Chris Brown (other)

Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to ''Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contemporaries as the " King of R&B". His musical style has been defined as polyhedric, with his R&B being characterized by several influences from other genres, mainly hip hop and pop music. His lyrics develop predominantly over themes of sex, romance, fast life, desire, regret, and emotional conflict. Brown has gained a cult following and wide comparisons to Michael Jackson for his stage presence.

In 2004, Brown signed with Jive Records, and released his self-titled debut studio album the following year, which was later certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). With his debut single " Run It!" peaking atop the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, Brown became the first male artist since 1995 to have his debut single top the chart. His second album, ''Exclusive'' (2007), was met with even bigger commercial success worldwide, and it spawned his second ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number one " Kiss Kiss". In 2009, Brown pled guilty to felony assault of his then girlfriend, singer Rihanna.Settlement reached in Chris Brown's alleged beating of Rihanna
''Los Angeles Times'', June 22, 2009 In the same, year he released his third album, '' Graffiti'', which was considered to be a commercial failure compared to his previous works. Following ''Graffiti'', Brown released his fourth album '' F.A.M.E.'' (2011), which became his first album to top the ''Billboard'' 200. The album contained the commercially successful singles: " Yeah 3x", " Look at Me Now" and "Beautiful People", and earned him the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. His fifth album, '' Fortune'', released in 2012, also topped the ''Billboard'' 200.

Following the releases of '' X'' (2014) and ''Royalty'' (2015), his 2017 double-disc album, '' Heartbreak on a Full Moon'', consisting of 45 tracks, was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units after one week, and was later certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Brown's ninth studio album '' Indigo'' was released in 2019, also debuted atop on the ''Billboard'' 200. It included the Drake featured track " No Guidance" which reached the top five on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and broke the record for the longest-running number one on ''Billboard'''s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Its chart success was outdone with the single " Go Crazy" released the following year, alongside Young Thug as part of their collaborative mixtape '' Slime & B'' (2020).

Brown has sold over 197 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists. He is also one of the highest-grossing African American touring artists of all time. Brown has the most ''Billboard'' Hot 100 entries of any male singer in history; as well as the most top 40 hits of any R&B singer in history. Brown was also ranked third on ''Billboard'''s top R&B/Hip-Hop artists of the 2010s chart. Throughout his career, Brown has won several awards, including a Grammy Award, eighteen BET Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, and fourteen Soul Train Music Awards. Brown has also pursued an acting career. In 2007, he made his on-screen feature film debut in '' Stomp the Yard'', and appeared as a guest on the television series '' The O.C.'' Other films Brown has appeared in include '' This Christmas'' (2007), '' Takers'' (2010), '' Think Like a Man'' (2012), and '' Battle of the Year'' (2013) and ''She Ball'' (2020).

Early life

Christopher Maurice Brown was born on May 5, 1989, in the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia, to Joyce Hawkins, a former day care center director, and Clinton Brown, a corrections officer at a local prison. He has an older sister, Lytrell Bundy, who works in a bank. Music was always present in Brown's life beginning in his childhood. He would listen to soul albums that his parents owned, and eventually began to show interest in the hip-hop scene.

Brown taught himself to sing and dance at a young age and often cites Michael Jackson as his inspiration. He began to perform in his church choir and in several local talent shows. When he mimicked an Usher performance of " My Way", his mother recognized his vocal talent, and they began to look for the opportunity of a record deal. At the same time, Brown was going through personal issues. His parents had divorced, and his mother's boyfriend terrified him by subjecting her to domestic violence.

Career

2002–2004: Career beginnings

At age 13, Brown was discovered by Hitmission Records, a local production team that visited his father's gas station while searching for new talent. Hitmission's Lamont Fleming provided voice coaching for Brown, and the team helped to arrange a demo package, under the name of "C. Sizzle", and approached contacts in New York, where Brown started to sojourn, to seek a record deal. Brown attended Essex High School in Virginia until late 2004, when he moved to New York to pursue his music career. Tina Davis, senior A&R executive at Def Jam Recordings, was impressed when Brown auditioned in her New York office, and she immediately took him to meet the former president of the Island Def Jam Music Group, Antonio "L.A." Reid, who offered to sign him that day, but Brown refused his proposal. "I knew that Chris had real talent," says Davis. "I just knew I wanted to be part of it."

