On Sunday night time on the sixty fifth Annual Grammy Awards, hip-hop pioneer Dr. Dre was honored with an award that can newly bear his identify – the Dr. Dre International Influence Award. The respect is a mission of the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective, which debuted the International Influence Award final 12 months, merely as such. The Collective was established after the mass protests of 2020, fueled by the homicide of George Floyd and the killing of Breonna Taylor by police. And for some, Dre’s moniker upon this award additionally fuels indignance — as a result of for a number of girls who’ve accused the mogul of grave acts of violence in opposition to them, his influence has been a lot darker than the Recording Academy is acknowledging.
Dee Barnes is a kind of girls. Barnes, a journalist and MC who, at 19, hosted Pump It Up!, a hip-hop present on Fox integral to the real-time archiving of the style’s improvement from 1989 to 1991. Earlier than she says she was attacked by Dre on January 27, 1991, and earlier than the collection’ subsequent finish, Barnes interviewed now-legends like LL Cool J, Jazzy Jeff & The Contemporary Prince, and Queen Latifah.
Forward of an album launch social gathering the place Barnes mentioned that Dre assaulted her, a phase on her present aired that captured the stress between Dre’s then-group N.W.A and former member Ice Dice. In a 2015 op-ed for Gawker, the place Barnes recounted the incident, she mentioned N.W.A later claimed Dre was indignant concerning the clip she included within the present and beat her mercilessly due to it. The police have been known as and within the early hours of January 28, 1991, a warrant for Dre’s arrest was issued. On the time, he was charged with assault and battery. He pleaded no contest, leading to a $2,500 high-quality and a two-year probation sentence with group service. Within the op-ed, Barnes wrote that she’s suffered horrific migraines within the years for the reason that incident, pulsing within the actual spot the place she mentioned Dre slammed her head right into a wall.
At this time, Dr. Dre has a web value of a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} after constructing a discography revered as traditional and foundational. He’s a lauded music govt, having based the label that launched the careers of Eminem and 50 Cent. Extra lately, he constructed an empire with Beats and Apple alongside Interscope Data co-founder Jimmy Iovine. Conversely, Barnes has struggled immensely to deal with and supply for herself since urgent prices, saying she was blacklisted within the trade because of talking out. She mentioned she’s even skilled harassment whereas working entry-level retail jobs to outlive.
As this 12 months’s Grammys approached, Barnes knew Dre can be honored with the Influence Award alongside different trade legends, together with Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne, and Epic Data CEO Sylvia Rhone. “I used to be actually enthusiastic about that,” Barnes — who continues to be an avid music fan and knowledgeable — says of Rhone. However when she realized of the plan to call the dignity after Dre, she was shocked. “I had no concept this different factor was coming in any respect,” she added. On the reside televised ceremony, Dre was graciously celebrated with a video tribute earlier than accepting his namesake award.
Right here, in her personal phrases, as informed to Rolling Stone’s Mankaprr Conteh, Barnes displays on Dre’s newest victory, the violence she says she skilled at his arms, her life earlier than and after the life-changing incident, and nonetheless loving hip-hop.
Everyone desires to separate the artwork from the artist, and typically that’s simply not doable. Most individuals and not using a data of [Dr. Dre’s] historical past are going to say, “Oh, he should deserve that. He have to be such an awesome particular person for them to place an award in his identify.” However they named this award after an abuser. It wasn’t only a one or two-time factor; these are selections. The primary time, it’s possibly a mistake. The second time, okay. The third time, it’s a alternative. I’m not saying he is similar particular person now, although. I don’t know. I’m not round him anymore. I haven’t talked to him. However to call an award after somebody with that kind of historical past within the music trade, you may as effectively name it the “Ike Turner Award.”
What I discover most irritating about the whole factor is that [Dre and I] can’t appear to coexist in the identical house. I appeared on the Grammys’ tribute to the fiftieth anniversary of Hip-Hop — which was lovely — and I used to be pondering, “I’d’ve been there. I’d’ve been there on the pink carpet. I’d’ve been interviewing a few of these artists.” Actually, I’ve interviewed most of them earlier than.
Nonetheless, they must hold considered one of us out of sight whereas they’re honoring one other as a result of considered one of us makes the opposite look unhealthy. He mentioned it himself within the documentary The Defiant Ones: I’m a “blemish” on who he’s as a person. Effectively, what do you do with a blemish? There’s an entire trade created — skincare traces and nutritional vitamins and rituals — to do away with blemishes. And, in a way, there’s an entire community to maintain me hidden.
