Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is a Grammy-nominated American R&B and pop singer-songwriter, dancer, music video director and actor. He 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 Brown the first male artist to have his debut single to top the chart. The album sold two million copies in the United States and was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the 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. Brown 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 gone platinum, selling over one million units.
In addition to his solo commercial success, Brown 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 vocal and dance routines, Brown has been compared to renowned R&B artists such as Usher and Michael Jackson, citing both as large influences on his music.
Brown 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. He was influenced by the artists his parents played on the home radio, such as Michael Jackson, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Anita Baker and Aretha Franklin. Before becoming a vocalist, he was interested in becoming a rapper, but became a vocalist when his mother pointed out his singing voice.
From the ages seven to thirteen, Brown was scarred by the domestic violence his mother endured from her boyfriend.
At the age of thirteen, Brown 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 searching for new talent. At the age of 15, Brown was then sent to perform for L.A. Reid and was subsequently signed in 2004 to Jive Records.By early 2005, Brown 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.
Brown left school in late 2004 to begin working on his self-titled debut album which was released on November 29, 2005. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 selling over 155,000 copies in first week of sales. His debut single, "Run It!", was #1 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 #7, and #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 #80 and climbed the charts quickly peaking at #15. Brown 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, Brown 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, Brown 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. Brown was also the opening act for R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles on the Australian leg of her The Beyoncé Experience tour.
Shortly after ending his summer tour with Ne-Yo, Brown quickly began production for his second studio album, Exclusive, which was set to be released on August 28, 2007 until it was pushed to November 6, 2007. The album debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 and number 2 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums selling nearly 300,000 copies in its first week domestically, 140,000 more copies than his debut album.
According to MTV News, Brown 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 #96, and peaked at #79 and #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 #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 to become Chris' second #1 single and his highest chart peak since "Run It!" in 2005. On December 4, 2007, Brown released the third single from "Exclusive", entitled "With You", a song produced by Stargate. "With You" reached #2 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.
Brown 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 2 on Billboard Hot 100.
In support of the album, Brown 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.
Brown is featured on the forthcoming Nas album on a track featuring The Game, co-produced by the The Game and Cool & Dre.
Brown performed "With You" at the BET Awards '08 on June 24, 2008. He was then joined by Ciara to dance with him to a snippet of the song "Take You Down".
Chris Brown featured alongside Sean Garrett for Ludacris's hit single "What Them Girls Like" off Ludacris's album Theater of the Mind.
Brown was also featured on T-Pain's third single "Freeze" off T-Pain's new album Thr33 Ringz.
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