Chris Brown

• 1. Introduction

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  Chris Brown, born Christopher Maurice Brown, has sold more than 140 million records worldwide. That total places him among the best-selling music artists in the world. Across his career he has collected 219 awards from 566 nominations, and some of his contemporaries have called him the "King of R&B." He is a singer, songwriter, dancer and actor, and his lyrics often return to emotional and hedonistic themes. His story also includes significant controversy, which sits beside the chart records and the trophies. This documentary follows a boy from rural Virginia who signed with a major label as a teenager. It asks how he rebuilt his career after a very public fall. It asks why critics keep returning to his voice and his footwork. And it asks what keeps an artist on the charts for so many years.

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• 2. From Virginia to Harlem

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  Tappahannock, Virginia, is where Christopher Maurice Brown was born on the 5th of May 1989. His mother, Joyce Hawkins, was a former day care center director. His father, Clinton Brown, worked as a corrections officer at a local prison. He also has an older sister, Lytrell Bundy, who works at a bank. Music was part of the house from the start. He listened to the soul albums his parents owned and later grew curious about hip-hop.

  His parents divorced when he was 6 years old, and life at home turned frightening. His mother's boyfriend abused her, and Brown recalls the couple's relationship in his 2017 self-documentary, Welcome to My Life. He says that when he was six, the man shot himself in the head, survived, and was left blind. Brown remembers the nights this way: "I had to hear my mom get beat up every night. I'd pee on myself, just scared to even walk out into the hallway, because I didn't want to see nothing."

  Brown taught himself to sing and dance at a young age. He performed in his church choir and in several local talent shows. In a 2023 interview with Shannon Sharpe, he named the moment he began to treat music as a job. At 11, he won a summer camp talent show by performing Sisqó's "Thong Song." He said: "The camp leaders, they laughed, but everybody kinda went crazy in there and I was like 'I think I can do this'." Around the same time, he mimicked an Usher performance of "My Way," and his mother recognized his vocal talent. The two began looking for a record deal.

  At 13, Brown was discovered at the gas station where his father worked. A local production team called Hitmission Records was visiting in search of new talent. Around the same time, he performed with a production manager's son named TJ for the hip-hop artist Puff Daddy. Puff Daddy declined to sign him to Bad Boy Records. Hitmission's Lamont Fleming gave him voice coaching, and the team put together a demo package under the name "C. Sizzle."

  The track "Whose Girl Is That" caught the ear of Tina Davis, a senior A&R executive at Def Jam Recordings. She had Brown audition in her New York office. She then took him straight to Antonio "L.A." Reid, the former president of Island Def Jam Music Group. Reid offered to sign him that day. Brown refused, because Reid would not talk to his mother.

  Brown moved to Harlem, New York City, to seek a deal, and talks with Def Jam dragged on for two months. They ended when Davis lost her job in a corporate merger. Brown asked her to be his manager, and she accepted. Davis then pitched him to Jive Records, J-Records and Warner Bros. Records. "I knew that Chris had real talent," she says. "I just knew I wanted to be part of it." By late 2004 or early 2005, at the age of 16, he had dropped out of Essex High School in Virginia.

  Mark Pitts, speaking to HitQuarters, recalled that Davis showed him a video recording. His 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 signed with Jive in 2004. He explained his choice by pointing to the label's work with young pop acts such as Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. In his words, "Jive had a lot of strength in the pop area as well as longevity in careers."

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• 3. Teenage Stardom

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  Fifty songs were already recorded by May 2005, and only 14 made the final track listing of Brown's debut album. Sessions had begun that February. He worked with producers and songwriters including Scott Storch, Cool & Dre, Sean Garrett and Jazze Pha. Brown co-wrote half of the tracks. Looking back in 2009, he said: "I write about the things that 16 year olds go through every day." The whole album took less than eight weeks to produce.

  The lead single, "Run It!", made Brown the first male act since Montell Jordan in 1995 to send a debut single to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed there for four additional weeks. Brown said in 2023 that he had felt "insecure" about releasing it first. Three more singles, "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)," "Gimme That" and "Say Goodbye," all reached the top 20.

  The album, Chris Brown, came out on the 29th of November 2005 and entered the Billboard 200 at number 2. First-week sales reached 154,000 copies. Decca Aitkenhead of The Guardian called it "a smooth slice of commercial R&B." In the US it sold over three million copies and earned triple Platinum certification. Worldwide it sold six million.

