“The Redemption of Chris Brown”, March 2011

redemption
of
Chris
brown
I
n the lower level of a Soho art gallery, R&B
singer Chris Brown is trying to sit still.
“I have the shortest attention span known
to man,” he says, taking a bite of a chicken
wing, his knees tapping against a chair. His
BlackBerry pings and he scans the message
and replies while continuing to explain his jumpiness.
“I always have to be doing something—playing basketball, hanging out, going to the movies. I don’t think
it’s ADD. I’m just hyper. I always wanna be active.” He
takes a swig from his Coke can and checks his phone
again before bending down to retie the laces of his red
leather high-tops. “That’s what’s kept me creative.”
There’s no arguing that the multiplatinum artist
is prolific. At just 21, Chris is one of the most talkedabout names in music. His new album, F.A.M.E., drops
March 22. He’s released three other albums and a slew
of hit singles, including “No Air,” with Jordin Sparks,
Twoyears
afterthe
Rihanna
incidentnearly
destroyedhis
career,the
R&Bsinger
isdone
apologizing
andhasanew
blastof
creativityto
sharewith
theworld—
whetherhis
haterslike
itornot.
and “Forever,” which became a YouTube sensation
after a couple grooved down the aisle to it, later parodied on TV’s The Office. His smooth dancing moves
have invited comparisons to Michael Jackson and
Usher. And he currently has four singles on the charts,
including the kiss-off anthem “Deuces,” which was
number one on Billboard’s R&B chart for ten weeks.
Chris’s nervous demeanor and lack of eye contact
also suggest that he’d probably rather be anywhere
but here, being interviewed about his life.
It’s hard to blame him. It’s been just over two years
since Chris assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna in
his car the night before the Grammys. According to
court records, he repeatedly punched her in the face,
pushed her head against the passenger window, bit
her and threatened to kill her. In the months that followed, Chris was eviscerated in the press and exiled
from the mainstream music scene. He pled guilty to
b y A l is on P r at o - P ho t o g r a ph y b y K a r e e m B l ack - St y l i ng b y Dav i d T hom a s
GROOMING BY SMOEK; MAKEUP BY JANICE KINJO FOR JACK BLACK/EPIPHANY ARTIST GROUP INC.; STYLING BY DAVID THOMAS FOR OPUSBEAUTY.COM; SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE OPERA GALLERY IN NYC; JACKET BY DRIES VAN
NOTEN; SHIRT BY BAND OF OUTSIDERS; SUSPENDERS AND BOW TIE BY EKQUALYTE APPAREL; JEANS BY LEVI'S; GLASSES VINTAGE BY DUNHILL; STYLING ASSISTANTS: DANIEL ESTEBAN RIVERA AND MELANEY OLDENHOF
The
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Known as the “Prankster
Father of Dollar-Pop,”
street artist Ron English
has targeted such cultural
icons as Joe Camel, the
McDonald’s arches and
Casper the Friendly Ghost,
as seen in this piece titled
The Resuscitation of Immortality. Chris, celebrating the painting, now on
display at Soho’s Opera Gallery, says, “He’s definitely
one of my favorite artists.”
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“Thelasttwo
years,everybody
dissed me.
Everybody who
dissed me now
wantstosay
‘Hey.’They
wannaget
ontherecord.
Theywanna
letmebackin
thedoor.
Fameiswhat
everybodyseeks.”
in Tappahannock, Virginia, where his mother was
director of a day-care center and his father was a corrections officer. His only sibling, older sister Lytrell,
is a banker. Chris was really into sports—basketball,
football and baseball in particular. But he started singing for the same reason many talented guys with a set
of pipes start singing: to get chicks.
“When I was really young, I was super-shy and
afraid of everything,” he says. “Then I kind of broke
out of that. Girls used to ask me to sing for them in
school, and I was like, ‘All right, cool, I might as well
do it.’ I started getting more and more compliments,
and that drove my confidence. So that’s what made
me focus on singing, even a lot more than sports.”
