[Shaun]

-pretends to not like 'Forever'-

[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by Shaun

-pretends to not like 'Forever'-

the wedding dance to that song has changed my views on that song

[MeMyselfAndI]

Yea, he was one of my favourite artists like 4 years ago & started to like him again last year

[CharlieO]

I do not.

[InOne]

Interesting read on Brown performing at the Grammys

I’m sick and tired of people acting like it’s no big deal that Chris Brown will be performing at the Grammys.

I’m frustrated that the mainstream media is covering this story like it’s any comeback story, like an exiled prince’s return to a former glory, like this is another political timeline — as though some rich and powerful old white men in the music business have not just issued an enormous ‘****** you’ to every woman who has been, is or will be on the receiving end of domestic violence.

We should be furious.

Why aren’t we?

A Long, Long Time Ago, or Three Years Ago, But Who’s Counting?

For those of you who are currently listening to ‘Look at Me Now’ and wondering what the big deal is, a quick recap: The night before the Grammys in 2009, Chris Brown got angry at his girlfriend, Rihanna, and he took it out on her face. She went to the hospital and then to the LAPD, where this photo was taken and promptly leaked to TMZ. (The LAPD issued a stern statement on the leak, threatening penalties “up to and including termination”. TMZ reportedly paid $62,500 for the photo.)

Both Rihanna and Brown had been scheduled to perform at the Grammys the following evening. Neither did.

Instead, Chris Brown turned himself into the LAPD at 7 pm, was booked on suspicion of criminal threats and was released on $50,000 bail.

Then the Internet exploded.

I was a full-time entertainment writer at the time, so I had a front-row seat to the action. This is what I expected: I expected a string of celebrities to comment on how horrific this situation was, how sad and angry they were for Rihanna, how domestic violence is unacceptable in any context, how as a nation we need to condemn this and condemn it loudly.

Instead, Hollywood went silent and, when they did speak, they teetered on the brink of defending Chris Brown.

Carrie Underwood: “I don’t think anybody actually knows what happened. I have no advice.”

Lindsay Lohan: “I have no comment on that. That’s not my relationship. I think they’re both great people.”

Nia Long: “I know both of them well. They’re young, and all we can do is pray for them at this point.”

Mary J. Blige: “They’re both young and beautiful people, and that’s it.”

Jay-Z, one of Rihanna’s mentors, spoke up: “You have to have compassion for others. Just imagine it being your sister or mom and then think about how we should talk about that. I just think we should all support her.”

In a sane world, Jay-Z’s statement would sound insane. Why would he have to remind his fans to support Rihanna after what happened is that she got hit in the face?

Jay-Z issued that statement because the Internet was, in early February 2009, engaged in a very serious conversation about whether or not all of this was Rihanna’s fault. In fact, large segments of the Internet had devoted themselves to making Rihanna the scapegoat for any woman who ever had the gall to do something worth getting hit, and then the cloying self-esteem to go to the cops about it. Bloggers and their commentators flocked to Chris Brown’s defense in droves. It was a full-blown tearing-down of female self-worth, an assault on any progress women have made in this country in the past 200 years, and the mainstream media ignored it.

It horrified me. It still does.

Later in February, a photo of Brown riding a jet ski in Miami hit the Internet, and singer Usher was caught on video commenting on it: “I’m a little disappointed in this photo,” Usher says in the video. “After the other photo [of Rihanna's bruised face]? C’mon, Chris. Have a little bit of remorse, man. The man’s on jet skis? Like, just relaxing in Miami?”

The backlash was so severe that Usher was later forced to publicly apologize.

“I apologize on behalf of myself and my friends if anyone was offended,” he said. “The intentions were not to pass judgment and we meant no harm. I respect and wish the best for all parties involved.”

The message we sent to young women was unmistakable: You are powerless. You are worthless. You will be a victim, and that will be okay with us.

The Fall-out, and the Lack Thereof

In August 2009, Brown was sentenced to five years probation and 180 hours of community service after pleading guilty to felony assault.

