Denise "Dee" Barnes is an
American rapper and former television personality, most famous for being assaulted by West-Coast rap producer
Dr. Dre. Barnes, whose stage name was
D Zire, performed in the
West Coast hip hop female duo Body & Soul, and hosted an influential radio show on
KDAY prior to gaining wider fame as the host of
Fox's
hip hop show
Pump It Up!.
Body & Soul's 1989 debut single "Dance To The Drummer's Beat", released on
Los Angeles-based record label
Delicious Vinyl, heavily
sampled the
Herman Kelly and Life song of the same name. Its
b-side, "Hi-Powered", was produced by
Def Jef. The same year another track produced by Def Jef would be released: "We Can Do This", on the label showcase
This Is Delicious - Eat To The Beat. Body & Soul's greatest recording would apparently be their last - as part of the
Dr. Dre-produced
West Coast Rap All-Stars and their 1991
posse cut, "We're All in the Same Gang", which earned them a
Grammy Award nomination.
In 1992, Barnes hosted the hip-hop special
Sisters in the Name of Rap, taped at the Ritz in New York.
[Kim, Taehee. Entertainment Weekly, April 24, 1992.]Dr. Dre incident
After a 1990 interview with
Ice Cube in which the rapper discusses his leaving
N.W.A. at the height of their feud,
[Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. p. 179. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0819562750] the group, feeling they had been negatively portrayed, sought retaliation. On January 27, 1991 Dr. Dre would encounter Barnes at a record release party in Hollywood. According to
Rolling Stone reporter Alan Light:
N.W.A.'s
MC Ren later said "
bitch deserved it", and
Eazy-E "
yeah, bitch had it coming, and I'm 'bout to rib you." As Dr. Dre explained the incident, "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." Barnes sued in February 1991, telling reporter Alan Light: "They've grown up with the mentality that it's okay to hit women, especially black women. Now there's a lot of kids listening and thinking it's okay to hit women who get out of line."
In February, Barnes would file assault charges and bring a $22.75 million lawsuit against Dr. Dre, who pleaded no contest to the assault. He was fined $2500, placed on two years' probation, and ordered to perform 240 hours of community service and produce an anti-violence
public service announcement. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
The assault was yet another reason Bronx rapper
Tim Dog went after N.W.A. on his 1991
diss song "Fuck Compton" - "
Dre, beatin' on Dee from Pump It Up!
?/Step to the Dog and get FUCKED UP!" - and
Eazy-E would later refer to the incident on his various disses of Dr. Dre and
Death Row Records, including "
Real Muthaphuckkin G's," "It's On," and "What Would U Do." It was again notably referenced in the 1999
Eminem duet with Dr. Dre, "
Guilty Conscience." The song is an interplay between Slim Shady and Dre as the two sides of peoples' consciences - Dre being the "good" conscience - with Slim Shady rapping "are you gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes?
"
The incident was #37 on Spin magazine's "100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock".[ ]Spin'', September 2000.