  On the 13th of June 2006, Brown released a DVD called Chris Brown's Journey. It follows him through England and Japan, shows him preparing for his first visit to the Grammy Awards, and adds music video sets and bloopers. His co-headlining Up Close and Personal Tour began on the 17th of August 2006. The tour pushed production of his next album back by two months. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital received $10,000 from its ticket proceeds.

  January 2007 brought two screen debuts. Brown played a band geek in the fourth season of The O.C. On the 12th of January he made his film debut in Stomp the Yard, alongside Ne-Yo, Meagan Good and Columbus Short. In April he opened for Beyoncé on the Australian leg of her tour. On the 9th of July 2007, MTV aired an episode of My Super Sweet 16, retitled Chris Brown: My Super 18, celebrating his eighteenth birthday in New York City.

  Exclusive reached the US on the 6th of November 2007 after a shaky start. Its lead single, "Wall to Wall," peaked at number 79, his lowest-charting single at that point. Then came "Kiss Kiss," featured and produced by T-Pain, which became his second number one on the Hot 100. "With You," produced by Stargate, reached number 2 and became one of the best-selling singles of all time. The album debuted at number 4 with 294,000 first-week copies and reached four times Platinum.

  Brown also took a leading role in the family drama This Christmas, released on the 21st of November 2007 and starring Regina King. His cover of the title song on the soundtrack was certified Platinum. In March 2008 he joined Jordin Sparks on "No Air," which peaked at number 3.

  A gum commercial produced his next hit. An advertising company working for Wrigley commissioned a Doublemint jingle, and Brown wrote the short version. He then expanded it into a full song, "Forever," in another recording session. It was his first venture into dance-pop, and it reached number 2 on the Hot 100. Exclusive: The Forever Edition followed on the 3rd of June 2008 with four new tracks. By the end of the year Billboard had named him Artist of the Year, with "With You," "Forever" and "No Air" all among the ten best-selling US singles. Meanwhile, he had announced a third album, to be called Graffiti.

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• 4. The Rihanna Case

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  A domestic violence scandal on the 8th of February 2009 involved Brown and his then-girlfriend, the singer and actress Rihanna. Brown later pleaded guilty to felony assault of her. He was sentenced to five years of probation with six months of community service. A major part of the mass media took positions against him. He lost significant endorsements, including the Doublemint deal, and some music stations across the US briefly banned his songs.

  Brown made numerous television appearances that year to speak about it. To ABC News he said: "I never ever had problems with anger. No, no domestic violence with any of my past girlfriends or any altercations." In Welcome to My Life, he describes the fall in his own terms: "I went from being on top of the world, number one songs, being kind of like America's sweetheart, to being public enemy number one."

  Graffiti had been conceived as a stylistic leap. Brown said he wanted to follow Prince, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, artists who could "cross over to any genre of music." The lead single, "I Can Transform Ya," arrived on the 29th of September 2009 and peaked at number 20. "Crawl" followed on the 23rd of November and reached number 53. The album was released on the 8th of December 2009.

  This was the record on which Brown took full control. He managed the artistic direction and wrote every song except "I'll Go," which Brian Kennedy and James Fauntleroy wrote and produced. He said he wanted to give his "own perspective of the music he wanted to make." Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times heard an upbeat half that could be a sonic sequel to "Forever," mixed with power ballads that seemed to express remorse.

  The public did not follow. Graffiti debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200 with 102,000 first-week copies, and reviews were generally negative. It counted as a commercial and critical failure next to his first two albums. It still earned two Grammy nominations, one of them for Best Contemporary R&B Album. As of the 23rd of March 2011, it had sold 341,000 copies in the US.

  At the 2010 BET Awards, Brown performed a Michael Jackson tribute and sang "Man in the Mirror." Partway through, he began to cry and fell to his knees. Trey Songz said: "He left his heart on the stage." Jermaine Jackson called it emotional, describing it as acceptance from fans and a tribute to his brother. Later that night, while accepting the AOL Fandemonium prize, Brown said: "I let y'all down before, but I won't do it again...I promise." A run of free mixtapes that year would test whether his core audience was still listening.

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• 5. Comebacks and Setbacks

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  Three free mixtapes in 2010 gave Brown a new voice. They were In My Zone, Fan of a Fan and In My Zone 2, and Fan of a Fan was a collaboration with the rapper Tyga. The tapes introduced a different writing style and mixed R&B with hip-hop, with new producers such as Kevin McCall. His core audience responded strongly. "Deuces," from Fan of a Fan, reached number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Remixes came from Drake, Kanye West, André 3000, Rick Ross, Fabolous and T.I. In August 2010, Brown also starred in the crime thriller Takers, alongside Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen and T.I., and served as its executive producer.

