Chris Brown is still a bad boy

By Juliana June RasulThe New PaperThursday, Jul 12, 2012

He's got a new album full of sugary sweet songs. But Chris Brown is still a bad boy with unresolved anger issues, if his latest antics are anything to go by

Bad boys.

You just can't hold 'em down, can you?

It has been three years since US R&B star Chris Brown infamously beat up and threatened his then-girlfriend, Barbardian pop singer Rihanna, right before the Grammy Awards.

But as recent incidents have shown, he doesn't seem to have wised up.

In the immediate two years since the incident with Rihanna, Brown, 23, kept his head down and worked on returning to his origins as the young Michael Jackson that everyone touted him to be when he started in 2003.

His 2011 album F.A.M.E showed a singer who was spreading his wings musically to much critical acclaim, reaping awards all over the place, including his first Grammy for Best R&B album.

Unfortunately, this year, we've seen Brown back in form as the belligerent, immature young star he was when he decided to throw some blows on his famous ex.

He released his latest album Fortune last week, and despite - or perhaps because of - the bad press, it shot straight to No. 1 on the iTunes chart. It also helped Brown score his first No. 1 on the UK albums chart.

There was a whiff of what was going to be in store this year when, in January, his manager Tina Davis told Billboard magazine that his team had decided they were not letting him do interviews so he could "concentrate on performing and recording".

"He signed up to sing and entertain. Not to talk about his personal life," she said. He'd certainly already proven to be reliably unreliable when it came to managing his anger in front of others. (See report, below.)

So while he's kept the official press to a minimum - talking mostly about the new album and his recent foray into the art world - he's certainly kept tabloid ink flowing with his antics while he! 's off t he clock.

Just a few weeks before the release of Fortune, Brown's temper reared its ugly head again, this time in a New York nightclub, and allegedly with Rihanna's ex, Canadian rapper Drake.

Not content with rage-tweeting the incident, Brown showed just how not sorry he was by releasing a song dissing Drake in a rap verse on a remix of rapper Chief Keef's song I Don't Like.

He raps, "They throwing bottles / I'm throwing models", before directly referencing Drake through one of the latter's song titles, Take Care, and the acronym Yolo (which stands for You Only Live Once), which became a Twitter trending topic, thanks to its appearance on Drake's single, The Motto.

Not content with that, Brown has apparently accepted a challenge by website FilmOn.tv to fight Drake in a boxing ring, for the sum of US$10 million (S$12.7 million).

Perhaps he's acting out against being continually dragged through the mud in the press, despite public attempts to atone, like when he broke down during a performance of Man In The Mirror for a Michael Jackson tribute at the BET Awards in 2010.

Then, he sounded like a changed man, saying during his acceptance speech for the AOL Fandemonium award: "I let y'all down before, but I won't do it again, I promise."

After other stars and viewers reacted negatively to his Grammy comeback earlier this year, Brown angrily tweeted: "...right before the worlds (sic) eyes a man shows how he can make a Big mistake and learn from it, but still has to deal with day to day hatred! You guys love to hate!!!"

But when he's not ranting on Twitter or getting into scuffles, Brown can be charming.

In the 20-minute documentary Defining Moments: Chris Brown's Journey, which aired early last week on US channel BET, Brown walked down memory lane, talking fondly about his time as an up-and-coming star.

TV APPEARANCES

Looking back on one of his first TV appearances as a 15-year-old on hip-hop video show 106 and Park, he recounted! how he was "nervous because Bow (rapper Bow Wow) was there". At least one person has got his back, though.

Rihanna's dad Ronald Fenty told UK magazine Grazia recently that he believed Brown has "matured". "Everyone is entitled to make a mistake," he said. "Her fans are hoping it will happen. They see them as a perfect couple."

Not that Fenty is the best person to listen to, considering he's been called out by his own daughter for talking to tabloids about her, even right after the infamous incident with Brown.

"He never called to find out how I was doing, if I was alive, nothing... He went straight to the press and got a cheque," Rihanna, 24, told Vogue magazine last April.

Rihanna herself seems to have put the past behind her. Rumours have been swirling for months about whether the two will get back together soon, considering they collaborated on a track, Birthday Cake, earlier this year.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar for the August issue, she said: "I understood that people had every right to be concerned about it. But I didn't see it that way because I'm in a different place."

Brown has a ton of fans behind him too.

During his Grammy performance this year, some smitten supporters tweeted that they would let Brown beat them up any day.

Alarming, but at least he's still got some love.

Fight club

Just three weeks ago, Brown got into one of his most public altercations yet since the Rihanna incident - ironically with her ex, Drake.

It's emerged that Drake was the one who apparently started the fight by returning a bottle of champagne sent by Brown, supposedly with a note saying he was still intimate with Rihanna.

A heated exchange escalated into a full-on fight, and bottles and punches were thrown.

But it's Brown's immediate behaviour after the fight that has been more damning. .

While Drake shied away from confirming whether he had been part of the altercation at all, Brown was quick to post a picture of a battle ! scar on his Instagram account, before posting derogatory remarks about Drake and his crew on Twitter.

Sore winner

Not content with bagging a Grammy this year - after a two-year disappearance from the awards ceremony post-Rihanna rough-up - the sensitive Brown took to Twitter to rage against the folks who disagreed with his return to the show.

US country singer Miranda Lambert had tweeted: "Not cool that we act like that didn't happen. He needs to listen to Gunpowder and lead (sic - Lambert's single about a woman getting her revenge against an abusive ex) and be put back in his place. Not at the Grammys."

Showing a worrying lack of maturity, he tweeted back: "HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now!"

Nice one, Brown.

Backstage rage

Last year, it was reported that Brown "went ballistic" backstage after being asked about the Rihanna incident on Good Morning America.

A source from the show's network ABC told E! News that he started swearing and throwing furniture around, adding: "He smashed a chair into a window and that glass is so thick, people heard shattering and security was called."

Rihanna roughed up

Who would beat up one of the world's biggest pop stars...the night before music's biggest night?

Brown would, and did.

He and Rihanna apparently started fighting in his car after leaving a pre-Grammy party thrown by Clive Davis the night before the actual awards show.

In the midst of the fight, Brown stopped his Lamborghini at the side of a road, which is when Rihanna decided to toss his car keys out the window, sending Brown into a rage.

He then started punching her and at one point, put his hands around her throat and threatened her life.

For that, he was sentenced to serve five years' probation and to spend 1,400 hours of physical labour, in addition to attending domestic violence counselling sessions.

This article was first published in The New Paper.