I shouldn’t must endure by not having the ability to exist in an area and in a tradition that not solely did I develop up in however that I contributed to in a significant method. Is that this about his emotions? Is that this about his legacy? Or is it about ego and poisonous masculinity? What’s it about? My complete historical past has been erased — as an artist, as a music journalist, and as a tv host. All some folks see is the [1991] incident. Whereas with him, it’s like, “Have a look at all of the shiny stuff over right here! Look, we’ve acquired awards, we’ve acquired colleges, we’ve acquired headphones, we’ve acquired the Tremendous Bowl, we’ve acquired productions, films. Don’t take a look at that.”
I’ve been attempting to get a documentary made since 2015. I wished it to air this 12 months for the Hip-Hop 50. I used to be the primary younger Black girl to host a present on Fox as a brand new community. It was even earlier than In Dwelling Colour acquired there. I used to be 19 once I acquired the present and 20 when it first aired, and there’s numerous historic content material in that. I’ve talked to all people you possibly can consider after which some. Now, with the documentary I would like on it, I’ve been met with silence or individuals who say they’re however finally ghost me. There’s completely no good motive why this documentary shouldn’t have been made. It might’ve undoubtedly helped me out of homelessness. Each couple of months, I’m crowdfunding, attempting to avoid wasting the archives of the present from being bought at public sale as a result of I can’t afford to pay the storage invoice. If I had one Netflix verify, that historical past can be preserved perpetually.
The blacklisting I’ve confronted nonetheless feels lively, and it took me a very long time to just accept that. For the longest time, I used to be like, “That’s not what’s taking place. It’s not that.” But it surely’s undoubtedly that. I see it. I’ve had loads of individuals who will help me privately, however they don’t need it to be publicly recognized due to their enterprise associations, dealings, or no matter.
It’s all the time and principally been Black girls — journalists and writers — which have all the time had my again with regard to what occurred to me. Dream Hampton was the primary particular person to jot down about my incident and present me superb help. She was so fearless about what she needed to say. She mentioned it in The Supply. She mentioned it in The Village Voice. She was superb. She nonetheless is superb. Pearl Cleage additionally wrote a ebook known as Offers with the Satan and Different Causes to Riot, and he or she talked about me. It could have been the primary ebook to take action. It was superb as a result of she knew proper after the incident, so what she mentioned was fairly highly effective.
However aside from that, so far as folks in hip-hop and the group, the help isn’t there. Somebody had lately mentioned that “hip-hop wasn’t good to Dee. Hip-hop may need been good to different folks, but it surely wasn’t good to Dee.” And I used to be unhappy as a result of it’s true, however on the similar time, I nonetheless find it irresistible regardless. I nonetheless find it irresistible as a result of there’s nonetheless rather more to like than to hate. What occurred to me was unusual and extremely private. It wasn’t about enterprise. Lots of people assume what he did was about Pump It Up!, and I’m engaged on my memoir now to actually get into numerous the soiled particulars. This was a private factor.
After I consider what atonement appears to be like like for Dre and me, I consider a missed alternative the place we may have sat down collectively on digital camera and hashed it out. I believe that will’ve begun a journey of therapeutic; he’s coming head to head with me, and I’m coming head to head with him. I’ve put out the olive department. Black girls and style, you understand how we’re. It wasn’t accepted. However I believe that’s going to be the one factor to show the tide, so to talk — if we’ve a come-to-Jesus second in particular person, in public. As a result of every little thing occurred publicly, it’s acquired to have closure publicly.
I’m not the unhealthy man, however I’m made into the villain — very very like how they did Megan Thee Stallion in the course of the trial in opposition to her attacker, Tory Lanez. I watched what occurred to my little sister Megan, and it simply was heartbreaking to me as a result of we’ve not modified in all these years.
My monetary life is simply now stabilizing. I used to be unhoused for 3 years. I simply moved into a spot, and it was laborious. It was actually, actually laborious. I acquired evicted in 2019, after which that adopted me on my credit score, and I couldn’t get one other place. However I didn’t even have the cash to get one other place. The cash from my 2019 GoFundMe simply wound up serving to me survive these three years of being unhoused… barely. As a result of by the second 12 months, the cash was gone. Now, I’m lastly getting my toes moist once more, again within the sport as a journalist. It’s been slightly tough begin as a result of I’m slightly rusty, but it surely’s getting higher. The extra I do it, the higher I’ll really feel — assured once more.