Since its release, Straight Outta Compton has had a majority of good feedback –with the exception of those who feel like they know what REALLY happened.
As of recent, Dee Barnes, former journalist and TV host, offers what she feels like is missing from the $60 million gross film.
In a personal essay to Gawker, Dee shared her story of being abused by Dr. Dre and says SOC overlooked him beating her and other women.
Here’s the order events according to her: Dee was a host on a well-known Fox show, Pump It Up. During her time with the show, she participated in the production of a segment focusing on N.W.A and Dre was not a happy camper when the footage aired.
Apparently, Dre felt like Dee set him up and made them (N.W.A) look stupid. He was supposedly upset that one footage from an Ice Cube interview made it on the show segment and this was during the time he and Dre were enemies. The segment ended with Ice Cube saying, “got all you suckers 100 miles and runnin’.”
Unfortunately for her, Dre wasn’t concerned with the specifics of HOW it ended up there. He saw red and was coming straight for Dee.
“Their minds were so ignorant back then,” she recalled. “claiming that I set them up and made them look stupid. That wasn’t a setup. It was journalism and television, first of all, and secondly, I had nothing to do with the decision to run the package as it did.”
Shortly there after, they ran into each other at a night club when she alleges that Dre assaulted her. In many interviews, she claims that he slammed her head against a wall, kicked her, and stomped on her fingers. Although the civil case she had against him was settled in court, to watch the movie brought back so many memories for her, which she shares in her full essay.
As previously stated, she wasn’t Dre’s only victim. She also names Tairrie B, and Michel’le, who both also worked closely with him.
The truth is too ugly for a general audience. 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,” Dee penned. “His one-time girlfriend who recently summed up their relationship this way: “I was just a quiet girlfriend who got beat on and told to sit down and shut up.”
She believes that their violent encounters should not have been replayed, per se, in SOC; but at least acknowledged that Dre isn’t what they depicted him to be on that big screen.
“Dre, who executive produced the movie along with his former groupmate Ice Cube, should have owned up to the time he punched his labelmate Tairrie B twice at a Grammys party in 1990. He should have owned up to the black eyes and scarshe gave to his collaborator Michel’le. And he should have owned up to what he did to me,” she further exclaimed.
Yall would never guess who the camera man was that day of the Ice Cube interview! F. Gary Gray! The man who’s film made $60 million last week –SOC.
Yall can see now why Dee attributes him as a opportunist.
She recalls the extent of the interview in detail, in the essay. Basically, they were on the scene of Boyz In The Hood and the interview was going great. Cube was in a good mood. Then something was said or showed to him to make him upset. He screamed “cut” and what appeared to be satisfied, the producers wrapped up, saying, “We’re going to put that in.” Dee says she warned them that’s not s good idea but she blames that being a women devalued her input.
Putting his hands on her (and the other women) wasn’t the only thing Dee highlighted in her essay. But how Dre had her blacklisted from working in her field after their incident.
“People ask me, ‘How come you’re not on TV anymore?’ and ‘How come you’re not back on television?’ It’s not like I haven’t tried. I was blacklisted.” She said. “Nobody wants to work with me. They don’t want to affect their relationship with Dre. I’ve been told directly and indirectly, ‘I can’t work with you.'”
Dee is upset with how N.W.A was ultimately depicted. She says SOC diluted N.W.A’s image.
Straight Outta Comptontransforms N.W.A. from the world’s most dangerous rap group to the world’s most diluted rap group. In rap, authenticity matters, and gangsta rap has always pushed boundaries beyond what’s comfortable with hardcore rhymes that are supposed to present accounts of the street’s harsh realities (though N.W.A. shared plenty of fantasies, as well). The biggest problem with Straight Outta Compton is that it ignores several of N.W.A.’s own harsh realities. That’s not gangsta, it’s not personal, it’s just business. Try as they might, too much of N.W.A.’s story ain’t that kinda shit you can sweep under no rug. You know?
TSR intern: Chantel P. Instagram: @_POPchanny | Twitter: @POPchanny
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