  The title F.A.M.E. stood for "Forgiving All My Enemies." The dance-pop single "Yeah 3x" entered the top ten in eleven countries. "Look at Me Now," with Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes, stayed at number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for eight consecutive weeks. It became the best-selling rap song of 2011. Stereogum, while criticizing his public image, still wrote: "It brings me no joy to report that 'Look At Me Now' is a 10."

  The album reached stores on the 18th of March 2011 and debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. First-week sales were 270,000 copies, giving Brown his first number-one album in the US. Steve Jones of USA Today heard a "more mature, confident and adventurous Brown." At the 2011 BET Awards he won five awards from six nominations, including Video of the Year for "Look at Me Now." On the 12th of February 2012, he won his first Grammy, for Best R&B Album. He performed at the ceremony, his first appearance there since his felony assault conviction.

  Brown had wanted F.A.M.E. to be a double disc of 25-30 tracks, but his label objected. His solution was Fortune, a sequel built from new songs and unused tracks from the F.A.M.E. sessions. On the 7th of October 2011, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records, Arista Records and J Records. Brown's future releases would carry the RCA Records name. Fortune appeared on the 3rd of July 2012 and topped the Billboard 200 despite negative reviews. The Los Angeles Times described an artist trying to get "back in America's good graces."

  On the 15th of February 2013, Brown unofficially released "Home," a song about the dark side of fame and about returning to the neighborhood where he grew up. He promised a more mature and soulful album called X. "Fine China," released on the 29th of March 2013, was praised by Yahoo! as "a soulful, 1970's-inspired track." Then trouble returned. At 1:09 am on the 9th of August 2013, a 9-1-1 call reported that Brown had suffered a seizure at Record Plant Studios in Hollywood, California. He reportedly refused treatment. His representative blamed "intense fatigue and extreme emotional stress." Brown has reportedly suffered from seizures since childhood.

  On the 20th of November 2013, Brown was sentenced to three months in an anger management rehabilitation center. The sentence put the December release of X in doubt. The day before, he had released a mixtape, X Files, to hold fans over. In 2022 he revealed that Prince phoned him on the way to counseling. Prince told him "don't lose focus" and wanted to talk about "being special." Brown called that call "one of his most influential" moments.

  The album was set for his birthday, the 5th of May 2014. Then, at a court date on the 9th of May 2014, he was ordered to serve 131 days in jail for a probation violation. A teased collaboration with Ariana Grande, "Don't Be Gone Too Long," was never released. While Brown was incarcerated, "Loyal" became one of his biggest songs, selling over six million copies in the US. Brown said in 2022 that after his release, fans told him how his records had helped them through life-changing situations. He realized he was making music for an "actual purpose."

  X was finally released on the 16th of September 2014. Critics saw a big improvement on Fortune. It debuted at number 2 with 146,000 copies, his sixth consecutive US top-ten debut, and later reached double Platinum. Brad Wete of Billboard praised his hit singles and agile performances while noting "his knack for cannonballing into career-threatening pools of legal and PR problems."

  Royalty took shape next. Brown released "Liquor" in June 2015 as its first single and dedicated the album to his daughter. On the 27th of November 2015, he released a free 34-track mixtape, Before the Party, with guests including Rihanna, Wiz Khalifa, Pusha T, Kelly Rowland, Wale, Tyga, French Montana and Fetty Wap. Royalty arrived on the 18th of December 2015 at number 3 with 184,000 units. Brown directed eight music videos for it and linked them into one linear story.

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• 6. Voice, Feet, Spray Paint

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  "Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer," Brown says. His songs "She Ain't You," "Fine China" and "Back to Love" show that influence in sound and imagery. Ebony magazine's Britini Danielle heard "Fine China" as reminiscent of Off the Wall. MTV noticed visual cues from "Smooth Criminal" and "Beat It." Usher is a second pillar. Brown told Vibe: "If it wasn't for Usher, then Chris Brown couldn't exist." He also names Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Ginuwine, Phil Collins, Bobby Brown and R. Kelly. His hip-hop influences include Naughty by Nature, Tupac, Lil' Wayne and Rakim.

