1989–present
Chris Brown News: Singer Wins Second Grammy Award
Chris Brown won his first Grammy Award in more than a decade at the 67th awards ceremony on Sunday, becoming a two-time Grammy winner. The singer earned the award for Best R&B Album for 11:11 (Deluxe), released in April 2024. It is the extended edition of his eleventh studio album, 11:11.
Brown last took home a Grammy in 2012 when he won in the same category for his record F.A.M.E. The 35-year-old was also nominated for Best R&B Performance for his track “Residuals” and Best African Music Performance for “Sensational.”
Who Is Chris Brown?
Chris Brown is a Grammy-winning R&B singer known for the pop hits “Kiss Kiss,” “Forever,” and “With You.” The Virginia native skyrocketed to fame following the success of his self-titled debut album in 2005, emerging as a teen heartthrob with his boy-next-door charm. Brown became embroiled in controversy, however, after he physically assaulted his then-girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, in 2009. Brown found his songs dropped from the radio for some time but soon rediscovered success on the music charts, earning a Grammy for his 2011 album, F.A.M.E. Over the years, he has continued to receive attention for brushes with the law and has faced several physical and sexual assault allegations. A documentary detailing his alleged history of violence came out in October 2024.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Christopher Maurice Brown
BORN: May 5, 1989
BIRTHPLACE: Tappahannock, Virginia
CHILDREN: Royalty, Aeko, and Lovely
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus
Early Life
Christopher Maurice Brown was born on May 5, 1989, in Tappahannock, Virginia. His mother, Joyce Hawkins, worked at a daycare center, and his father, Clinton Brown, was a prison guard. His parents divorced when he was 7 but continued co-parenting Chris and his older sister, Lytrell.
Inspired by artists like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Usher, Chris was a child when he taught himself to sing and joined his local church choir. He also discovered his love for dance through his father, who showed him how to moonwalk. When Chris was 11 years old, he won his first talent competition at a summer camp. The victory made him want to pursue music as a career. His mother, who had remarried, encouraged his talent, helping him search for a record deal. It was around this time that his stepfather, Donelle Hawkins, began physically abusing Joyce, which terrified young Chris. The abuse continued for years.
The budding singer recorded his first demo in high school and shopped it around to record labels. Chris had his sights set on Bad Boy Records, owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs, but the label refused to sign him. Instead, Chris caught the attention of Tina Davis, who worked for Def Jam Recordings at the time. “The first thing that hit me was his unique voice,” Davis told Billboard. “I thought, ‘This kid is a star.’” Davis got him a meeting with a higher-up at the label who offered him a deal on the spot, but the teenager refused because the executive wouldn’t talk to his mother before signing. Davis eventually left Def Jam and became Chris’ manager, promoting him to other labels.
Music Career
In 2004, Brown inked a deal with Jive Records as a 15-year-old. His self-titled debut album was released in November 2005 and quickly found its way into the charts. The singer earned his first No. 1 song with the lead single “Run It!” featuring rapper Juelz Santana. The hit topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. The album brought Brown two Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best R&B Contemporary Album. While he didn’t win, he showed off his talents to the audience at the Grammy Awards while performing with R&B legends Lionel Richie and Smokey Robinson.
A new wave of creative output flowed in in 2007. That November, Brown release his second album, Exclusive. The singer was more hands-on for this project compared to his previous work. He helped write several tracks, including the hit single “Kiss Kiss” with T-Pain, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Melodic Rap Collaboration. Brown also worked with Sean Garrett on “Wall to Wall” as well as will.i.am and Tank on “Picture Perfect,” among others. He also developed the concepts for his music videos and was co-director of them.
Brown’s third studio album came several months after he was arrested for assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna. Released in December 2009, Graffiti didn’t perform as well as his first two records and received mostly negative reviews. He also found his songs dropped from the radio that year. Despite the backlash from his domestic abuse scandal, the album still managed to receive a Grammy nod for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
One of the singer’s most successful albums to date is F.A.M.E. Brown cowrote most of the March 2011 album that featured the hit single “Look at Me Now” and collaborations with Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne, Timbaland, and Ludacris, among other artists. F.A.M.E. debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 270,000 copies in its first week. The record later won Best R&B Album at the Grammys, marking Brown’s first trophy from the Recording Academy.