In December 2009, he released his third studio album. It sold over 100,000 copies in its first week and debuted at #7 on the Billboard charts.

On June 8, 2010, Brown was forced to cancel his tour dates in the UK when the British Home Office refused to grant him a work visa on the grounds of “being guilty of a serious criminal offence”. Less than three weeks later, he performed ‘Man in the Mirror’ at the BET Awards’ tribute to Michael Jackson.

His fourth studio album, released in March of last year, debuted at #1.

In December 2011, Billboard crowned him their artist of the year.

And, this week, Grammy producers confirmed that Chris Brown will be performing on Sunday’s show.

“We’re glad to have him back,” said executive producer Ken Ehrlich. “I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.”

Read that quote again. Think hard about what is being said. Here is what this quote says to any woman who’s ever been abused:

By blacklisting Chris Brown from the Grammys for a “few” years (actually, a grand total of TWO Grammy Awards), the Grammys have gone above and beyond expectations for the social exile of an adult man who hit his girlfriend so hard she went to the hospital, and honestly it was really, really hard for them to show even that much support for victims of domestic violence worldwide.
It was rather thoughtless of Rihanna to go and get herself hit in the face by her boyfriend, because it’s put such a burden on the Grammys. Maybe if she hadn’t made such a big fuss out of it, things could have been easier for everyone.
The Grammys think that they were the victim of Chris Brown hitting Rihanna in the face.
The Grammys. Think. That they. Were the victim. Of Chris Brown. Hitting. Rihanna. In the face.
Hitting People Is Wrong, Y’All

I agree that people deserve a second chance. It’s great that we live in a country with a justice system that allows offenders to reclaim themselves and their lives after their sentence. I’m happy about that, and I hope Brown is a changed man at the end of his sentence. (The US justice system has Chris Brown on probation through 2014. It was nice of the Grammys to let him off a couple years early for high record sales good behavior.)

And my suspicion is that Rihanna has no interest in being a poster child for victims of domestic violence. She probably wishes this would all disappear, and I don’t blame her for a minute. She didn’t ask for this – for any of it – and she’s under no obligation to speak out about it.

But someone has to. Because what is happening here is unmistakable. It is, in my eyes, so unmistakable that I wonder if I’m wrong, if I’m missing something huge, because I cannot believe more voices aren’t railing against this.

We – the grown-up influencers in this country, the people with platforms and with educations and with power — are allowing a clear message to be sent to women: We will easily forgive a person who victimizes you. We are able to look beyond the fact that you were treated as less than human, that a bigger, stronger person decided to resolve a conflict with you through violence. We know it happened, but it’s just not that big of a deal to us.

We were so mad when the Komen Foundation pulled its funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. “This is not fair,” we shouted. “This is not fair to women, and this is not fair to the women who don’t have a voice, and we will not allow it.” We shouted it so loudly that Komen reversed its decision in three days. We forced the resignation of one of their top executives.

Planned Parenthood, no doubt, has a well-funded and fine-tuned PR machine, adept at galvanizing a population against a perceived injustice. They outmaneuvered Komen easily.

Does domestic violence have a less sophisticated PR machine than Chris Brown does?

Because to me, this situation isn’t all that different. Accepting that Chris Brown gets to perform at the Grammys because some people bought his album is no different from accepting that women without health insurance don’t get to be screened for breast cancer because some VP at Komen is anti-abortion. It may happen, but that doesn’t mean we should tacitly accept it. What if Chris Brown had hit your sister that night? Or your daughter? (What if Chris Brown had hit Taylor Swift that night?)

We’re accepting the message that women just aren’t that important, that their health and their safety and their self-respect is only important until it stops being convenient for everyone. We should be angry about this, and we should be angry publicly about this.

So I want to say this to anyone who is listening: This is not okay with me. A man hitting a woman in anger is unacceptable and is not easily forgotten or forgiven. A man who hits a woman in anger deserves to be reported to the authorities and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of who might be inconvenienced in the process. A man who hits a woman in anger may eventually be permitted to go on with his own life, but he is not permitted back in my life, even if it’s been three whole years.

http://hellogiggles.com/im-not-okay-...re-why-you-are

[King Gizzard]

Grace Dent @gracedent

No, I hate you because you beat women. RT: @chrisbrown: HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That's the ultimate **** OFF!”