  Brown has a light lyric tenor voice that spans three and a half octaves, from F-sharp 2 up to C-sharp 6. "Take You Down" earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2009. Critics describe a dynamic vocalist, marked by harmonization, vocal runs and melisma. Stereogum called his voice "one of those endlessly elastic soulful tenors." Slant Magazine heard his falsetto across Heartbreak on a Full Moon. Jake Indiana of Highsnobiety said his feature on Kanye West's "Waves" "sounds like ascending to heaven with a choir of angels at your back." On "Look at Me Now," "No Romeo No Juliet" and "Stranger Things," he also shows he can rap quickly.

  The radio personality Ebro Darden called Brown the "most all-around talented person in R&B." He said Trey Songz cannot dance like Brown. He said Usher comes close but lacks Brown's songwriting. Brown says his songs are always derived from personal experience, and that he likes mixing reality with art.

  On stage, comparisons to Michael Jackson follow him everywhere. Brown says he taught himself to dance by imitating Jackson's moves from childhood, then developed his own style. He also names MC Hammer as an inspiration. His video for "Zero" shows several styles, including popping and a signature spin move. The Source described the choreography of "Heat" as "silky smooth." Live, he recreated "Thriller" at the 2006 World Music Awards. At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, he performed a routine with flying parts. At the Vestival The Hague in 2015, he freestyled over Future's "March Madness" and landed an acclaimed front-flip.

  Away from the stage, Brown makes street art under the pseudonym Konfused. His visual works are described as "manga-inspired" and "abstract." He partnered with the street artist Kai on pieces for Miami Basel and painted the buildings of radio stations such as Hot 97. In 2015 he covered walls at The Grammy Museum with spray paint drawings of James Brown, Prince, Michael Jackson and himself. His graffiti has appeared in Los Angeles, London and Amsterdam. With Spotify's Rap Caviar, he painted the Heartbreak on a Full Moon cover, mostly by dancing around the canvas. His 2020 mural for Kobe Bryant shows the player's face, a mamba, and pictures of Kobe dribbling and dunking.

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• 7. Masters and Marathons

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  Forty tracks was the length Brown wanted for Heartbreak on a Full Moon. RCA Records at first resisted, fearing damage to its commercial performance. Brown convinced the label, and the album ended up with 45 tracks. He built a recording studio inside his home to work on it. From early 2016 he previewed unreleased songs on social media. He toured Europe on the One Hell of a Nite Tour in 2016 and the US on The Party Tour in 2017.

  On the 7th of July 2016, after the shooting of Dallas police officers, Brown posted two piano ballads on SoundCloud. They were "My Friend" and "A Lot of Love," "released for free for anybody dealing with injustice or struggle in their lives." On the 16th of December 2016, he issued "Party," with guest vocals from Usher and Gucci Mane.

  On the 7th of June 2017, he released Welcome to My Life, a self-documentary directed by Andrew Sandler. Jennifer Lopez, Mike Tyson, Rita Ora, Usher and Tyga take part. Rachel Leah of Salon wrote: "Chris Brown's actions are inexcusable, but what he says about male violence is vital."

  Heartbreak on a Full Moon came out as a double-disc album on the 31st of October 2017. Brown described it to Complex as "a depiction of what my soul wanted to say." Counting only three days of sales, it debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200, his ninth consecutive top-10 album. One week later it was certified Gold. He was the first male R&B artist to go Gold in a week since Usher's Confessions in 2004. It later reached double Platinum. A surprise 12-track deluxe edition, Cuffing Season - 12 Days of Christmas, followed on the 13th of December 2017.

  On the 15th of March 2018, Brown appeared on Lil Dicky's "Freaky Friday." It topped the charts in New Zealand and the United Kingdom and entered the US top 10. Then Indigo began. On the 4th of January 2019, he released "Undecided," reuniting with Scott Storch, who had worked with him on "Run It!" in 2005. The single followed a new license agreement with RCA Records that gave Brown ownership of his master recordings. At 29, he was one of the youngest artists to hold that ownership.

  The list of Indigo guests included Nicki Minaj, Tory Lanez, Tyga, Justin Bieber, H.E.R, Lil Wayne, Gunna and Drake. The Drake collaboration made headlines because of a feud that had lasted several years. "No Guidance," featuring Drake, arrived on the 8th of June 2019, debuted at number 9, and peaked at number 5. It was Brown's 15th top-ten song.

  Indigo was released on the 28th of June 2019 as his second double album. It explored his R&B roots along with Afrobeats, pop, dancehall and bounce music. It debuted at number 1 with 108,000 album-equivalent units, including 28,000 pure sales. It was his third number-one album in the US. An extended edition on the 4th of October 2019 brought the total to 42 songs.

