Dee Barnes and Michel'le Speak Out About Dr. Dre's Abusive Past, Exclusion From Straight Outta Compt

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

You'd think this would be a bigger deal with the majority of entertainment media, but instead, all they seem interested in doing is pushing product. Maybe when Dre reaches Cosby's age, they'll finally call him out on his biographical omissions and history of violence toward women.

Thumbs up to Pitchfork for not giving it a pass

With Dr. Dre's past back in the spotlight due to the release of the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton and his new album Compton, a renewed conversation about Dre's history of abuse against women has been taking place. Now, two women have spoken out directly about the film and Dre's legacy.

The R&B singer Michel'le, who was engaged to Dre and has a son with him, has previously claimed that Dre was regularly physically abusive to her during their relationship. This week, she spoke with VladTV about her omission from Straight Outta Compton. When informed that Dre was one of the producers of the film, she replied, "Why would Dre put me in it? If they start from where they start from, I was just a quiet girlfriend who got beat up and told to sit down and shut up." She also called Straight Outta Compton "Cube's version of his life."

Michel'le previously told VladTV that Dre once attempted to shoot her. (A skit at the end of Compton track "Loose Cannons" involves a woman being shot and her body being buried.)

(...)

Meanwhile, journalist Dee Barnes penned an essay for Gawker about Straight Outta Compton. She discusses the 1991 incident in which Dre "beat me mercilessly" at a record release party.

She writes:

That event isn’t depicted in Straight Outta Compton, but I don’t think it should have been, either. 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, 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."

But what should have been addressed is that it occurred. When I was sitting there in the theater, and the movie’s timeline skipped by my attack without a glance, I was like, “Uhhh, what happened?” Like many of the women that knew and worked with N.W.A., I found myself a casualty of Straight Outta Compton’s revisionist history.

http://pitchfork.com/news/60843-dee-barnes-and-michelle-speak-out-about-dr-dres-abusive-past-exclusion-from-straight-outta-compton/

[cwydro]

1. This is sad.

Truly.

It's cool to be a woman beater if you're a success, I reckon.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

3. See also: Eminem, Tommy Lee, Chris Brown, Charle Sheen, etc

The only celebrity abuser who ever had his career suffer was Ike Turner, and that's only because he made the mistake of beating up a victim who was far more famous and liked than he was.

[cwydro]

4. Good point.

I'd forgotten about Ike.

Is he still alive?

[roody]

7. No.

[msongs]

6. Ike beat up a "victim" who fought back and renounced her victim status instead of keeping

quiet

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

8. Dee Barnes has never been quiet about it

It's just that MTV, Rolling Stone and the entertainment industry chose to ignore her.

It's only now that some outlets are beginning to pick up her story.

And my point was not to disparage Tina Turner's efforts, but merely to point out that the media ignores others who come forward, if they're not a household name.

And, even then, sometimes that's not enough.

Look at Ronnie Spector. Abused for years by Phil, but the media usually covered him as merely a quirky, eccentric genius. It took him killing a woman for them to finally see him for the abusive psycho that he was.

[Brickbat]

5. K&R so people know the whole story.

Dee Barnes' article on Gawker was fantastic.