Hip-hop producer and Apple employee Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, has been all over the news the past week thanks to his hit new album Compton and the movie Straight Outta Compton, which chronicles his rap group NWA’s rise to fame in the late ’80s.
Not all the attention surrounding Dre has been positive though, as critics have lampooned the Dre-produced film for glossing over some of the less-savory bits of NWA’s history, like the time Dre beat up Dee Barnes and a few other women. In an effort to stem the backlash, the first billionaire in hip-hop released a statement this morning, apologizing to the women he’s hurt.
Here what the doc had to say about the past:
“Twenty-five years ago I was a young man drinking too much and in over my head with no real structure in my life. However, none of this is an excuse for what I did. I’ve been married for 19 years and every day I’m working to be a better man for my family, seeking guidance along the way. I’m doing everything I can so I never resemble that man again. I apologize to the women I’ve hurt. I deeply regret what I did and know that it has forever impacted all of our lives.”
Apple has also released a statement to The New York Times in support of Dr. Dre, saying he’s not the same person he used to be.
“Dre has apologized for the mistakes he’s made in the past and he’s said that he’s not the same person that he was 25 years ago,” Apple said. “We believe his sincerity and after working with him for a year and a half, we have every reason to believe that he has changed.”
Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray, who was also present when Dre assaulted Dee Barnes during the filming of an episode of Barnes’ Fox show Pump It Up!, revealed earlier this month that an early script for the movie included the the assault scene. Ultimately the filmmakers decided to pull it because the movie “wasn’t about a lot of side stories.”
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
16 responses to “Dr. Dre finally apologizes to women he beat up back in the ’90s”
and somehow didn’t attract the wildfire that wouldn’t have gotten him fired from Beats or Apple.
Why should it? It was decades ago.
Actually in light of recent stories. Bill Cosby. Tiger Woods. And other popular celebrities. They all got backlashes. Though only ones to get really fired were hulk hogan and Donald trump. Oh and Baltimore Ravens lost one or two populars as well to domestic violence.
‘Fired’ For something that was commonly known. Before Apple bought his company? And by his partner that helped him start Beats?
It is a little hard to punish someone for something everyone knows before they did business with someone and take what they are bringing to the company and then claim that he is a horrible person.
Don’t get me wrong, I think he is a horrible person.
Why on earth did they hire him to the board? Didn’t they do the background checks?
“We’re sure he’s changed” from Apple is pitiful. It sounds exactly like what the women he abused might have said to despairing family and friends.
“Why do you go back to him honey?” “He told me he’s changed mama. I believe him.”
He’s not on Apple’s board, nor is he a VP or SVP.
From what I have read that’s semantics. They may not have official titles but Dre and Lovine were both apparently joining the boardroom.
how about now that you are a billionaire you go back to Compton and help the youth in that community, How about that!!
That’s the proper spirit
He has.
yeah i love when people speak about stuff and have no idea what they are speaking about
Whoops! Almost slipped on your face Skip.
Surprise surprise guys. I do more for black artist in Compton then Dre ever did, until the mayor yes the mayor shamed him into donating money from the royalties from his new record. I guess it would have really been a hard ship on him to have supported the community over the last 10 years that he has been a multi millionaire or say last year after apple gave him over a billion dollars in cold hard cash. Yep why give money he already has? By the way he won’t see those royalties for months if you know anything about the record industry. He’s just another 1% maybe worse. As for me doing more. I’m a TV producer that follows and does TV stories on emerging artist in Rock Pop EDM and hip hop. As to my street cred, look up the credits on some of Mac 10s covert performances in Long Beach.
And did he settle with all of his victims? I don’t think he did. I think the guy is just BS’ing his way with Tim Cook & Co. because they believe what they hear, not what the truth is. Apple needs to just remove all of the really disgusting lyric-based content off their catalog. He still promotes the heavy use of the N word, and his use of the B word in just about all of the music he produced, which is what the kids are paying money for and being brainwashed with. What he says is meaningless. Cook just shouldn’t have bought Beats, then they wouldn’t have had to hire him. It was part of the buyout that they give him a position within Apple because otherwise, he wouldn’t have been hired by Apple, since he really doesn’t have any skill set Apple needs.
It isn’t that big of a percentage of his total wealth. They’ll be lucky if it reaches more than a few million in profits. To him, it’s like a regular person giving $20. It’s nothing to him, but he’ll probably make a bunch in other album sales as this helps promote his other content. Its a bait and switch ploy at this point.
This offends you how? The fact of the matter is he’s doing something period.