Bobby Brown

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Bobby Brown once summed up his years on the road with New Edition in a single bitter line: "The most I saw from all the tours and all of the records we sold was $500 and a VCR." Soon after, he walked away from the group. Born on the 5th of February 1969, Robert Barisford Brown Sr. went on to sing, write, rap and dance his way to the top of the album charts. With producer Teddy Riley, he is recognized as a pioneer of new jack swing, a fusion of hip-hop and R&B. He also became a fixture of the tabloids. This documentary asks how a boy from a Boston housing project reached that point. It asks what pushed him out of the group that made him famous, and why he left it. It also asks what the spotlight cost him, and what happened when a famous marriage played out on television.

  34573

• 2. Orchard Park

  ›

  Brown grew up in the Orchard Park Projects of Roxbury, in Boston, as one of eight children. His mother, Carole Elizabeth, born Williams, was a teacher. His father, Herbert James Brown, worked in construction.

  When Brown was three, he had his first taste of performing on a stage. Around then, his idol James Brown played a show in Boston, and the concert planted the dream of becoming a professional singer. Brown joined the church choir, where he recognized his own voice and began to develop it. He later named Rick James, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye and Prince among his influences.

  Brown is also reportedly a distant cousin of disco artist Donna Summer. Her family lived in the multiracial Mission Hill neighborhood during the 1950s and 1960s.

  A darker memory sits beside the music. Social services once placed Brown in temporary custody, and during that time a Catholic priest molested him. He said of it, "It's been more than thirty years, but I can never let go of the horror I felt in that room with the priest." He also tied the abuse to his later struggles, saying, "It was part of the reason I did things, other things, drugs, alcohol, why I abused myself." Of the memory itself he said, "I had tucked it down so deep into my soul that I didn't think that I would talk about it again."

  747334

• 3. New Edition

  ›

  In 1980, a 12-year-old Brown founded a group called The Bricks with childhood friends Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell. Ralph Tresvant joined at Bell's suggestion, since the two had already sung together as a duo. Brown had known Tresvant since they were children. In 1982 the group became a quintet when manager Brooke Payne insisted on adding his nephew, Ronnie DeVoe.

  After several talent shows around Boston, the group signed with Streetwise Records, run by fellow Bostonian Arthur Baker. The label released their debut album, Candy Girl. On the title track, Brown shared the lead with Bell and Tresvant. It reached number one on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart in 1983 and topped the charts in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Brown sang his first full lead on the ballad "Jealous Girl," a minor hit that same year.

  The self-titled second album in 1984 made them crossover pop stars. It carried "Cool It Now" and "Mr. Telephone Man." On the second, Brown co-led and often sang the chorus that listeners still remember.

  Behind the success, Brown grew restless. He reportedly resented the attention that went to Tresvant. On tour he would allegedly step out of position and perform out of turn, singing and moving in a seductive style that worried the group's management. Brown recorded two more albums with the group before leaving in early 1986. He later said management treated the members "like little slaves by people who were only interested in money and power, and not in the welfare of New Edition."

  How he left is disputed. Some say Brown asked to be released. A VH-1 Behind the Music documentary on the group claimed he was voted out through their management, over the objections of members, Tresvant most of all. Either way, a label was waiting. MCA, the group's own label, had earlier promised Brown a solo deal if he ever left.

  1256

• 4. Don't Be Cruel

  ›

  King of Stage, Brown's solo debut, came out on MCA in 1986. His new manager was Steven Machat, who had also worked with New Edition. The ballad "Girlfriend" reached number one on the R&B chart, but the rest of the album performed poorly.

  Brown then lay low for more than a year. With help from Machat and MCA representative Louil Silas, he began working with leading producers and songwriters of the day: Babyface, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Teddy Riley. Together they shaped Don't Be Cruel, released in 1988, which became the most successful album of his solo career.

  On the 21st of January 1989, it reached number one on the Billboard 200, replacing Anita Baker's Giving You the Best That I Got. Brown was 19. He became the youngest male artist to top that chart since Stevie Wonder's live album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, which got there when Wonder was thirteen. He was also the youngest man ever to reach number one with a studio album, a mark Justin Bieber broke in 2010.

  The album produced five top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100. One was the self-penned number one, "My Prerogative." Along with "Every Little Step" and the title track, it became a signature song. Sales reached twelve million copies worldwide, seven million of them in the United States, making it the best-selling album of 1989. In February 1990, "Every Little Step," the fourth single, won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. The album also brought two American Music Awards, a Soul Train Music Award and a People's Choice Award.

  The video for "Every Little Step" popularized the Roger Rabbit dance, also called the backwards running man. Brown's Gumby-style hi-top fade became a trend as well. He has claimed that he taught Michael Jackson how to do the moonwalk.

