(Had Brown been coming up in the early '90s, Quincy Jones -- not Dr. Dre -- might've produced him and Prince -- not Luther Campbell -- might've assisted, which just goes to show how much R&B has changed in 15 years.) The intense, continuous coverage of Brown’s legal drama, personal problems, and relationships casts a shadow on the fact that he remains one of pop and R&B’s most reliable hitmakers, more than a half-decade after his assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna threw his white-hot career into jeopardy. Chris Brown is a sixteen-year-old Virginia soulster riding a hot single, "Run It!," a de-crunked "Yeah!" Sign up for our newsletter. The song's way of tempering Brown 's small-town innocence with hard-edged backing and a guest spot from an MC of ill repute is clearly a strategy to make the singer appeal to more than tween girls. By signing up you are agreeing to our, Chris Brown Gives Ray Rice Advice So He Doesn't 'Become a Monster', The Trump Campaign Is Trying to Suppress the Black Vote, Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2020 TIME USA, LLC. This album is an hour’s worth of evidence that no such interest exists. The week "Run It!" Send us a tip using our anonymous form. The final product is a widely varied mishmash of genres, producers, and collaborators that fails to achieve any sort of tonal or thematic consistency.
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And that’s unfortunate, because given his long and well-documented history of personal strife — abuse, homophobia, cool defensiveness — that kind of basic human connection is the kind of thing Brown could probably stand to cultivate. Though he’s undoubtedly skilled, he doesn’t have the emotional depth or richness of tone required to successfully convey affection or generate a palpable mood; rather than drum up true feeling, he tends to sing about sex like it’s an athletic event, and about relationships as if they’re purely transactional in nature. That's no slight feat, especially for a reheated version of Usher's "Yeah!" He's a refreshing presence, a high-schooler who's neither as family friendly as Will Smith nor as comically vulgar as Pretty Ricky. Search query All Results. © Copyright 2020 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. face. made by a fresh-faced teenager who reps a little town in Virginia that rhymes with "grab a hammock." was released, it went straight to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first single from a male artist to debut at that spot. Brown's voice suggests both Usher and a young Jacko, but his charms are often lost in the album's plush, listless production and undercooked songs. face, and compare it to the photo spread inside, featuring Brown's natural "Pinch my cheeks!"

On "Run It!," Chris Brown is boosted by production from Scott Storch and an appearance by Juelz Santana. The qualities Brown lacks are thrown into harsh light when he’s placed alongside other male singers on some of the collaborations on X: Usher, Trey Songz, and R. Kelly all appear in the album’s first half and glide effortlessly alongside Brown, fluttering around him or summoning a sort of slippery salaciousness that makes him sound childlike by comparison.
In the first half of this decade, he’s released four top 10 singles and two #1 albums, with features on dozens of other minor hits. Brown has been preparing his new album, the simply titled X, for nearly eighteen months, though it’s been plagued a series of delays and singles that failed to make a lasting impression on the charts. Pitchfork is the most trusted voice in music. The rest of his debut is less provocative — full of puppy-love heartache and doe-eyed laments about being too young to hit the club, Chris Brown is innocuous enough for the Teen People set, which is part of the problem. The best place to start a review of Brown’s strengths and weaknesses is his voice, a finicky instrument that lies at the core of his appeal. (This was true even before he wrote and released a song called “Add Me In” that happens to couch a marathon bedroom session in hacky math metaphors galore.).

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