At 13, he hooked up with a local production team,
which eventually led to a meeting with Jive Records.
At 15, he signed with the label, and in 2005, when he
RIGHT PAGE: THEO WARGO/WIREIMAGE; ABOVE: SHIRT BY DRIES VAN NOTEN
a felony assault charge and struck a plea bargain that
placed him on five years of supervised probation and
180 hours of community service in his home state of
Virginia. He entered a domestic-violence counseling
program and was ordered to stay 50 yards away from
Rihanna for five years.
In December 2009, he released Graffiti, which,
according to Nielsen SoundScan, sold a paltry 336,000
copies, compared with two million for his first album.
Chris was livid and took to his Twitter account to vent.
“I’m tired of this s--t. major stores r blackballing my
cd. not stockin the shelves and lying to customers.
what the f--k do i gotta do—WTF. yeah i said it and i
aint retracting s--t—im not biting my tongue about
s--t else. the industry can kiss my ass.” People speculated that, at just 20 years old, his career was over.
Looking at him today, a man with a smoothskinned baby face who acts like a goofball, talking in
cartoonish voices to make his entourage of assistants
and stylists laugh, it’s hard to imagine such a violent scene going down. And, understandably, that’s
exactly how Chris—and his PR team—like it. Bring up
the “R” word, they warned, and he’ll walk out.
He may be tight-lipped, but his more than 60 tattoos speak volumes. When describing the row of stars
behind his right ear—the same ink Rihanna has—her
name suddenly comes up. “It was rumored in the
press that my old ex and I got matching tattoos, so we
kind of ran with that, like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s cool.’ But
we actually got them almost a year apart…” He trails
off and starts fumbling with his gold watch.
As if on cue, Chris’s buddy Kid Zoom, the pop
graffiti artist, enters the room, and the singer’s guard
finally drops. He jumps up and gives his pal a handshake/hug/backslap. Chris, who painted and drew
constantly as a kid, helms a Web site called Mechanical Dummy, which showcases his favorite artwork,
fashion, technology and music. He’s come to New
York, and the Opera Gallery in Soho today, to hang
out with Zoom and get inspired by some of the artists
on display, including Ron English and Mr. Brainwash.
“We’re gonna tag my whole house up [in Los
Angeles],” Chris says excitedly. “I want to get pictures
of me and paint over them.” When talking about his
newfound passion for street art, his eyes light up: “A
lot of people just think it’s about spraying paint, but
it’s about air pressure, what kind of nozzles you use,
which way to hold it so you can make the perfect line.”
Chris’s appreciation for artistry extends to his
body art. His first tattoo, which he got at age 13, was
the name jesus beneath musical notes on his right
shoulder. When asked how a 13-year-old was allowed
to get a tattoo when the law dictates one must be 18,
he laughs. “I’m from the country, man. We kind of get
away with a lot of s--t.”
Chris’s musical talents date back to his childhood
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English’s The Apple
and the Afterlife is
a take on Magritte’s
The Son of Man.
Brown himself is
also a fan of painters like Picasso,
whose Guernica inspired a tattoo that
English designed for
his forearm.
B
was just 16, his self-titled debut album, featuring the
megahit “Run It,” went double platinum. His second
album, Exclusive, came out in 2007; it also went
double platinum. His career was on fire.
For the better part of his young adult life, he was
young and hot and had money to burn. One day, he
even went out and bought a sports car on a whim.
“This car came out and I was like, ‘F--k it.’ It was the
last Viper that they were making. I didn’t know how
to drive stick, so I had to learn all the way back to my
house.” He chuckles and checks his phone again.
But just as fast as his star had risen, it all came
crashing down. After The Incident, some of his industry peers, including Kanye West, made it known that
they were on Team Rihanna. “That’s my baby sister,
and I will do any and everything to help her in any
situation,” Kanye said on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show.