  181921227

• 5. After the Peak

  ›

  Two songs on the Ghostbusters II soundtrack in 1989 kept Brown on the radio. The first track, "On Our Own," peaked at number two. He also had a cameo in the film as the Mayor's doorman. That year a remix compilation, Dance!...Ya Know It!, found fans in the United Kingdom.

  His world tour for Don't Be Cruel began in 1988, with Al B. Sure! opening and New Edition joining some dates. Planned at 120 days, it ran into the spring of 1991. Along the way, Brown drew notoriety for simulating sexual acts onstage, which got him into trouble with local law enforcement. In 1990 he performed "Tap into My Heart" at the MTV Awards. An album called Mystical Magic was set for release but was shelved for reasons unknown. Also in 1990, he was featured on Glenn Medeiros's number-one hit "She Ain't Worth It," his second pop number one. In 1991 he joined Tresvant on "Stone Cold Gentleman," a top-five R&B hit.

  The 1992 album Bobby arrived in the last days of the new jack swing era. It still sold more than 3 million copies and spawned "Humpin' Around," "Get Away" and "Good Enough." "Humpin' Around" earned him a second Grammy nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, and he won a third American Music Award in January 1993. Sales still trailed those of Don't Be Cruel. In 1994, the dance producers K-Klass remixed "Two Can Play That Game." It became his biggest single in the United Kingdom, reaching number three in 1995.

  His fourth album, Forever, followed in 1997. Its only single, "Feeling Inside," failed. Before it came out, Brown had been negotiating with rapper Tupac Shakur to join Makaveli Records, or the proposed Death Row East. Shakur died before anything was signed. After Forever, Brown left MCA and lay low for several years.

  He returned as a guest. In 2001 he appeared on two tracks of The Benzino Project, and in 2002 he sang with Ja Rule on "Thug Lovin'." A deal with Murder Inc. Records was brief, because the label had already begun to dissolve. In 2006 he sang on Damian Marley's "Beautiful," from Welcome to Jamrock.

  In 2008 Brown planned a book, Bobby Brown: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But, written by Derrick Handspike. When Brown's controversial comments about Whitney Houston leaked to the media, he backed out. Handspike released the book after Houston's death in 2012.

  For his 2010 duet "Real Love" with Macy Gray, she told Essence that he "knocked out his recording in two hours." His fifth album, The Masterpiece, came out on the 5th of June 2012 and debuted at number 41 on the Billboard R&B album chart. In 2017 he played a Valentine's Day festival with Keith Sweat, Avant and El DeBarge.

  720242528

• 6. Back Together, On Camera

  ›

  At the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, Brown made his first reunited appearance with New Edition. That performance inspired Bell Biv DeVoe's 1991 recording "Word to the Mutha!" It featured Brown, Tresvant and later member Johnny Gill. A full reunion came with the 1996 album Home Again, which reached number one on the Billboard 200. Brown sang lead on two hit singles, "Hit Me Off" and "You Don't Have to Worry."

  The 1997 tour for the album strained relations with the other members. Brown later admitted that he was battling drug addiction and alcoholism throughout it. He reunited with the group again at the BET 25th Anniversary Special in 2005. In 2008, he, Tresvant and Gill formed a splinter group, Heads of State, to compete with Bell Biv DeVoe. At the 2009 BET Awards, after Michael Jackson's death, all six members came together for a Jackson 5 medley. Rumors of a full reunion followed, and it was confirmed the next year.

  The honors came later. The group received the BET Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. It joined the Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022 and the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 2023. The Culture Tour began in early 2022. A year later, the sextet performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in a medley of songs by that year's inductees, the Spinners.

  Brown's screen work ran alongside the music. In 1990 he played all three of the Three Blind Mice in the HBO children's show Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme. He later had a major role in the Martin Lawrence film A Thin Line Between Love and Hate.

  In June 2007, he sat for the ITV chat show 24 Hours With..., in which host Jamie Campbell and a guest spend 24 hours locked in a room. Campbell joked about making "sexual moves" toward the singer. A furious Brown threatened to beat him up live on air. Brown later turned up in Real Husbands of Hollywood, Celebrity Fit Club and Gone Country.

  In 2021, Brown competed on season five of The Masked Singer as the wild card contestant Crab. After performing Rick James's "Give It to Me Baby," he overheated in the costume and was briefly taken to his dressing room. He was eliminated in Week 7, alongside Tamera Mowry as Seashell. In May 2022, A&E began airing Biography: Bobby Brown and Bobby Brown: Every Little Step, both of which he executive produced.

  Actors have since played him in The New Edition Story and in The Bobby Brown Story. Woody McClain took the role in 2017, and Ashton Sanders played him in the Whitney Houston biopic released at Christmas 2022. Aries Spears on MADtv and Tracy Morgan on Saturday Night Live had already spoofed him.