The negotiations with Def Jam continued for two months, and ended when Davis lost her job due to a corporate merger. Brown asked her to be his manager, and once Davis accepted, she promoted the singer to other labels such as Jive Records, J-Records and Warner Bros. Records. According to Mark Pitts, in an interview with HitQuarters, Davis presented Brown with a video recording, and Pitts' reaction was: "I saw huge potential ... I didn't love all the records, but I loved his voice. It wasn't a problem because I knew that he could sing, and I knew how to make records." Brown ultimately chose Jive due to its successful work with then-young acts such as Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Brown stated, "I picked Jive because they had the best success with younger artists in the pop market, ..I knew I was going to capture my African American audience, but Jive had a lot of strength in the pop area as well as longevity in careers." Brown said that during his permanence in Harlem, when he was trying to get his music heard by major labels, his artistic intention was to both rap and sing on his records, but Jive convinced him to stick to just singing, because he said that "it wasn't acceptable yet" for an R&B singer to also rap on records.

2005–2006: ''Chris Brown'' and acting debut

After signing to Jive Records in 2004, Brown began recording his self-titled debut studio album in February 2005. By May, there were 50 songs already recorded, 14 of which were picked to the final track listing. The singer worked with several producers and songwriters— Scott Storch, Cool & Dre, Sean Garrett and Jazze Pha among them—commenting that they "really believed in im. Brown co-wrote half of the tracks. "I write about the things that 16 year olds go through every day," says Brown. "Like you just got in trouble for sneaking your girl into the house, or you can't drive, so you steal a car or something." The whole album took less than eight weeks to produce.

Released on November 29, 2005, the self-titled ''Chris Brown'' album debuted at number two on the ''Billboard'' 200 with first week sales of 154,000 copies. ''Chris Brown'' was a commercial success with the time; selling over three million copies in the United States—where it was certified three times platinum by the RIAA—and six million copies worldwide. The album's lead single, " Run It!", made Brown the first male act (since Montell Jordan in 1995) to have his debut single to reach the summit of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100—later remaining for four additional weeks. Three of the other singles—" Yo (Excuse Me Miss)", " Gimme That" and " Say Goodbye"—peaked within the top twenty at the same chart.

On June 13, 2006, Brown released a DVD entitled ''Chris Brown's Journey'', which shows footage of him traveling through England and Japan, getting ready for his first visit to the Grammy Awards, behind the scenes of his music videos and bloopers. On August 17, 2006, to further promote the album, Brown began his major co-headlining tour, ''The Up Close and Personal Tour''. Due to the tour, production for his next album was pushed back two months. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital received $10,000 in ticket proceeds from Brown's 2006 "Up Close & Personal" tour. Brown has made appearances on UPN's '' One on One'' and The N's ''Brandon T. Jackson Show'' on its pilot episode.

2007–2008: ''Exclusive''

In January 2007, Brown landed a small role as a band geek in the fourth season of the American television series '' The O.C.''. Brown then made his film debut in '' Stomp the Yard'', alongside Ne-Yo, Meagan Good and Columbus Short on January 12, 2007. In April 2007, Brown was the opening act for Beyoncé, on the Australian leg of her The Beyoncé Experience tour. On July 9, 2007, Brown was featured in an episode of MTV's '' My Super Sweet 16'' (for the event, it was retitled: ''Chris Brown: My Super 18'') celebrating his eighteenth birthday in New York City.

Shortly after ending his summer tour with Ne-Yo, Brown quickly began production for his second studio album, ''Exclusive''. When the album's lead single, " Wall to Wall", was released, it didn't have a great commercial success, peaking at number 79 on US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, and number 22 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, being his lowest charting single at the time. However, " Kiss Kiss", featuring and produced by T-Pain, released as the album's second single, received huge success, reaching number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, and becoming Brown's second number one single following "Run It!" in 2005. " With You", produced by Stargate (duo of producers known at the time for their work with R&B singer Ne-Yo), was released as the third single from ''Exclusive'', had even bigger success than "Kiss Kiss", becoming one of the all-time best-selling singles, and reaching number two on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. ''Exclusive'' was released in the United States on November 6, 2007. The album is musically R&B, having slight pop influences that were absent in the previous hip hop soul-influenced disc, reaching a big international success. The album debuted at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 294,000 copies in its first week, and received generally positive reviews from music critics. As of March 23, 2011, it has sold over 1.9 million copies in the United States.

