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Dee Barnes Weighs In On Straight Outta Compton!?!
If you’re familiar with N.W.A. then Dee Barnes should be a familiar name, she’s the woman assaulted by Dr. Dre -Dee Barnes Weighs In On Straight Outta Compton.
Dee Barnes breaks it down and REVEALS what’s missing from Straight Outta Compton and why! According to Dee, “Women Are ‘Casualties” of Straight Outta Compton.
Dee went to see the movie and express her feeling about F. Gary Gray’s final cut, which has no mention of Dee Barnes in the N.W.A. biopic film.
Who is Dee Barnes?
Dee Barnes, who was a member of West Coast hip-hop duo Body & Soul, and she used to host the rap-centric Fox series Pump It Up! Unfortunately, Dee may be best remembered as the victim of Dr. Dre’s most famous assault, but that is one of the many things that didn’t make the film Straight Outta Compton. He assault is just one of the many things that was NEVER touched on in the movie.
Dee Barnes Weighs In On Straight Outta Compton in a recent article via Gawker:
She kicks off stating:
“Straight Outta Compton transforms 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?”
Barnes reflects on how Compton was back in the 80s and it was nothing nice:
“I never experienced police harassment until I moved to California in the ‘80s. The first time it happened, I had just left a house party that erupted in gunfire. A cop pulled me over and ordered me out of the car. I was 19, naive, and barefoot. When I made a move to get my shoes, the cop became aggressive. He manhandled me because he supposedly thought I was grabbing for a weapon. I’m lucky he didn’t shoot me. There I was, face down on the ground, knee in my back.”
She states that she was reminded of the police brutality when she saw the footage of a police officer named Eric Casebolt grabbing a 15-year-old girl outside the Craig Ranch North Community Pool in Texas, slamming her body to the ground, and putting his knee in her back.
In 1991, Barnes recalled another incident, but this time it was N.W.A. member Andre Young aka Dr.Dre, who interestingly kept all of his abuse towards women off the big screen in Straight Outta Compton.
Dee reveals:
“Dr. Dre straddled me and beat me mercilessly on the floor of the women’s restroom at the Po Na Na Souk nightclub in 1991.”
The incident took place during the time Cube and N.W.A. were feuding, during an album release party for rap group Bytches With Problems at L.A. nightclub Po Na Na Souk. Dre beat up Barnes — smashing her head into a wall, kicking her ribs in the women’s bathroom. Neither the Barnes assault nor any other incidences of violence against women made it into Straight Outta
Compton.”
Barnes continued:
“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.”
She goes on to say:
“Dre. 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 scars he gave to his collaborator Michel’le. And he should have owned up to what he did to me. That’s reality. That’s reality rap. In his lyrics, Dre made hyperbolic claims about all these heinous things he did to women. But then he went out and actually violated women. Straight Outta Compton would have you believe that he didn’t really do that. It doesn’t add up. It’s like Ice Cube saying, “I’m not calling all women bitches,” which is a position he maintains even today at age 46. If you listen to the lyrics of “A Bitch Iz a Bitch,” Cube says, “Now the title bitch don’t apply to all women / But all women have a little bitch in ‘em.””
Dee explains how has known the guys of N.W.A. way before they made it big:
“I knew the guys of N.W.A. years before they blew up. I first met Andre (who’s wonderfully portrayed by Corey Hawkins in Compton) when he lived with his cousin Jinx, who would later introduce me to O’Shea Jackson, a.k.a. Ice Cube. I was at Lonzo’s house when Andre and Antoine Carraby, a.k.a. Yella, were both still in the World Class Wreckin’ Cru. I was there at the radio station KDAY with Greg Mack. Later, while they were creating the N.W.A and the Posse album, I would meet MC Ren and Arabian Prince. It was at Lonzo’s studio that my best friend Rose Hutchinson and I formed the rap group Body and Soul. We spent countless days and nights at Lonzo’s house, and in his studio we recorded a demo produced by both Dr. Dre and DJ Pooh. It was there where I also met Eric Wright, a.k.a. Eazy E. These men became my brothers.”
When it comes to being in the studio for some of N.W.A.’s hit songs and offensive lyrics to women, Barnes adds:
“I wasn’t in the studio to hear them record their disgusting, misogynistic views on women in songs like “A Bitch Iz a Bitch,” “Findum, Fuckum & Flee,” “One Less Bitch,” and perhaps most offensively, “She Swallowed It.” (On that track, MC Ren brags about violating at 14-year-old girl: “Oh shit it’s the preacher’s daughter! / And she’s only 14 and a ho / But the bitch sucks dick like a specialized pro.”) I heard the material like everybody else, when I was listening to the albums, and I was shocked. Maybe that was their point. Maybe they said a lot of that stuff for the shock value. There were always other girls around, like Michel’le and Rose, and we never heard them talk like that. We never heard them say, “Bitch, get over here and suck my dick.” In their minds, only certain women were “like that,” and I’ve never presented myself like that, so I never gave them a reason to call me names.”
Barnes talks about what might have been the reason for Dre’s brutal attack on her, but she claims the reason that she was a “Casualty of Straight Outta Compton’s Revisionist History” is due to a few factors. One being that director F. Gary Gray left the assault out of the movie because he feels partially complicit.
See, she reveals that Gary was her cameraman for Pump It Up! back then and he filmed the Ice Cube interview that (allegedly) inspired Dre’s attack. Barnes also writes that Gray and producer Jeff Shore argued to include Cube’s anti-N.W.A. rant against her advice.