Good old grace

[Glenn.]

That article is true considering that Tweet from Mr Brown.

What the tweet says is I beat a girl in the face and won a Grammy for it.

I like the dudes music but I think he needs to wind his neck in

[Z]

I'm conflicted. I felt very strongly about the whole Rihanna domestic abuse incident and think he's an absolute scum bag for daring to act in the way he does after all of that, swaggering around... but then, I think, why should he spend the rest of his career, or life even, having to go around with this weight on his shoulders that he should appear humble and be made a mockery of forever. Yes, what he did was wrong, very wrong, but he went to the police. He got his punishment. Rihanna's certainly not dwelled upon it publicly so why should he? I despise him but I also pity him for having his life ruined by one, stupid moment of anger. I've not heard any other stories about him hitting a woman. Just that one off incident. I sometimes think the backlash is just too much, you know? Tough situation... his music doesn't really do much for me but I do have some weird form of respect for him for just soldiering on with his career in spite of all the (justified) hatred.

[Shaun]

I kinda agree with you because I'm an advocate of forgiveness and everything, and I do suspect that other issues with Chris Brown are clouding people's willingness to let the Rihanna incident go: for example his overall lack of originality or talent, and his excruciating ego. However the problem is that he represents this idea now in Hollywood that you can hit a woman, serve about 20 hours in community service and then a year later have a #1 album and the same success (if not more) that you had before.

And then there's the fans... I suspect the fans are the main cause of the hatred directed at him. There was a lot of controversy in light of the Grammys because a handful of fans tweeted (whether it was tongue in cheek or not) that they would "let him beat them".

Plus there's his conduct in interviews since the incident. Like the time he flipped a table and ripped off his shirt when someone mentioned it in a green room, and stormed out of the set. He clearly has anger issues to this day, and I guess that's the most frightening thing about it all. He hasn't been punished at all.

[Z]

Originally Posted by Shaun

I kinda agree with you because I'm an advocate of forgiveness and everything, and I do suspect that other issues with Chris Brown are clouding people's willingness to let the Rihanna incident go: for example his overall lack of originality or talent, and his excruciating ego. However the problem is that he represents this idea now in Hollywood that you can hit a woman, serve about 20 hours in community service and then a year later have a #1 album and the same success (if not more) that you had before.

And then there's the fans... I suspect the fans are the main cause of the hatred directed at him. There was a lot of controversy in light of the Grammys because a handful of fans tweeted (whether it was tongue in cheek or not) that they would "let him beat them".

Plus there's his conduct in interviews since the incident. Like the time he flipped a table and ripped off his shirt when someone mentioned it in a green room, and stormed out of the set. He clearly has anger issues to this day, and I guess that's the most frightening thing about it all. He hasn't been punished at all.

I do think he's got a lot of anger issues that he needs to work out, in therapy, not on other people - and yeah I think the fans make it so much worse, but every pop star has crazy fans that go along with them. I get what you're saying about the Hollywood standard now after what he's done, but at the same time, he's had so much negativity and backlash against him that balances it out I think. Sure, he's been forgiven by the music industry, but he will forever be known for being a woman beater - that's never going to disappear in time, you can't erase a bad thing like that with lots of success - if anything it brings more attention to the bad thing.

[Me. I Am Salman]

Originally Posted by Shaun

I kinda agree with you because I'm an advocate of forgiveness and everything, and I do suspect that other issues with Chris Brown are clouding people's willingness to let the Rihanna incident go: for example his overall lack of originality or talent, and his excruciating ego. However the problem is that he represents this idea now in Hollywood that you can hit a woman, serve about 20 hours in community service and then a year later have a #1 album and the same success (if not more) that you had before.

And then there's the fans... I suspect the fans are the main cause of the hatred directed at him. There was a lot of controversy in light of the Grammys because a handful of fans tweeted (whether it was tongue in cheek or not) that they would "let him beat them".