In November 2007, Brown starred as a video host for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's Math-A-Thon program. He showed his support by encouraging students to use their math skills to help children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. On November 21, 2007, Brown appeared in '' This Christmas'', a family drama starring Regina King. To further support the album ''Exclusive'', Brown embarked on his The Exclusive Holiday Tour, visiting over thirty venues in United States. The tour began in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 6, 2007, and concluded on February 9, 2008, in Honolulu, Hawaii. In March 2008, Brown was featured on Jordin Sparks' single " No Air", which had worldwide success peaked at number three on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. He also made a guest appearance on David Banner' single " Get Like Me" alongside Yung Joc. The song peaked at number sixteen on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and number two on the US Hot Rap Songs chart. Brown re-released ''Exclusive'' on June 3, 2008, as a deluxe edition, renamed ''Exclusive: The Forever Edition'', seven months after the release of the original version. The re-released version featured four new tracks, including the Eurodisco single " Forever", which became one of his most known singles, reaching number two on ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In August 2008, Brown guest-starred on Disney's '' The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' as himself. Towards the end of 2008, Brown was named Artist of the Year by ''Billboard'' magazine.

2009–2010: ''Graffiti'' and mixtapes

In 2008, Brown began work on his third studio album, to be called '' Graffiti'', promising to experiment with a different musical direction inspired by singers Prince and Michael Jackson. He stated, "I wanted to change it up and really be different. Like my style nowadays, I don't try to be typical urban. I want to be like how Prince, Michael and Stevie Wonder were. They can cross over to any genre of music." Following the domestic violence scandal involving the singer and Rihanna on February 8, 2009, the majority of media took positions against the singer. The incident also caused Brown to lose significant commercial contracts, including one with Doublemint. The singer later participated in numerous television appearances during the year to express himself publicly about it. ''Graffiti''s lead single " I Can Transform Ya" was released on September 29, 2009. The song peaked at number 20 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. " Crawl" was released as the album's second single on November 23, 2009. The song reached number 53 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. ''Graffiti'' was then released on December 8, 2009, featuring an R&B sound mixed with Eurodisco and rock. Brown, with this album, started to take full control of his art, managing the artistic direction, and writing every song of the album (with the exception of the song "I'll Go", written and produced by Brian Kennedy and James Fauntleroy). Brown started to be the only artistic director of all his future projects. He said that his decision to entirely direct and write his albums and songs came from the fact that he wanted to give his "own perspective of the music ewanted to make" and by his wanting to "verbalize whatever ewas going through". The album, compared to its two precessors, was a commercial and critical failure, debuting at number 7 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 102,000 copies in its first week, and receiving generally negative reviews from critics. As of March 23, 2011, it has sold 341,000 copies in the United States.

While performing a Michael Jackson Tribute at the 2010 BET Awards, Brown started to cry and fell to his knees while singing Jackson's " Man in the Mirror". The performance and his emotional turmoil resonated with several celebrities present at the ceremony, including Trey Songz, Diddy and Taraji P. Henson. Songz said, "He left his heart on the stage. He gave genuine emotion. I was proud of him and I was happy for him for having that moment". Michael's brother, Jermaine Jackson, expressed similar sentiments stating, "it was very emotional for me, because it was an acceptance from his fans from what has happened to him and also paying tribute to my brother". Later during the award ceremony, Brown stated, "I let y'all down before, but I won't do it again...I promise", while accepting the award for the AOL Fandemonium prize. In August 2010, Brown starred alongside an ensemble cast, including Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen and T.I. in the crime thriller '' Takers'', and also served as executive producer of the film.

During 2010 Brown released the 3 free mixtapes ''In My Zone (Rhythm & Streets)'', ''Fan of a Fan