  The Indigoat Tour ran from the 20th of August to the 19th of October 2019 and grossed over $30,100,000 in 37 shows. Reviewing the Tampa concert, Jay Cridlin of the Tampa Bay Times called it a guilty pleasure. He asked at what point audiences can or should forget the blowups and restraining orders and simply marvel at Brown's backflip and 360 spin. At year's end, Billboard ranked Brown third among R&B and hip-hop artists of the 2010s, behind Drake and Rihanna.

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• 8. Stadium Years

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  Drake's mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes gave Brown his 100th career entry on the Billboard Hot 100 on the 1st of May 2020. The track "Not You Too" debuted at number 25. Four days later, Brown released Slime & B, a collaborative mixtape with Young Thug. Its hit "Go Crazy" peaked at number 3 and became his first song to spend a full year on the Hot 100. In April 2021 it broke the record for longest-running number one on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, previously held by "No Guidance."

  Brown announced his tenth album, Breezy, on the 9th of July 2020, naming it for his stage nickname. A companion short film he announced in 2021 never materialised. On the 27th of March 2022, he co-headlined a post-race concert for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In June he opened a multi-year residency at Drai's After Hours Nightclub at The Cromwell in Las Vegas. Breezy came out on the 24th of June 2022 and debuted at number 4. Its deluxe edition was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 65th Grammy Awards but lost to Robert Glasper's Black Radio III. Brown attacked Glasper and The Recording Academy on social media. He later apologized, saying Glasper was not the intended target.

  That summer, a song from the extended edition of Indigo went viral on TikTok. "Under the Influence" brought Brown great commercial success worldwide. It made him the first R&B singer to chart more than fifty Top 40 hits on the Hot 100. In January 2023 he passed Elvis Presley for the most RIAA Gold-certified singles among male vocalists. On the 4th of September 2022, he won international artiste of the year at the 15th annual Headies awards.

  On the 18th of November 2022, Brown announced that the American Music Awards had canceled his tribute performance to Michael Jackson for the 40th anniversary of Thriller. Fans and industry peers pushed back. Jermaine Dupri said: "If the American Music Awards canceled the Chris Brown performance, then that means they canceled the 40th anniversary of Thriller." John Branca, co-executor of the Michael Jackson Estate, said the awards show should be ashamed.

  Brown's 2023 Under the Influence Tour sold out all 24 arena dates, and seven added dates also sold out. It included six nights at London's O2 Arena, three at Accor Arena in Paris and three at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. The opening act Skillibeng withdrew and was replaced by South African singer Tyla. These were Brown's first UK concerts since the country revoked the ban on him, which dated from 2010.

  In June 2023, Brown released "Summer Too Hot," the lead single of his eleventh album, 11:11. The title came from a numerological belief. He first said the album would hold 11 songs, and on the 21st of October 2023 he clarified that it would hold 22. A few hours before release, the closing track was changed from "Double Negative," featuring Justin Bieber, to "Views." Brown explained: "Double negative unfortunately did not make the deadline in time with the lawyers, so we couldn't put it on the album."

  11:11 came out on the 10th of November 2023, with two sides of 11 tracks each. It debuted at number 9, his twelfth consecutive top-10 album, but it was also his lowest solo debut. It fell below Graffiti, which entered at number 7. The single "Sensational," featuring Lojay and Davido, reached number one on Urban and Rhythmic radio and gave both guests their first Hot 100 entry.

  In January 2024, Tee Grizzley's "IDGAF," featuring Brown and Mariah the Scientist, made Brown the first artist of the 21st century to chart on the Hot 100 for twenty consecutive years. On the 11th of April 2024, the 11:11 deluxe edition added 13 tracks. On "Freak," Brown directly dissed the rapper Quavo, who answered the next day with "Tender." Brown replied a week later with "Weakest Link."

  On the 14th and the 15th of December, Brown sold out two stadium shows at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, with over 90,000 attendees each night. A week later, on the 21st and 22nd, he sold out two nights at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, with 100,000 tickets sold. On the 2nd of February 2025-11:11 (Deluxe) won the Grammy for Best R&B Album. In March 2025 he announced the Breezy Bowl XX stadium tour, celebrating twenty years since his self-titled debut. On the 10th of April 2026, Brown and Usher announced The Raymond & Brown Tour. On the 8th of May 2026, his twelfth studio album, Brown, debuted at number 7 with 65,000 units, only 5,000 of them pure sales. It was his 13th consecutive top-ten album.

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