(AllHipHop News) Hip Hop journalist Dee Barnes has become one of the most outspoken critics of the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton. Her main point of critique is the fact the film avoided covering Dr. Dre’s alleged assaults on women, particularly the producer’s physical attack against her at a 1991 party.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, an earlier draft of Jonathan Herman’s Straight Outta Compton screenplay did include Dre’s assault of Barnes. An exchange between the two characters centered around Dre confronting Barnes about an interview she did with Ice Cube, who at that point was feuding with his former group.
The script reportedly featured:
“Saw that sh*t you did with Cube. Really had you under his spell, huh? Ate up everything he said. Let him diss us. Sell us out.”
“I just let him tell his story,” Barnes’ character retorts, “That’s what I do. It’s my job.”
“I thought we were cool, you and me,” Dre fires back. “But you don’t give a [expletive]. You just wanna laugh at N.W.A, make us all look like fools.”
The graphic scene ended with Barnes throwing a drink at Dre, and he then began “flinging her around like a rag-doll, while she screams, cries, begs for him to stop.”
Director F. Gary Gray has stated the filmmakers cut several scenes from Straight Outta Compton in order to mainly focus on N.W.A. The movie’s original running time would have been over three and a half hours.
Dr. Dre pleaded no contest in the attack on Barnes. The parties settled a civil lawsuit out of court for an undisclosed amount. Barnes claims she did not even receive a million dollars from the deal and has essentially been blackballed from the music industry.
