

We ignore shit famous people do all the time.

 

[wildfire]

The most famous incident, witnessed by many and widely-reported at the time, was Dre's beating of Dee Barnes. For those who don't know the details of the incident, watch this first-hand account.
.

You killed your credibility by not mentioning upfront this is 20 years old moreso than anything Dre has done recently.

 

[Homeboyd]

Cough Kobe

sounds like you need to see the dr

 

[enzo_gt]

It was two decades ago, and people can change. That will be enough to carry him through backlash I feel. I don't think enough people know about the Dee Barnes thing either, but I feel like, by now, he would have made a public statement about it.

Will be interesting to see if this is focused on by the media. With social media this has a chance of becoming toxic to Apple/Beats.

 

[Squalor]

Stuff.

Okay. So he made a mistake 20 years ago.

He has had a spotless record since.

What's there to talk about?

Nothing.

Look at that. We arrived at the same point.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

It was two decades ago, and people can change. That will be enough to carry him through backlash I feel. I don't think enough people know about the Dee Barnes thing either, but I feel like, by now, he would have made a public statement about it.

Will be interesting to see if this is focused on by the media. With social media this has a chance of becoming toxic to Apple/Beats.

Nobody will carea because it was so long ago. It's not like he Dr. Dre came out of nowhere he's been a pretty big player in the tech world for the last few years and not a peep came.

 

[Tallshortman]

Why bring Dre's skeletons out when apple Google And Adobe colluded to keep wages down? A more systemic and vile sin since it was based on pure greed and happened with careful forethought.

What does that have to do with this thread? Are... are you trying to excuse Dre's laundry being swept under the rug because this specific thread doesn't randomly mention some tech companies' illegal collusion?

 

[James Woods]

So funny reading that story about him fucking up Barnes, because his past is anything but thug life.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

Okay. So he made a mistake 20 years ago.

He has had a spotless record since.

What's there to talk about?

Nothing.

Look at that. We arrived at the same point.

It wasn't a mistake. It was deliberately calculated move. He didn't hit her in a fit of anger (which wouldn't have been acceptable either FYI), but he deliberately sought her out and beat the shit out of her while her bodyguard threatened anyone who helped her with a gun, and then after she escaped he followed her into the bathroom and continued beating the shit out of her.

Then he bragged about it, never apologized, never came back and said hitting women is bad, and kept making jokes about it for the next 20 years.

There's zero evidence that he's changed. But you're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because he made Still DRE. Got it.

 

[King_Moc]

john lennon was a pretty abusive husband and father too.

Seems utterly irrelevant to the topic, but he also owned up to it (in song, 'it's getting better') and tried to stop being a dick. Where's the evidence that Dre did the same?

 

[BocoDragon]

I feel like it will inevitably be brought up at some point.

A jezebel article is incoming eventually....

 

[Blackage]

[Eminem]
Okay! Thought about it, still wanna stab her?
Grab her by the throat, get your daughter and kidnap her?
That's what I did, be smart, don't be a retard
You gonna take advice from somebody who slapped DEE BARNES??!

[Dr. Dre]
What'chu say? (What's wrong? Didn't think I'd remember?)
I'ma kill you motherfucker!

[Eminem]
Uhhh-aahh! Temper temper!
Mr. Dre? Mr. N.W.A.?
Mr. AK comin' straight outta Compton y'all better make way?
How in the fuck you gonna tell this man not to be violent?

[Dr. Dre]
Cause he don't need to go the same route that I went
Been there, done that.. aw fuck it...
What am I sayin? Shoot em both Grady, where's your gun at?

Somehow I don't think he or Apple cares, Dre's dirt is out there for everyone to see, typically if your past is known and you sign a deal, it was known before that it won't effect the deal. It's when you have some shady past or current dealing people don't know about and want to bring into the light that shit goes down.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I feel like it will inevitably be brought up at some point.

A jezebel article is incoming eventually....

if an article like that was going to do anything it would have been brought up as Dre was spending the last 5 years selling shitloads of headphones. You can try and stir up a controversy and get attention, and in some cases (like Mozilla dude) it will work but not in this case.

 

[Cisce]

Seems utterly irrelevant to the topic, but he also owned up to it (in song, 'it's getting better') and tried to stop being a dick. Where's the evidence that Dre did the same?

not really.

show's that great artists can beat women and admit to it, too.

 

[Toparaman]

You killed your credibility by not mentioning upfront this is 20 years old moreso than anything Dre has done recently.

I thought the Dee Barnes incident was more widely known. I'll update my original post.

 

[victreeb3l]

It was forever ago. Who gives a shit.