HBO docu-series The Defiant Ones premiered on Sunday night (July 9), with the four-episode journey diving deep into the lives of Dr. Dre and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine. In episodes two and three, Dre opens up about several painful events in his life, including the death of his older brother Tyree Crayon and the notorious physical altercation he had with Pump It Up! host Dee Barnes. In episode two, he describes that moment in his life as a “major blemish.”
“Any man that puts his hands on a female is a fucking idiot,” Dre says in the clip. “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. I apologize for it. I had 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.”
In January 1991, an intoxicated Dre ran into Barnes at a Hollywood record release party, where he allegedly grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into a brick wall as Dre’s bodyguard held the crowd at bay with a gun. After Dre tried to throw her down the stairs, he started kicking her in the ribs and hands. Although she escaped from his grip and ran into the women’s restroom, Dre followed her punched her in the back of the head.
“Dre approached… [and] he just grabbed me,” Barnes said in a 2015 interview. “I thought he was going to walk past me but he just grabbed me. I mean it’s no secret … he grabbed me by my hair and started slamming me up against the wall. It’s a painful and traumatic experience.”
As explained in the episode, Dre was furious that Pump It Up! ran an interview with Ice Cube, who had just split from N.W.A to pursue his solo career, alongside an interview with N.W.A.
Watch Dre’s apology via TMZ and Barnes’ 1991 interview above.
“You gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes?” LOL
“(“What you say?) What’s wrong? Didn’t think I’d remember?, (I’ma kill you, mothafucka!) Uhh-ahh, temper, temper, Mr. Dre, Mr. N.W.A, Mr. AK, Comin’ straight outta Compton, y’all better make way”
How in the fuck are you gonna tell this man not to be violent?/ cuz he don’t need to go the same route that I went/ been there, done that (Gun cocks in the background)/ aw fuck it, what am I saying, shoot em both Grady, where’s your gun at/
Suck It, Marshall.
I was just thinking Kendrick Lamar hasn’t really needed dre as much as eminem and 50 … neither 50 or eminem couldn’t get signed but Kendrick blew up on his own .. hes my goat
You gotta remember these are much different times. As dumb as it sounds time has changed how people can blow. There used to be pretty much one way to get music out and it had to be through your million dollar record label. Now days there are short cuts.
Kendrick was about to quit rapping before the dr see cosign. Dre saved kendricks career.
Please. He hasn’t even touched what em did in the early 2000’s. Em has sold 100 million records you silly bich
when is that new album comin
Still trying to be a tough guy…fuck this…fuck that. Is that anyway to make an apology?
strangely, on the “Compton” LP , there’s a semi-skit as part of a song, where a man appears to go berserk and ends up shooting his significant other.
shit was 20 years ago. get the fuckkk over it
so he was sober
I thought it was absolutely hilarious on the SOC movie when Dre bucked up to Suge LMMFAO!!! There’s no way in hell Dre would be a tough guy with Suge, let alone another man.