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Denise "Dee" Barnes is an American hip-hop music artist and former host of Pump It Up. Barnes, whose stage name was D Zire, performed in the group Body & Soul and hosted an influential radio show on KDAY prior to her work in television.

Her single "Dance To The Drummer's Beat" was put out on the Delicious Vinyl/Island Records label and heavily sampled the song of the same title by Herman Kelly and Life. She was part of the posse cut "We're All in the Same Gang" by West Coast Rap All-Stars that earned 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. ^[1]

Barnes sued Dr. Dre for a 1991 assault stemming from a 1990 segment about N.W.A. that appeared on her show. The 1990 segment contained edited clips of N.W.A. insulting former member Ice Cube and vice versa. On January 27, 1991, Dre ran into Barnes at a record-release party in Los Angeles. According to Rolling Stone reporter Alan Light:

He picked her up and "began slamming her face and the right side of her body repeatedly against a wall near the stairway" as his bodyguard held off the crowd. After Dre tried to throw her down the stairs and failed, he began kicking her in the ribs and hands. She escaped and ran into the women's rest room. Dre followed her and "grabbed her from behind by the hair and proceeded to punch her in the back of the head." ^[2]

MC Ren later said, "Bitch deserved it," and Eazy-E said, "Yeah, bitch had it coming ." Dre said later, "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." ^[2]

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."

The incident was #37 on Spin magazine's 100 sleaziest moments in rock ^[3]. Eazy-E mentioned the incident many times on his diss tracks, including "Real Muthaphuckkin G's," "It's On," and "What Would U Do." Tim Dog mentioned it in his diss track "Fuck Compton." It was later referenced in the Eminem song "Guilty Conscience," The Game song "Doctor's Advocate," and by Lil Wayne on his 2006 Lil Weezyana The Mixtape, Vol. 1. ^[4] Rapper T.I. mentioned it on Bone Crusher's "Never Scared" in 2003.

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