While that’s his only Grammy win to date, Brown has received 25 nominations in his 20-plus years as a professional singer. He has been nominated for Best R&B Album three times and has nabbed two nods for Album of the Year for his contributions to Kanye West’s Donda and H.E.R.’s Back of My Mind. Elsewhere, Brown has won five BET Awards and, near the beginning of his career, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist.
Known for his stage presence, the singer has completed several concert tours and performed worldwide. One early success was his Up Close & Personal Tour in 2006 that saw Brown play more than 30 concerts nationwide. Following the U.S. leg of his One Hell of a Nite Tour, Brown began a short stint at Drai’s Nightclub in Las Vegas in October 2015. His contract was put on hold the following year, however, after he accused the club’s employees of racism. In the midst of this, Brown was forced to cancel his tour dates in Australia and New Zealand in December 2015 after the Australian government announced plans to deny the singer a visa over his criminal assault conviction. His tour resumed in Europe in May 2016 and ended a month later. Brown returned to Las Vegas in June 2022 to kick off his multi-year residency. Most recently, he embarked on his 11:11 Tour, which ran from June to August 2024.
Hit Songs
Brown has dropped plenty of hit songs since he first came on the scene with the No. 1 single “Run It!” in 2005. The R&B singer has a whopping 118 tracks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including two No. 1 songs and 17 songs in the top 1o. The Grammy-nominated “Kiss Kiss,” his second chart-topper, spent three weeks atop the mainstream songs chart in 2007. The radio hits “With You,” “Forever,” and “Look at Me Now” are among his other top performers on the Hot 100.
In total, Brown has notched 15 Grammy nominations for his songs, though none have gone on to win. His duet with Jordin Sparks in “No Air” earned both artists a Grammy nod in 2009 for Best Pop Collaboration, while his song “Take You Down” was nominated for Best Male R&B Performance that year. Later on, “New Flame” and “No Guidance” competed for Best R&B Song, with the former also earning Brown a nomination for Best R&B Performance. “Summer Too Hot” and “Residuals” were also recognized with Best R&B Performance nods.
Albums
Since breaking onto the scene in 2005, Brown has released 11 studio albums and sold the equivalent of more than 20 million copies in the United States along. Among his most popular records are his self-titled debut (2005), the quadruple-platinum Exclusive (2007), the Grammy-winning F.A.M.E. (2011), and the No. 1 album Indigo (2019). His most recent work, 11:11, came out in November 2023. Brown’s albums, in order, are:
Beyond his solo work, Brown released a collaborative mixtape with Young Thug titled Slime & B (2020).
Movies
A couple years into his fame, Brown expanded his career as an entertainer by branching out into movie and TV acting. He had a small role in the 2007 box-office hit Stomp in the Yard, which centered around a step dance competition. The movie also featured another popular R&B performer: Ne-Yo. That same year, Brown played against type as a high school band geek on The O.C. for several episodes. He then returned to the big screen with a more substantial role in the 2007 holiday-themed dramedy This Christmas. As Michael “Baby” Whitfield, he played a young man wanting to pursue a musical career despite opposition from his family.
Brown has continued acting over the years, mostly in smaller roles and less successful ventures. This includes parts in the action thriller Takers (2010), the hit romantic comedy Think Like a Man (2012), the breakdancing movie Battle of the Year (2013), and the Nick Cannon–led women’s basketball drama She Ball (2020).
Assault Convictions and Lawsuits
In February 2009, Brown made headlines after being arrested in Los Angeles for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna during an argument. Their fight took place in a car and reportedly began when Rihanna found text messages from another woman on Brown’s phone. The “Forever” singer then physically attacked her, attempted to push her out of the vehicle, and threatened to kill her. “Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired,” 19-year-old Brown said in a statement shortly after the incident. He was charged with two felonies.
Brown pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault that June and, two months later, was sentenced to 180 days of community labor and five years of probation. The former couple were also ordered to stay away from each other. In July 2009, Brown fully acknowledged and apologized for his actions, saying in a video statement that “I have told Rihanna countless times, and I am telling you today, that I’m truly, truly sorry that I wasn’t able to handle the situation both differently and better.”
