Dr. Dre's apology last week for committing violence against women as a young man drew the ire of at least one of his victims (former “Pump It Up” host Dee Barnes, who was assaulted by Dre in a Los Angeles nightclub in 1991), and now the rapper and producer's ex-girlfriend and former collaborator Michel'le, who has previously alleged that Dre physically abused her on multiple occasions while they were together, is weighing in.
“It don't really think it's a sincere apology,” she told BBC Radio's 5Live during a recent interview. “First of all, I didn't ask for a public apology…but I think if he is going to apologize he should do it individually. …I think [his victims] deserve a personal apology. …He's selling a movie [N.W.A. biopic 'Straight Outta Compton']. I just think its good PR at the moment.”
When pressed on the issue by BBC interviewer Dotun Adebayo (“[The apology] sounds sincere,” he said), Michel'le said that if the rapper was truly regretful, he wouldn't have spoken about his victims as a single unit. “I mean, he's once again, he's generalizing us. He's putting us all in a group. 'I apologize to the women.' Well, why don't you say, Michel'le I apologize to you, [alleged victim] Tairrie B I apologize. You know, treat us like we have names.”
As she's stated in the past, Michel'le ended the segment by saying that the scars from the abuse, both physical and mental, are long-lasting.
“When you're with someone else and they don't hit you, then you think that maybe they don't care about you,” she said. “I went through that for years.”
“Straight Outta Compton,” meanwhile, finished No. 1 at the box office again this weekend with $26.7 million.