Multiple estranged children.
The tragic loss of two brothers.
A serious brain condition.
A truly weird incident involving a citizen's arrest.
These are just a few tragic details about beloved hip-hop icon Dr. Dre.
Dr. Dre's family went through tragedy when he was very young.
The rapper was only one year old around the time that his half-brother, Jerome, sadly
died from pneumonia, and his other half-brother, Tyree, met a violent death in 1989 after his
neck was broken by assailants.
Tyree's unexpected death inspired Dre to pay tribute to him in the song "The Message."
Reflecting on the tragedies to The Times, Dre said -
"There's this certain pain that I feel — and I don't know if it's because of my brother's
death, or [other] deaths in the family — but it's this thing,"
Dre also pondered whether his grief was actually a source of creativity, revealing that he
had purposefully avoided addressing the topic.
He revealed,
"I've been actually asked to talk about it and go to therapy and what have you, but I'm
not sure that's something I wanna do.
Because I don't think I should change it."
"I've had such a traumatic career, but such a fortunate career at the same time."
When N.W.A.
burst onto the charts with their best-selling album "Straight Outta Compton" and the controversial
single "F--- tha Police," Dr. Dre and the other members faced outrage over their lyrics.
The single was censored by radio stations, and according to the Los Angeles Times, the
FBI even contacted their label over what they perceived to be genuine threats from some
of the lyrics in the song.
The letter was reportedly written by the assistant director of the bureau's public affairs office,
who went on to blame the group for encouraging kids to target law enforcement, noting that
78 cops had been killed in the line of duty in 1988 alone.
As the Los Angeles Times later reported, the letter now hangs in Cleveland's Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
N.W.A member Ice Cube reflected on the song's legacy, saying:
"I'm proudest of the impact of the record.
The thing that people don't talk about, really, is that it opened artists up to being themselves
in a lot of ways.
They didn't have to try to figure out what to do or be to become stars, they could just
be themselves."
Dr. Dre was only 16 when he fathered his first child, whom he didn't meet for 20 years.
As Curtis Young told XXL, it was a struggle to even contact the famous rapper, as he was
used to being contacted by scammers.
Young spoke about finally being able to speak to him, saying -
"I ended up getting one of his lawyers' numbers and that's how I got a hold of him.
Then we took the DNA test."
After noting that he found out Dre was his father when he was 12 years old, Young added
that during his father's time with N.W.A, it was difficult to figure out a way to meet
Dre.
Although Young auditioned to play his father in the film "Straight Outta Compton," he was
rejected and later cast in a different project, "Dogg Pound 4 Life."
He has also worked as a rapper himself under the name Hood Surgeon.
He also uses his real name for other projects.
As Young admitted to XXL, he's had to consider his father's fame when it came to branding
himself.
While it has helped his career, he's also been conscious of not relying on it, saying
-
"I have different entities besides music, so that's what helped me kind of stay out
of his shadow, because I've got things that he's not doing."
Though he's dealt with genuine tragedy, some of the trouble in Dr. Dre's life can be attributed
to times where his own actions resulted in him being on the wrong side of the law.
A dark period of Dr. Dre's career came in 1991, when he attacked TV host Dee Barnes
at a party, which resulted in her filing a civil lawsuit against the rapper and claiming
that her career and her overall health had been negatively impacted as a result.
"I was out of my f---ing mind at the time.
I f---ed up.
I paid for it.
I'm sorry for it.
And I apologized for it."
Though Dre has expressed remorse about the violent incident, it is only one in a series
of allegations of violence toward women.
He addressed them in a 2015 statement to The New York Times, apologizing for his behavior
while blaming his youth, a drinking problem, and a lack of structure.
However, R&B singer Michel'le, who dated him during the '90s, was skeptical about Dre's
apology.
She accused Dre of making the apology due to the publicity around "Straight Outta Compton,"
rather than out of actual empathy toward her or Dee Barnes.
However, these instances weren't the only times in Dre's life that he found himself
dealing with the legal system.
Among several other incidents, Dre pled guilty to battery after fighting a police officer
in 1991 and was later sentenced to eight months in prison after violating probation.
The rapper's blood alcohol level was 0.16 when he was pulled over, which is twice California's
legal limit, and he was also fined $1,053 on top of his jail time.
After a string of court battles, he told the Los Angeles Times,
"I don't ever go out looking for trouble, it just seems to follow me.
I'm a very easygoing guy.
A simple person really.
I'm not necessarily a violent person, but I don't take no s---."
Dre also denied promoting unnecessary violence in his music, an accusation that he'd faced
throughout his early career.
He elaborated,
"We live in a violent world.
It's not like the things we rap about don't happen.
They go on every day in the street.
I just put what I see and hear around me in my music."
In 2008, tragedy hit Dr. Dre's family once again when his son died from an accidental
overdose.
