Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Christopher Maurice "

Christopher Maurice "Chris" Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. He made his recording debut in late 2005 with the self-titled album 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 top the chart since Montell Jordan in 1995.[1] 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).[2]
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.[3][4] Brown has released a deluxe version of his album called The Forever Edition. The first single from it, "Forever", was released in May 2008 and reached number two on Billboard Hot 100.[5] Exclusive has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.[2] The third studio album, titled Graffiti, was released on December 15, 2009. The first official single was "I Can Transform Ya", featuring Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz, which peaked at number-twenty on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Brown's eighth Top 20 hit on that chart. He has had various other hit singles,[6] and his dance routines have been compared to the likes of Michael Jackson.[7] In 2009, Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault of singer Rihanna, and was sentenced to five years probation and six months of community service.
Christopher Maurice Brown was born on May 5, 1989,[8] in the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia,[9] to Joyce Hawkins, a former day care center director, and Clinton Brown, a corrections officer at a local prison.[10][11] The youngest child of the couple, he has an older sister who works in a bank.[10] Since his childhood, music was something which always had been present in Brown's life. He used to listen soul albums that his parents had owned,[11] but eventually, Brown began to show interest in the hip-hop scene.[8]
Brown taught himself to sing and dance at a young age, often citing Michael Jackson as his inspiration.[10] He then began to perform in his church choir and in several local talent shows.[12][13] While mimicking an Usher performance, his mother recognized his vocal talent and they began to look for opportunities of a record deal.[12] At the same time, Brown had been through personal issues. His parents had already been divorced, and he said his mother's boyfriend made him terrified all the time due to the domestic violence his mother endured from her boyfriend.[14]
At the age of 13, Brown was discovered by a local production team who visited his father's gas station while searching for new talent.[15] The singer then, moved to New York.[10] In 2004, Tina Davis — then-senior A&R executive at Def Jam Recordings — discovered him while he was working with some local producers. She loved what she heard and saw when Brown auditioned in her office at Island Def Jam Records in New York. She immediately took him to meet the former president of the Island Def Jam Music Group Antonio "L.A." Reid, who offered to sign him at the same day. "I knew that Chris had real talent," says Davis. "I just knew I wanted to be part of it."[16]
The negotiations with Def Jam lasted two months until Davis lost her job due to a corporate merger. Brown then asked her to be his manager and Davis accepted, starting to "promote" the singer to labels such as Jive Records, J-Records and Warner Bros. Records. According to Mark Pitts in an interview with HitQuarters, Davis presented Brown with a video recording and Pitts' reaction was: "I saw the 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."[17] Brown ultimately choose Jive, due to its successful work with then-young acts such as Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Brown claims, "I picked Jive because they had the best success with younger artists in the pop market, [...] I knew I was going to capture my African American audience, but Jive had a lot of strength in the pop area as well as longevity in careers."[16]

After being signed to Jive Records in 2004, Brown started the recording process in February 2005. By May, there were 50 songs already recorded, 14 of which were picked to the final track listing.[10] The singer worked with several producers and songwriters—Scott Storch, Cool & Dre and Jazze Pha among them—commenting that they "really believed in [him]".[18] Brown also made some input on the album, receiving co-writing credits of five tracks.[10] "I write about the things that 16 year olds go through every day," says Brown. "Like you just got in trouble for sneaking your girl into the house, or you can't drive, so you steal a car or something."[19] The whole album took less than eight weeks to produce,[19] being released on November 29, 2005.[20] Self-titled Chris Brown, it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 154,000 copies.[21] Chris Brown was a relative commercial success with the time; selling over two million copies in the United States—where it was certified two times platinum by the RIAA—and three million copies worldwide.[22][23] The album's lead single, "Run It!", made Brown the first male act (since Montell Jordan in 1995) to have his debut single to reach the summit of the Billboard Hot 100—later remaining for four additionally weeks.[8] Three of the other singles—"Yo (Excuse Me Miss)," "Gimme That" and "Say Goodbye"—peaked within the top twenty at the same chart.[24]
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. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital received $50,000 in ticket proceeds from Brown's 2006 "Up Close & Personal" tour. Brown was also the opening act for R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles on the Australian leg of her The Beyoncé Experience tour.
Brown has made appearances on UPN's One on One and The N's Brandon T. Jackson Show on its pilot episode.[25][26] In addition, Brown landed a small role as a band geek in the fourth season of Fox's The O.C. in January 2007.[27] Brown then made his film debut in Stomp the Yard, alongside Ne-Yo, Meagan Good and Columbus Short in Janu

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