Hip-hop icon Dr. Dre being the inaugural recipient of a new award named after him at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards garnered criticism from journalist Dee Barnes due to what she said was a traumatizing experience with the rapper that left her with migraines.

During the 2023 Grammys, the “California Love” rapper was honored with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, which The Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective created last year as the Global Impact Award.

Over the years, multiple women have shared their alleged accounts of abuse by Dr. Dre. In a Rolling Stone interview, Barnes, who claims she was affected by his violence, questioned why the award was not only named after him but how the music industry continues to support the mega-producer despite his role in inflicting pain upon Black women.

“I’m not saying he is the same person now, though. I don’t know. I’m not around him anymore. I haven’t talked to him. But to name an award after someone with that type of history in the music industry, you might as well call it the ‘Ike Turner Award,'” she told Rolling Stone.

“Everybody wants to separate the art from the artist, and sometimes that’s just not possible. Most people without a knowledge of [Dr. Dre’s] history are going to say, ‘Oh, he must deserve that. He must be such a great person for them to put an award in his name,'” Barnes said. “But they named this award after an abuser. It wasn’t just a one or two-time thing; these are choices. The first time, it’s maybe a mistake. The second time, okay. The third time, it’s a choice.”

Due to her being vocal about their alleged encounter, she believes she was shunned because of his stature in the industry and missed out on the career she could’ve had while he continued to thrive.

“What I find most frustrating about the entire thing is that [Dre and I] can’t seem to coexist in the same space. I looked at the Grammys’ tribute to the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop — which was beautiful — and I was thinking, ‘I would’ve been there. I would’ve been there on the red carpet. I would’ve been interviewing some of those artists.’ In fact, I’ve interviewed most of them before,” the 50-year-old said.

She continued, “They have to keep one of us out of sight while they’re honoring another because one of us makes the other look bad. He said it himself in the documentary The Defiant Ones: I’m a “blemish” on who he is as a man. Well, what do you do with a blemish? There’s a whole industry created — skincare lines and vitamins and rituals — to get rid of blemishes.”

Some music fans defended Dr. Dre by saying time should’ve healed all wounds.

Others empathized with Barnes, claiming that she was a victim of violence who had her budding career shattered and her physical and mental health impacted.

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