Above: Chris commissioned English to
design the cover art for F.A.M.E. “I wanted
it to reflect [Chris’s] outrageous style,”
says English. Below: Chris and Rihanna
in happier times, at 2008’s Jingle Ball.
ecoming a music-industry pariah was humbling for
the megastar. “A handful of people stuck by me,” Chris
says, referring to fellow artists such as Pitbull and Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D. “But when [most] people see
certain things happen to somebody, they usually turn
away. They don’t want to get involved with it because
they don’t want their name attached to anything negative. Unknowingly, they kind of show their true colors
when they do that.” He takes a sip of soda. “But you
can’t blame people for how they want to be portrayed
or if they don’t want to be associated with somebody
who had a particular mishap.”
Looking back now, he realizes that success can disappear as quickly as it arrives. “People kind of get clouded,
and then when they get up to the top, they kind of lose a
bit of themselves and they’re not as humble. So knowing
how it can be taken away and given back and taken away
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again, it kind of just taught me to be focused,” he says.
Chris’s drive to get his career back began in July
2009, when he released a video apology saying,
“What I did was inexcusable.” On Larry King Live in
September of that year, he discussed growing up in a
household rife with domestic violence.
In June 2010, he performed an emotional Michael
Jackson tribute at the BET Awards. After excitedly
dancing like the Gloved One to “Billie Jean,” he broke
down in tears during a performance of “Man in the
Mirror” and fell to the stage, unable to finish.
Six months later, he successfully completed his
court-mandated yearlong domestic-violence course
and six months of community service. Los Angeles
Superior Court judge Patricia Schnegg praised his
progress: “I really want to commend you for taking
responsibility and for actually working diligently to
complete all the things required of you.”
But soon after that, in January 2011, Chris suffered
another setback when he got into a heated Twitter
war—during which he made a homophobic slur—
with former B2K singer Raz B. The next day, Chris
released yet another apology. “Words cannot begin
to express how sorry and frustrated I am over what
transpired publicly on Twitter. I have learned over
the past few years not to condone or represent acts of
violence against anyone.”
A few weeks ago, an L.A. judge lifted Rihanna’s restraining order against Chris. It’s clear that he’s trying
“When[most]
peoplesee
certainthings
happento
somebody,they
usuallyturn
away.Theydon’t
wanttheirname
attachedto
anything
negative.
Theykind
ofshowtheir
truecolorswhen
theydothat.”
to learn and grow from his experiences.
His new album, F.A.M.E, is an acronym for “Forgiving All My Enemies.”
“Fame is what everybody seeks,” he says. “I get an
adrenaline rush from it. But fame is basically love
and hate all in one. Without bad there is no good,
without good there is no bad. Everybody who dissed
me now wants to say ‘Hey.’ They wanna get on the
record. They wanna let me back in the door. The last
two years, everybody dissed me. But my fans were
so dedicated. The way I look at it is, you can’t walk
around mad, because then you just prove everybody
right that you’re an angry person. So ‘F.A.M.E.’ means
‘Forgiving All My Enemies,’ and also ‘Fans Are My
Everything.’ I’m dedicating it to my fans.”
When asked what he would say to his younger self,
Chris waits a good 30 seconds before answering.
“This kind of sounds bad, but initially, be more
selfish,” he says. “When I first came into the industry,
I was more open. I thought everybody was my friend,
and it was like Wonderland. I was in the industry
without a care, because it’s so fun, and there’s money
and everything. But you need to protect yourself.”
He tilts his head in such a way that his dime-size
diamond stud earrings catch the light. He gets up and
puts on his coat. “People are always gonna talk. But
I’m in a positive place. I consider myself a grown-ass
man. And at the end of the day, if I walk around apologizing to everybody, I’m gonna look like a damn fool.”
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“Chris seems genuinely
excited and supportive
of the graffiti movement,
which is very encouraging,” says Kid Zoom
(a.k.a. Ian Strange, left),
who is teaching Chris
how to tag. The Aussie
met Brown through their
mutual friend English.
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Chris finds
inspiration from
current pop artists such as Mr.
Brainwash, whose
paint-splattered
tire sculptures
of elephants are
also on display at
Opera Gallery.
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