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Dee Barnes Speaks On Dr. Dre Assualt & 'Straight Outta Compton' Director F. Gary Gray's Involvement

By HHL Editors
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Eazy E's daughter isn't the only one bothered about what the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton left out.

As you probably know, in 1991 Dr. Dre viciously assaulted female Pump It Up host Dee Barnes. Dre had been annoyed that Barnes ended an episode of Pump It Up with footage of of Ice Cube -- who had recently left N.W.A. -- dissing the remaining members.

That incident didn't make Straight Outta Compton, and Barnes has an idea why: The movie's director F. Gary Gray had worked on Pump It Up, and had been instrumental in airing the clip of Ice Cube going off -- over Barnes's objections.

She explains in an essay printed on Gawker:

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.
Additionally, Barnes says she was blacklisted from the industry after the assault because "Nobody wanted to affect their relationship with Dre."

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Posted In: News Dr. Dre
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