As the Los Angeles Times reported at the time, Andre Young Jr. was only 20 when he was found
dead by his mother, Jenita Porter, at home late in the morning on August 28.
The outlet also noted that Andre had gone out with friends the night before, and it
was later confirmed by the official autopsy report that he'd accidentally overdosed from
a combination of heroin and morphine.
Dr. Dre did not publicly comment on the tragic loss personally, but released a statement
through his publicist, announcing that the rapper was in mourning over the loss of his
son and asked for he and his family's privacy to be respected.
According to the Los Angeles Times, when Young Jr. was a child, he had been at the heart
of a court battle between his mother and father after Porter sued Dre for child support.
Although Dr. Dre isn't the same young, controversial artist he was in his youth, he's still had
the odd run-in with the police in recent years.
The rapper-producer was detained for a brief period following a bizarre encounter in 2016,
when he was accused of pulling a gun on a motorist outside his Malibu home.
As CNN reported, the producer had asked the man to move his car, as it was blocking his
driveway.
While the man initially left, he came back soon after to park close to the driveway a
second time, which apparently kicked off a shouting match.
Dre then pulled out his cell phone to record the fight on video, and the motorist rang
911 to claim that he'd been threatened with a gun.
In a statement about the incident, the police said -
"Due to the nature of the call, the person was searched, handcuffed, and briefly detained
in a patrol car while deputies investigated the incident,"
The police also noted that Dre cooperated with the authorities throughout the search.
Although they didn't book the rapper, who denied the allegations, the police explained
that the driver had initiated a citizen's arrest towards Dre when he allegedly brandished
the firearm.
TMZ also reported that the incident might have been a case of racial profiling: when
Dre took out his cell phone, the driver allegedly said -
"Here we go again, another Black guy with a gun."
Dr. Dre's marriage made headlines when his now ex-wife Nicole Plotzker, who'd previously
accused him of abuse and infidelity, served him divorce papers during his grandmother's
funeral in October 2021.
"There have been certain times when I wasn't sure if, you know, we were gonna be able to
make it through."
That January, Plotzker alleged that Dre had threatened her with a gun on two separate
occasions in 2000 and 2001, as well as physical abuse and other disturbing behavior.
People published the allegations that were written in the court documents, with Plotzker
claiming,
"Andre has verbally and emotionally decimated my personhood to the extent that I currently
suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome."
Plotzker, who filed for divorce in June 2020, also recalled contacting the police in 1995
over an incident where Dre allegedly grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into a wall.
She went on to claim,
"During our marriage, I considered calling the police several times; but, as I fell deeper
into the abusive relationship, my fear of Andre outweighed any confidence I had that
the police could help me."
According to TMZ, Dre has denied the abuse allegations, but the two of them reached a
settlement in December 2021.
Dre gave his ex-wife $50 million in 2021 and another $50 million a year later, as well
as some of their expensive cars.
Dr. Dre's family life came under scrutiny in 2021 when his daughter, LaTanya Young,
told the Daily Mail that she was living in her car.
Surviving by working as an Uber Eats and DoorDash driver, Young claimed that her multimillionaire
father had cut her off in January 2020.
She went on to say,
"I'm homeless and I've been reaching out to my dad for help.
[...] His lawyer has said that my dad doesn't want to help me because I've spoken about
him in the press."
Young has four children of her own, but she insisted that her children were safe and secure
with friends.
Young added that she was worried about her SUV being repossessed, claiming that she was
taking odd jobs while battling debt.
She also claimed that it was difficult to get in touch with Dre, saying,
"I feel like I'm damned if I do, I'm damned if I don't.
I'm just trying to communicate with him and see if he wants to talk to his grandkids."
After opening up about her situation, Young started a GoFundMe page that ultimately raised
over $8,000 in donations.
As Complex reported, the fundraiser's goal was to help her family find a home while she
continued to work.
The rap world almost lost one of its biggest stars when Dr. Dre was rushed to the ICU following
a brain aneurysm in January 2021.
The rapper had been taken to Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he later
took to Instagram to assure fans that he was doing fine and receiving great medical care.
In a bizarre twist, four men were also arrested for trying to rob Dre's house while he was
in the hospital.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times that June, Dre admitted to feeling worried
about his health.
Even though he had always been conscientious about taking care of his body, he was dealing
with high blood pressure.
"I'm 30 years in and I'm 50 years old.
It's so f—ing difficult because making music is a young man's game."
Dre told the Times,
"But there's something that happens for some reason with Black men and high blood pressure,
and I never saw that coming.
But I'm taking care of myself."
The music mogul advised Black men everywhere to be mindful of their blood pressure and
to stay aware of their fitness, adding,
"And I'm going to move on and, hopefully, live a long and healthy life.
I'm feeling fantastic."
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