While still on probation, 24-year-old Brown found himself back in trouble with the law when he was arrested in late October 2013 after punching a Maryland man outside a Washington D.C. hotel. The man had been attempting to get a photo with the singer. Brown was ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to time served and a $150 fine for court costs.
However, between his arrest and his September 2014 sentencing in the D.C. assault case, Brown struggled to maintain the terms of his probation. He was kicked out of the anger management rehab he had voluntarily attended before a judge ordered to him to 90 days of additional treatment at a live-in treatment facility. His diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder during this stint led to an extension of his court-mandated rehab. He was arrested weeks later, in mid-March 2014, for violating his probation and jailed. That May, a judge gave Brown a year in jail, but he earned his release in early June after receiving credit for his time in rehab then in custody. The singer was delighted to receive his freedom after 108 days in jail, tweeting “thank you GOD” and “Humbled and Blessed.”
More good news arrived for Brown in March 2015 when a California judge ended his probation from his 2009 felony assault case. “IM OFF PROBATION!!!!!!!! Thank the Lord!!!!!!” he tweeted after the hearing. It wasn’t the end of his legal woes, though. In September 2015, Australian officials warned Brown he might be denied entry to the country because of his conviction on domestic violence charges. The singer ultimately had to cancel his planned tour of Australia and New Zealand, scheduled for that December.
Brown’s troubles with the law continued in early 2017 when he was ordered to stay away from his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran. The temporary restraining order was later extended to five years.
In May 2018, an anonymous woman filed a lawsuit against Brown and two other people that claimed she was sexually assaulted in the singer’s home. The woman said rapper Young Lo repeatedly raped and Brown had helped the assault occur. The lawsuit was settled out of court and dismissed nearly two years later.
In January 2019, Brown was detained in Paris after a 24-year-old model accused the singer and two other men of raping her in a hotel room. He denied the account and later sued the woman for defamation. Three years later, in January 2022, Brown was hit with a $20 million lawsuit for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a woman on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ yacht in Miami years prior. The case was dismissed that August after text messages between the woman and Brown painted a consensual picture of their encounter.
Brown was sued again in July 2024 for the alleged assault of four concertgoers in Fort Worth, Texas. The $50 million lawsuit claimed that he and his entourage physically attacked four fans backstage during his 11:11 tour. Brown’s attorney called the incident “a setup,” insisting that the singer “never initiated physical contact.”
In October 2024, his 2009 assault of Rihanna, as well as numerous other allegations against him, were revisited in the Investigation Discovery documentary “Chris Brown: A History of Violence.”
Kids
Brown is a father to three children: Royalty, Aeko, and Lovely. The singer first became a father with the birth of his daughter, Royalty, in May 2014. His paternity of the child, who he shares with model Nia Guzman, wasn't confirmed until several months later, leading to his break up with actor Karreuche Tran. Brown's fifth album is named after his first born. Years later, he welcomed his son, Aeko, with his ex-girlfriend Ammika Harris in November 2019. He posted pictures of the newborn on Instagram the following month with the caption, “He just stole my whole face.” Brown's youngest child, Lovely, who he shares with influencer Diamond Brown, was born in January 2022.
Net Worth
As of April 2024, Brown has an estimated net worth of $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. In addition to music sales, the singer has made his fortune from commercials and a host of business ventures. Brown is founded his own record label, CBE, under Interscope Records, and created the clothing line Black Pyramid. He also owns 14 Burger King franchises.
Quotes
- I treat [women] differently because I know I never want to go through the same thing or put a woman through the same thing that the person put my mom through.
- I've been humbled by my past experiences and I want my music to speak for itself and to speak for me.
- In the beginning, I used to be hot. I'm normal. I'm human, so if anybody says something that's a lie, I'm numb to it. I've smartened up.
- Love is something I am still learning. It's just an obstacle that I haven't yet mastered. I think that's my biggest hurdle in life.
- I use music or painting as my outlet to get through the confusion. I try to promote positivity and love.
- I feel remorse every day. I'm very ashamed. But it doesn't define me. I try to think about influencing people not to take the road I did.
- Everybody that's haters, they just been haters. All my real fans, I love you all. I ain't a monster.
- Be yourself—and see as many girls as possible!
- I just want to be a legend. I think my [goal] now is just to make my mark in the game as just an established artist and just a real artist and a culture ambassador.
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