Chris Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American recording artist and actor. Chris made his recording debut in late 2005 with Chris Brown at the age of 16. The album featured the hit single "Run It!", which topped the Billboard Hot 100, making Chris the first male artist to have his debut single to top the chart. The album has sold over two million copies in the United States and was certified double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Brown's second studio album, Exclusive was released worldwide in November 2007. It spawned two successful singles; his second U.S. number one hit, "Kiss Kiss" featuring T-Pain and "With You", which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Chris has released a deluxe version of his album called the The Forever Edition. The first single off of it, "Forever", was released in May 2008 and reached number two on Billboard Hot 100. Exclusive has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.
In addition to his solo commercial success, Chris has been featured on several hits such as "No Air", a duet with singer Jordin Sparks, "Shortie like Mine" with the rapper Bow Wow and "Shawty Get Loose" alongside Lil Mama and T-Pain. The songs have peaked on number three, number nine and number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 respectively. Due to his dance routines, Chris has been compared to renowned R&B artists such as Usher and Michael Jackson, citing both as large influences on his music.
Biography
Chris was born and raised in the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia, the son of Joyce Hawkins and Clinton Brown. He began dancing at the age of two and began singing in his church choir. He was influenced by the soul albums his parents owned. Originally interested in becoming a rapper, he chose to become a singer when his mother noticed his singing voice.
From the ages seven to thirteen, Chris was scarred by the domestic violence his mother endured from her boyfriend. He claims to "hate him to this day".
At the age of thirteen, Chris and his mother began looking for opportunities of a record deal. He was discovered by a local production team who visited his father's gas station while searching for new talent. In 2004, Tina Davis, senior A&R executive at Def Jam Recordings at the time, was on the verge of signing Brown, but lost her job. The following day, she became his manager and landed him with a contract with Jive Records a week later. By early 2005, Chris began work for his debut album, working with the likes of Scott Storch, The Underdogs, Dre & Vidal, Bryan-Michael Cox, Bow Wow, and Jermaine Dupri.
Chris left school in late 2004 to begin working on his self-titled debut album which was released in November 2005. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 selling over 155,000 copies in first week of sales. It sold over 2.1 million copies in the United States and over three million copies worldwide. His debut single, "Run It!", was number one in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. Following "Run It!" "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" became Brown's second top 10 hit in the U.S., peaking at number seven, and number 13 in the UK. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA.
His third single, "Gimme That", was released in March 2006 which featured Lil Wayne for a remix, originally not featured on the album, but was later included. The single debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number 80 and climbed the charts quickly peaking at number 15. Chris also co-directed his music videos for "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" and "Gimme That." His fourth single is the ballad "Say Goodbye," which is also a part of the Step Up soundtrack. On June 13, 2006, Chris released a DVD entitled, Chris Brown's Journey, which shows footage of him traveling in 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, Chris 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. Chris was also the opening act for R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles on the Australian leg of her The Beyoncé Experience tour.
Chris has made appearances on UPN's One on One and The N's Brandon T. Jackson Show on its pilot episode. In addition, Chris landed a small role as a band geek in the fourth season of Fox's The O.C. in January 2007. Chris then made his film debut in Stomp the Yard, alongside Ne-Yo, Meagan Good and Columbus Short in January 2007. Chris next appeared in This Chrismas, a family drama starring Regina King, released on November 21, 2007. On July 9, 2007, Chris 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. Chris also guest-starred on Disney's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody as himself. Chris is expected to star in the basketball drama film Phenom.
Shortly after ending his summer tour with Ne-Yo, Chris quickly began production for his second studio album, Exclusive, which was released in November 2007. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 294,000 copies in its first week. It has sold 1.9 million copies in the United States.
According to MTV News, Chris stated: "I am still going to keep it so my younger fans can continue to listen to my music, but I got a couple of joints on there that's for some of the older people." The album's first single, "Wall to Wall," debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 96, and peaked at number 79 and number 22 on the Billboard R&B and Hip-Hop Chart becoming his lowest charting song to date. "Kiss Kiss", featuring and produced by T-Pain, was released as the second single. "Kiss Kiss," became more successful surpassing the success of "Wall To Wall," reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 to become Chris' second number one single and his highest chart peak since "Run It!" in 2005.
On December 4, 2007, Chris released the third single from "Exclusive," entitled "With You", a song produced by Stargate. "With You" reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and had entered the charts in various countries around the world, becoming one of Brown's most successful released to date, entering the top ten in New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, the United States, Cyprus, Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Australia.
Chris 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 single "Forever" which reached number two on Billboard Hot 100.
In support of the album, Chris embarked on his The Exclusive Holiday concert tour, visiting over thirty venues in United States. He started the tour in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 6, 2007 and concluded it on February 9, 2008 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The documented footage was released on June 3, 2008 as the double disc of Exclusive: The Forever Edition. He performed "With You" at the BET Awards '08 in June 2008. He was then joined by Ciara to dance with him to a snippet of the song "Take You Down".
Brown, alongside The Game, is featured on Nas' untitled album on "Make the World Go Round," co-produced by the The Game and Cool & Dre. He is also featured alongside Sean Garrett for Ludacris' single "What Them Girls Like" off Ludacris's album Theater of the Mind. He was also featured on T-Pain's third single "Freeze" off T-Pain's new album Thr33 Ringz. Chris was named the top artist of 2008 by Billboard magazine. Chris released his single "Take You Down" in January 2009 in the UK and Ireland.
Chris turned himself in to the Los Angeles Police Department's Wilshire station on February 8, 2009 and was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats, while under investigation for domestic violence charges, following an argument with an unidentified woman. The police report did not name the female in the incident as is policy, but stated that the she had "suffered visible injuries." However, various news media such as the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and MSNBC said that sources had identified the alleged victim as his girlfriend and fellow R&B singer Rihanna. Following his arrest, several of his commercial ads were suspended, his music was withdrawn from multiple radio stations, and he withdrew from public appearances, including one at the 2009 Grammy Awards, where he was replaced by Justin Timberlake and Al Green. Chris later released a statement saying, "Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired." On March 5, 2009, Chris was charged with felony assault and making criminal threats. He was arraigned on April 6, 2009, and plead not guilty to one count of assault and one count of making criminal threats.
