Dr. Dre attacks journalist Dee Barnes at the Po Na Na Souk club

Why it matters

On January 27, 1991, at an after-party at the Po Na Na Souk club in Hollywood, Dr. Dre attacked the journalist Dee Barnes, who hosted a TV show called Pump It Up. The attack was reportedly retaliation for an episode of her show that had intercut NWA and Ice Cube footage in a way the group did not like. Barnes filed a $22 million civil suit. The case was settled out of court. The incident sat in the rap-historical record for a long time as a footnote that fans of Dre's music mostly did not engage with. In 2015, after the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton left the incident out entirely, the Gawker writer Sam Biddle ran a detailed piece on what had actually happened that night, sourced largely from Barnes's own account. Dre then publicly apologized, in print, to the women he had attacked in the late 80s and early 90s, including Barnes and the singer Michel'le, with whom he had a long, abusive relationship. The apology arrived twenty-four years after the assault. You can think about that. You probably should.