  1263133

• 7. Whitney

  ›

  Brown met Whitney Houston at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1989, when he was 20. That August she invited him to her 26th birthday party, and a close friendship grew into romance. He proposed in 1991. They married at Houston's estate on the 18th of July 1992. Their daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was born in 1993.

  Their duet "Something in Common" gave them shared songwriting credit, with Houston also credited for vocal arrangement. It peaked at number 16 in the United Kingdom, and the video ended with their daughter. Around 1999, the couple's combined pop and R&B success earned a Guinness World Record as the "most successful star couple." In 2000, Houston thanked Brown in her Grammy acceptance speech for "It's Not Right but It's Okay." Many in the media speculated that the thanks hinted at the volatile marriage.

  Throughout the marriage there were rumors of infidelity, alcohol and substance abuse, and domestic violence. Talk shows, tabloids and sketch comedy fed on their troubles, and some portrayed Brown as a has-been jealous of his wife's fame. In 2003 he was charged with battery after an altercation with Houston.

  In 2005 the couple joined the reality show Being Bobby Brown. Bravo would not commit unless Houston agreed to be in the cast, and she did. The Hollywood Reporter called it "undoubtedly the most disgusting and execrable series ever to ooze its way onto television." Houston proved so popular that she received as much screen time as Brown. The show still gave Bravo its highest ratings of any ongoing series. It lasted one season and ended in 2006, after Houston said she would not appear in season two and Bravo and Brown could not settle on a new deal.

  Houston filed for legal separation in September 2006, and later for divorce. It was finalized on the 24th of April 2007, with Houston receiving custody of their 14-year-old daughter. In a September 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston said she sometimes used drugs with Brown and that he had "laced marijuana with cocaine." She also said he had been abusive and had once spat on her while drunk.

  Houston died on the 11th of February 2012, six days after Brown's 43rd birthday. At a New Edition show, he shouted "I love you, Whitney" through tears and left the stage, and the group finished without him. At her memorial service in New Jersey, he was asked to leave by the family's security. Brown told Matt Lauer in May 2012 that he had spent "14 beautiful years" with Houston as his wife. Brown has been accused, along with Clive Davis, Ray J and others, of contributing to her death. He denies it.

  810353654

• 8. The Toll

  ›

  Brown has described addiction as a lifelong struggle. As a child he was diagnosed with ADD, and at age 32 with bipolar disorder. He named marijuana as his drug of choice and said alcoholism took hold at an early age. He often contradicted himself about cocaine. He once claimed he began using it only after meeting Houston, then admitted in his 2009 Behind the Music documentary that he had used it before. During the 1990s his addiction worsened, and at one point he was cooking cocaine and using heroin.

  A former gang member, David Collins, claimed that in 1993 the New York street gang the Preacher Crew kidnapped Brown over a $25,000 drug debt. According to Collins, Houston paid a $400,000 ransom to the gang, which had threatened to kill him. The incident was never reported to authorities.

  The arrests began in 1989 and came repeatedly. In April 1995, Brown and two friends were charged in the beating of a nightclub patron in Orlando. The charges were dropped after the victim settled a civil lawsuit against him. In January 1998, he was convicted in Florida of drunken driving and property damage, after crashing Houston's sports car into a condominium sign in 1996. He served five days in jail and was placed on probation.

  In 2000, he spent 26 days in jail after U.S. Customs agents arrested him in New Jersey, on a probation warrant. His probation officer had twice found cocaine in his urine tests. In December 2003, he was charged with battery for striking Houston and threatening to beat her. Police reported visible injuries to her face.

  Money troubles followed. In March 2004, Brown was sentenced to 90 days in jail for owing $63,000 in back child support to Kim Ward. He was released after one night, when Houston paid the debt. In February 2007, a 30-day sentence for $20,000 in unpaid support ended after three days, when a radio station paid his fees. In 2012 he was arrested twice for drunken driving. In February 2013 he was sentenced to 55 days in jail and four years of probation, and he served nine hours.

  In 2009 Brown had a son, Cassius, with manager Alicia Etheredge. They married in Hawaii on the 18th of June 2012. Their daughters Bodhi and Hendrix were born in 2015 and 2016.

  In January 2015, Bobbi Kristina was found unconscious in her bathtub in Roswell, Georgia. She was 21. Doctors placed her in a medically induced coma, and she was later moved to Emory University Hospital. When doctors concluded that significant brain function was unlikely, she was removed from the ventilator and placed in hospice care in Duluth, Georgia. She died there on the 26th of July 2015, at age 22.

  On the 18th of November 2020, Brown's son Bobby Jr. was found dead at home, at age 28. His death was ruled an accidental overdose of cocaine, fentanyl and alcohol. Brown's mother, Carole, had died in 2011, and his father, Herbert, whom he called Pops, followed in January 2012. His brother and longtime manager, Tommy Brown, died on the 21st of March 2026.

  7476788186