Earlier this month, pioneering hip-hop reporter and former Pump It Up! host Dee Barnes launched a GoFundMe campaign stating that she was facing eviction from her home. "I am in the process of being evicted," she wrote. "This page was created as an emergency fund to stop the process and the subsequent legal fees." Speaking with HipHopDX, she has confirmed that she is now "officially homeless."
"What made me finally say enough I’m going to ask for help is that quote, ‘You can overcome anything in life, but you must first be willing to live in your truth,'" she explained. "I had never asked for public help before, but I then remembered a long time ago while I was going through the assault trial in 1991 people were sending me checks for my legal fees. I never cashed any of them—not one—but knowing I had that support kept me strong enough to continue to face each court date. Right now, I am officially homeless. My goal with the campaign is to regain stability, which is imperative for survivors of any trauma."
Back in 1991, Dr. Dre approached Barnes at a party following an interview she did with former N.W.A. member Ice Cube. During the interview, Cube bad-mouthed N.W.A. and Dre wasn't happy about it. It was said that "Dre picked her up" and "began slamming her face and the right side of her body repeatedly against a wall near the stairway." Dre then tried to throw her down the stairs and began kicking her in the ribs and hands. He also allegedly followed her into the women's bathroom and "grabbed her from behind by the hair and proceeded to punch her in the back of the head."
She responded to his apology in 2015. "Who cares why he apologized? The point is that he did," she said in a statement. Since Barnes launched her campaign to receive help, she has managed to raise over $18,000. Meanwhile, Dre was in the news earlier this week for celebrating his daughter's acceptance into USC without him paying for it, despite his previous $70 million donation to the school.
