Bobby Brown
Robert Barisford Brown Sr. is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and dancer. Alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, he is recognized as a pioneer of new jack swing: a fusion of hip-hop and R&B. Brown rose to fame as a founding member of the R&B/pop vocal group New Edition, contributing to hits like "Candy Girl", "Cool It Now", and "Mr. Telephone Man". He left the group in 1985 to pursue a solo career but later reunited with them for their Billboard 200 number-one album Home Again.
Brown's debut album, King of Stage, featured the number-one R&B single "Girlfriend". However, it was his second album, Don't Be Cruel, that brought him commercial and critical success, producing five Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including the number-one hit "My Prerogative" and the Grammy Award–winning "Every Little Step". In 1989, Brown contributed two songs to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack. His next album, Bobby, was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA and featured the singles "Humpin' Around", "Get Away", and "Good Enough". Brown has also appeared in films, including A Thin Line Between Love and Hate and Two Can Play That Game.
In 1992, Brown married Whitney Houston, with whom he had daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown. Their widely-publicized relationship was marked by drug issues and domestic disputes, attracting significant media attention. Brown and Houston starred in the 2005 reality television series Being Bobby Brown. Houston filed for divorce in 2006, and it was finalized the next year.
Early life
Brown was born in Boston, Massachusetts, as one of eight children. His mother Carole Elizabeth was a teacher, and his father Herbert James Brown was a construction worker. Brown grew up in Roxbury's Orchard Park Projects.As a child, Brown was molested by a Catholic priest after being placed in temporary custody by social services and said this painful encounter contributed to his struggle with drug and alcohol abuse. He later said, “It’s been more than thirty years, but I can never let go of the horror I felt in that room with the priest.”
Brown was three when he had his first taste of performing on stage and one of his childhood idols, James Brown, performed in Boston. This performance sparked his dream of becoming a professional singer. Brown joined the church choir, where he recognized and developed his singing abilities. Brown's musical influences also include singer-songwriters Rick James, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, and Prince. Brown is reportedly a distant cousin of disco artist Donna Summer and her family, who lived in the multiracial Mission Hill neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s.
Music career
New Edition
New Edition was founded in 1980 under the name "The Bricks" by 12-year-old Brown and childhood friends Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell. Ralph Tresvant joined the group at the suggestion of Bell who sang with Tresvant as a duo. Brown was also familiar with Tresvant since they were children. In 1982 they became a quintet when their manager Brooke Payne insisted on bringing in his nephew Ronnie DeVoe, to complete the group. After performing in several talent shows in the Boston area, they signed a deal with fellow Bostonian Arthur Baker's Streetwise Records, who released their debut album Candy Girl. The title track, on which Brown sang co-lead alongside Bell and Tresvant, was the group's first number-one hit on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart in 1983 and also became an international hit reaching number one in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Brown's first full lead vocal performance was on the New Edition ballad "Jealous Girl", which was a minor hit when it also charted in 1983. The group became crossover pop sensations with their self-titled second release in 1984. The album included the pop hits "Cool It Now" and "Mr. Telephone Man", the latter in which Brown also co-led, often singing the now-memorable chorus.Despite the group's success, Brown felt the group was never rightfully paid the money they felt they had earned, later saying, "The most I saw from all the tours and all of the records we sold was $500 and a VCR." Brown also allegedly grew jealous of the attention given to fellow New Edition member Ralph Tresvant, and during some of their tour performances would often step out of his position and perform out of turn, singing and performing seductively, which caused concern within the group's management team. Brown was featured on two more New Edition albums before leaving the group in early 1986. Brown later said he felt that the group's management treated them "like little slaves by people who were only interested in money and power, and not in the welfare of New Edition". Some controversy arose over the way Brown was removed from the group. Some say Brown asked to be let out of New Edition, but a VH-1 Behind the Music documentary on the group claimed Brown was voted out by the group via their management team, with the members—most prominently Tresvant—against the decision.
Solo career
Following his exit from New Edition, Brown signed a contract with his former group's label, MCA, and also signed with manager Steven Machat, who had also worked with New Edition. The label released his debut album King of Stage in 1986. Brown had a number-one R&B hit with the ballad "Girlfriend", but the album otherwise failed to perform well.Brown lay low for more than a year while working on his follow-up album. With the help of Machat and MCA representative Louil Silas, Brown began working with some of the top R&B producers and songwriters of the time, including Babyface, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Teddy Riley. The producers helped to compose what became Brown's most successful solo album of his career, Don't Be Cruel. Released in 1988, the album became Brown's first number-one album on the Billboard 200 on January 21, 1989, replacing fellow R&B singer Anita Baker's Giving You the Best That I Got at the top spot. 19 years old at the time of this accomplishment, Brown became the youngest male artist to top the Billboard 200 since Stevie Wonder's 1963 live album, Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, which reached the top spot when Wonder was thirteen. At the time, Brown became the youngest male artist in history to top the album charts with a studio album. Singer Justin Bieber later broke that record in 2010.
