Dr. Dre: Your Apology Is Ill-Timed, Insincere, and 20 Years Too Late

One thing that I can't stand is apolo-lying. (Yes, I created my own word, and I can do that!). Apolo-lying, is when you apologize not because you mean it, but because the consequences for your actions are few greater than you thought that they would be, or when you are a celebrity, and you are receiving too much blow back from your corporate sponsors or your fan base, and you are worried about damaging your brand, or when you are a new Christian and you want to prove to people that you have actually changed and are trying to walk the straight and narrow with Jesus, after you left plenty of people, mistakes, and carnage in your wake (rolls eyes)!

These are some scenarios that come to mind when I hear about Dr. Dre's apology for his domestic violence incidents with women. Let's take two cases in particular, those of his brutal beating of music journalist,  Dee Barnes in 1991, and his child's mother, singing sensation, Miche'le'.

 In1990, Dee Barnes, who at the time was a music journalist, had completed an interview with Ice Cube from the group NWA, who by this point had disbanded amid an epic feud and were working on solo projects, In the interview, Ice Cube disparaged the other group members. The next year, Dr. Dre saw Dee Barnes at an album release party, and sought retribution. During this confrontation, Dr. Dre repeatedly through the right side of her body into a stairway, while slamming her head into the wall. He tried and failed to throw her down the stairway. She escaped into the women's restroom, where he followed her in, and continued the assault.He grabbed her by her hair and continued to punch her in the back of her head. Some 20 years later, she still has migraines, and is unable to find work in the entertainment field due to being blacklisted by him (She had secured a part in the 1990's film Set It Off, but because Dr. Dre was in it, he got the director F. Gary Gray, the same guy who is the director of Straight Out of Compton, to rescind the offer).

Here is Dr. Dre's response when pressed about it, right after the attack:  “People talk all this shit, but you know, somebody fuck with me, I’m gonna fuck with them. I just did it, you know. Ain’t nothing you can do now by talking about it. Besides, it ain’t no big thing – I just threw her through a door.”


Dee Barnes wasn't his only victim. There was his child's mother Miche'le'.She has gone on record to state that not only did Dr. Dre abuse her, but on occasion has broken her nose and her ribs.

So miss me with the ill-timed apology. He certainly hasn't had any remorse all these years, and one would infer that there wouldn't be any now, if there weren't a new album and a hit movie at stake. Dr. Dre has finally amassed a fortune and the title of being a billionaire, and he is not about to place any of that in jeopardy by pissing of his fan base, which is largely women. He has to come off, as the new and improved version of himself.

So I challenge Dr. Dre, if you are sincere about your apology, how about you pay Dee Barnes' medical bills that she has amassed because of your 1991 brutal attack! If you are sincere, why don't you use your industry connections to help her secure employment doing what she loves, since you blacklisted her all of those years ago! If you are sincere, why don't you donate some of your money to batter women's shelters. Finally, if you are sincere, do another movie, make it a biopic even, where you tell the whole story of your dirty dealings, not just the whitewashed Hollywood version.

Until you can do some or all of these things, nobody, certainly not your victims, is interested in your apolo-lying!


Until next time....