Can Apple survive fury over Dr Dre's abusive past

Dr. Dre and his wife Nicole Young at the premiere of Straight Outta Compton. Photo / Getty Images

Last year, Apple made the largest acquisition in company history when it paid $3 billion for Beats Music and Beats Electronics.

The deal helped Apple lay the foundation of its Apple Music service and added another wildly popular hardware line to its portfolio.

Many analysts at the time hailed the deal as good way to Apple to up its cool factor, thanks in part to the new association with Beats co-founder Dr. Dre. But the glow of that relationship has come with some baggage.

Apple issued a statement Friday expressing support for Dr. Dre, the rapper and entrepreneur who is now a consultant for the company, in light of several reports that he punched and beat women more than 20 years ago. Dre spoke to The New York Times about those accusations Friday and apologized to "the women I've hurt."

In a statement that appeared in that article, and that was provided to The Washington Post, Apple didn't shy away from Dre's past. But the firm did say it believes he has changed his ways: "Dre has apologized for the mistakes he's made in the past and he's said that he's not the same person that he was 25 years ago. We believe his sincerity and after working with him for a year and a half, we have every reason to believe that he has changed."

Dre co-founded the Beats headphone company in 2006 with music executive Jimmy Iovine - partly in reaction to the poor sound quality of Apple's earphones.

When Apple bought Beats in 2014, Dre boasted that the acquisition had made him the "first billionaire in hip-hop" - a claim that sounded good but ultimately turned out to be untrue - and was welcomed on as a member of the Apple team.

The relationship has grown even more important as Apple makes its foray into the world of music streaming.

The company has heavily promoted Dre tie-ins to the N.W.A. biopic "Straight Out of Compton" on its iTunes store, offering special movie-branded headphones and securing the exclusive right to stream the debut of Dre's first album in 16 years.

It unlikely the controversy surrounding Dre will harm Apple, given the tech giants history of getting out of scrapes, said Peter LaMotte, a senior vice president at the strategic communications firm Levick.

"Apple has had an amazing ability to deflect negative criticism," he said. "If we've learned anything from the Foxconn child labour scandal, people care more about getting their new iPhones than they do about the people who make them."