The album launched five top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the number-one single, the self-penned "My Prerogative", which became, along with "Every Little Step" and the title track, signature hits for the performer. Album sales would eventually reach twelve million copies worldwide, including 7 million alone in the US, making it the best-selling album of 1989. In February 1990, he won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the album's fourth single "Every Little Step". Don't Be Cruel also garnered Brown two American Music Awards, a Soul Train Music Award and a People's Choice Award.
In 1989, Brown contributed two songs to the soundtrack of Ghostbusters II, and he also had a cameo role in the film. The first track on that album, "On Our Own" became another top-ten single for the singer, peaking at number two. The same year, a remix compilation, Dance!...Ya Know It!, was released, and found fans in the United Kingdom. Brown embarked on a 120-day world tour to promote Don't Be Cruel in 1988, with Al B. Sure! opening for him, and New Edition also opening for him on some dates. The tour lasted into the spring of 1991, but not without Brown gaining notoriety for simulating sexual acts onstage, which got him into trouble with local law enforcement. In 1990, Brown performed "Tap into My Heart" at the 1990 MTV Awards, and was set to release the album Mystical Magic, but it was eventually shelved for reasons unknown. In 1990, Brown was featured on the number-one hit "She Ain't Worth It" by Glenn Medeiros, making it his second number-one hit on the pop chart, and also collaborated with Babyface for the remix of the latter's single "Tender Lover" that same year. In 1991, Brown collaborated with New Edition member Ralph Tresvant on the latter's single "Stone Cold Gentleman", which was a top-five R&B hit.
Brown's next album Bobby was released in 1992. Despite its release during the final days of the new jack swing era it was a success, selling more than 3 million copies, and spawning several hit singles including "Humpin' Around", "Get Away", and "Good Enough". He received his second Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance nomination for "Humpin' Around". He received his third American Music Award in January 1993. However, sales of Bobby did not match its predecessor. The song "Something in Common", a duet between Brown and then-newlywed wife Whitney Houston, in which they shared songwriting credit while Houston was credited with vocal arrangement, became a hit in the UK, peaking at No. 16. Despite the fact that the song did not receive a commercial single in the United States, the song became a hit on the Billboard pop and R&B radio airplay charts.
In 1994, dance producers K-Klass remixed "Two Can Play That Game" from the Bobby album, which would become Brown's biggest single in the UK, peaking at No. 3 in 1995.
He released his fourth solo album, Forever, in 1997. The album's only single, "Feeling Inside", was not successful. Brown would contribute to wife Whitney Houston's 2002 album, Just Whitney, co-producing the moderately successful hit, "Whatchulookinat", while contributing vocals to their duet, "My Love", off the same album. The latter duet reached the top 40 of the Billboard Adult R&B Songs chart. Just Whitney was a hit, going platinum in the United States and selling over 2.5 million units worldwide.
Prior to the release of Forever, Brown had been in negotiations with rapper Tupac Shakur to sign with Shakur's new label Makaveli Records, or with the proposed label Death Row East. However, Shakur died before that could take place. Leaving MCA following Forever, Brown lay low for several years, appearing as a featured artist in 2001 on two tracks from The Benzino Project, and in 2002 he was featured in a duet with rapper Ja Rule on the song "Thug Lovin'". Brown was signed to Murder Inc. Records, but that label had already begun to dissolve, so Brown's tenure with them was brief. In 2006, Brown added vocals to Damian Marley's song "Beautiful" on Marley's album, Welcome to Jamrock.
In 2008, Brown planned to release a book titled Bobby Brown: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But, written by author Derrick Handspike. When controversial comments that Brown made about his ex-wife, Whitney Houston, were leaked to the media, he backed out of the project. Handspike released the book after Houston's death in 2012.
In 2010, Brown was featured in a duet with singer Macy Gray on the song "Real Love" on Gray's album The Sellout. About this project, Gray explained to Essence, "Actually, he came to the studio, since he doesn't live far, and knocked out his recording in two hours. We're friends, and his one-year-old son is my godson. His fiancée is one of my best friends in the whole world. I met Bobby a long time ago, but we really got to know each other through her."
On June 5, 2012, Brown released his fifth album, The Masterpiece, which debuted at number 41 on the Billboard R&B album chart.
On February 14, 2017, Brown performed at the Valentine's Day Music Festival with Keith Sweat, Avant and El DeBarge.