“That’s right. F. Gary Gray, the man whose film made $60 million last weekend as it erased my attack from history, was also behind the camera to film the moment that launched that very attack. He was my cameraman for Pump It Up! You may have noticed that Gary has been reluctant to address N.W.A.’s misogyny and Dre’s attack on me in interviews. I think a huge reason that Gary doesn’t want to address it is because then he’d have to explain his part in history. He’s obviously uncomfortable for a reason.”
“Gary was the one holding the camera during that fateful interview with Ice Cube, which was filmed on the set of Boyz N the Hood. I was there to interview the rapper Yo Yo. Cube was in a great mood, even though he was about to shoot and he was getting into character.”
“Cube went into a trailer to talk to Gary and Pump It Up! producer Jeff Shore. I saw as he exited that Cube’s mood had changed. Either they told him something or showed him the N.W.A. footage we had shot a few weeks earlier. What ended up airing was squeaky clean compared to the raw footage. N.W.A. were chewing Cube up and spitting him out. I was trying to do a serious interview and they were just clowning—talking shit, cursing. It was crazy.”
“Right after we shot a now-angry Cube and they shouted, “Cut!” one of the producers said, “We’re going to put that in.” I said, “Hell no.” I wasn’t even thinking about being attacked at the time, I was just afraid that they were going to shoot each other. I didn’t want to be part of that. “This is no laughing matter,” I tried telling them. “This is no joke. These guys take this stuff seriously.” I was told by executives that I was being emotional. That’s because I’m a woman. They would have never told a man that. They would have taken him seriously and listened.”
Barnes touches on her career ending after the Dr. Dre incident and how she was blacklisted in the industry after she nailed an audition for Set it Off that ended up going to Kimberly Elise.
She reveals:
“It’s not like I haven’t tried. I was blacklisted. 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.” I auditioned for the part that eventually went to Kimberly Elise in Set It Off. Gary was the director. This was long after Pump it Up!, and I nailed the audition. Gary came out and said, “I can’t give you the part.” I asked him why, and he said, “‘Cause I’m casting Dre as Black Sam.” My heart didn’t sink, I didn’t get emotional; I was just numb.”
When it comes to Eazy-E, Barnes believes that if Eazy-E was alive today, the movie Straight Outta Compton would have the women who played a pivotal part in Dre’s career and the JJ Fad who legitimized Ruthless Records, but some how all of the important women were left out of the film. The only ones who made it in the film were the naked pool party girls.
She concludes stating that Eazy was the straight shooter of the group keeping things 100:
“The other scene was Eazy’s death. I got a chance to see him prior to his dying of AIDS-related complications in March of 1995, maybe about a month before. I briefly owned a production company. Our office was on Melrose, and we shared it with another production company. Eazy came in to the other production company to look for a director for a Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony video. I didn’t know he was coming, he didn’t know I was going to be there. It was just a pure blessing. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to make peace with him before he passed. We hugged, we kissed, we talked, and I felt good when I saw him, but I knew something was wrong. He didn’t look well. I thought maybe he just had a cold. He wasn’t coughing, the way it was dramatized in the movie. He sounded congested and he looked skinny. We had a nice conversation and I felt really good about it.”
“I believe that if Eazy were alive, neither Tairrie B., nor JJ Fad wouldn’t have been ignored in the movie. Eazy was the straight shooter of the group and he just would have kept it more real. JJ Fad was a trio of female rappers from Rialto, California, whose debut album was released by Ruthless in order to establish and legitimize the label. It was commercially successful and featured the mega hit “Supersonic,” produced by Arabian Prince, who appears only briefly in Straight Outta Compton. JJ Fad’s success paved the way for the release of the Straight Outta Compton album. It’s a very pivotal moment that was erased from N.W.A.’s story. It’s easy for them to be dismissive of women, because they don’t respect most women.”
“With the exception of short scenes with mother figures and wives, the rest of the women in the film were naked in a hotel room or dancing in the background at the wild pool parties. Yo Yo, a female rapper who worked with Ice Cube after he left N.W.A., was nowhere to be found. Nor are women who worked with Dre later in his career, like Jewell and the Lady of Rage. They both contributed tremendously to the ultimate sound of the classic album The Chronic. What about Ruthless R&B singer-song-writer Michel’le, who at the young age of 17 was singing vocals on World Class Wreckin Cru’s “Turn Off The Lights”? Michel’le and Dr. Dre developed a personal and professional association and he went on to produce her two best-known hits, “No More Lies” and “Something In My Heart.” Both songs reflected their volatile relationship. Then there is Ruthless Records/Comptown Records solo female artist/Eazy E’s protege Tairrie B, the first white female hardcore rapper. A bold blonde at the time who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, Tairrie B released an album named The Power Of A Woman (how fitting!) and dropped singles like “Murder She Wrote” and “Ruthless Bitch.””
Barnes gives her final thoughts about Dre and Cube and where they stand today:
“The last time I saw Dre, and was up close and personal with him, we were cordial but not friendly. It was years ago, before “Guilty Conscience,” the 1999 Eminem/Dre collaboration. I most recently saw Cube at the Kings of the Mic show at Los Angeles’s Greek Theater in 2013. We talked briefly and he was very unfriendly. Standoffish, even.”
Wow, are jaw is still dragging on the floor from this interview.
None of us were there at that time, but there is always more to every story, but if you look back in hip hop history you would see the news articles, but NOT like this. Dee Barnes has her story and we can’t take that away from her. We understand he feelings. We hope she gets a book deal because we would love to hear her story. It’s very interesting, but we will see if this ever comes out.
After reading this, you might just say, Dee Barnes A Casualty of NWA Biopic Revisioned History!
What do you think?
Dee Barnes is currently writing her memoir, Music, Myth, and Misogyny: Memoirs of a Female MC. She is looking for a publisher.