Plus there's his conduct in interviews since the incident. Like the time he flipped a table and ripped off his shirt when someone mentioned it in a green room, and stormed out of the set. He clearly has anger issues to this day, and I guess that's the most frightening thing about it all. He hasn't been punished at all.

Even though FAME went to #1, his singles are not doing so well, he's only had one top 10 single in America since Forever, which is Look At Me Now, and that was just #6.

Plus his first two albums sold 2.1 million and 1.9 million copies in the US respectively. Whereas his recent two albums have only sold 341K and 720K in the US respectively, which both were released after the whole Rihanna thing. So in no way is he doing as well as before let alone better. A #1 album is nothing when you compare it to everything else which is flopping.

[King Gizzard]

I would of advocated forgiveness, if he didn't release music straight after being released

[SoBig]

How can you like or not like him personally, if you don't know him?

He is a talented singer. He makes great music. So yes, I like his music.

[King Gizzard]

Don't give me that crap, you don't need to know someone personally to know if they're an asshole or not, the evidence is there

[SoBig]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Don't give me that crap, you don't need to know someone personally to know if they're an asshole or not, the evidence is there

So you think you know someone because you read something in the paper or saw him on tv?

lmfaoooooo

Again how can you not like someone personally if you don't know them?

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by SoBig

So you think you know someone because you read something in the paper or saw him on tv?

lmfaoooooo

Again how can you not like someone personally if you don't know them?

Well, the FACT is he's a woman beater, you can't argue that fact.

[Shaun]

Talented lol

[Kizzy]

You know it speaks volumes that the UK were not willing to have him in the country following this. We are battling with some communities to accept that certain behaviours are unacceptable, this is one.

[Me. I Am Salman]

He has a handful of impressive songs

-Wall To Wall
-Kiss Kiss
-With You
-This Christmas
-Take You Down
-Superhuman
-Deuces
-Look At Me Now

and some boring/crappy songs
-She Ain't You
-Crawl
-Next 2 You


So.. i dunno.. his new material isn't all that but he has a fantastic back catalogue

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

grace dent is amazing she replied to one of my tweets once

[Locke.]

The Hot 100 or whatever it is called isn't the most important thing for R&B artists. Most of Trey Songz singles are considered a success because of how well they do on the R&B/Hip Hop singles chart, and he has only had 2 top ten singles on the hot 100 in his 7 year career. There is a reason why most R&B artists have moved into the euro pop ****e in the last few years.

[Shaun]

On NME today:

The "ultimate ****-off", huh Chris? Is the ultimate ****-off not "[placing] her in a head lock positioning the front of her throat between his bicep and forearm," as the police report details the night in February 2009 when Brown attacked his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. It continues: "Brown began applying pressure to Robyn F.'s left and right carotid arteries, causing her to be unable to breathe and she began to lose consciousness."

Last night, Chris Brown went on a Twitter rant - since conveniently deleted - where he railed against those who had the temerity to rightly decry his appearance at the Grammys at the weekend (Feb 12), where he performed twice and won Best R&B Album for his fourth LP, 'FAME'. You may remember that he assaulted Rihanna the night before 2009's Grammys, leading both performers to pull out of the event. He tweeted:

Strange how we pick and choose who to hate! Let me ask u this. Our society is full of rappers (which I listen to) who have sold drugs (poisoning).

But yet we glorify them and imitate everything they do.

Then right before the worlds eyes a man shows how he can make a Big mistake and learn from it, but still has to deal with day to day hatred! You guys love to hate!!! But guess what???

HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That's the ultimate **** OFF!

As I watched these tweets unfold last night, I thought, "God, this is vile. But I really hope they get him in a world of trouble. OH HANG ON A MINUTE, his career survived him smashing his girlfriend's face in. These remarks are going to do jack all."

What Brown said - and did, obviously - is beyond disgusting. People deserve second chances, and second chances can often be fulfilled. But that doesn't mean that old misdemeanours - old, criminal, domestic abuse-shaped misdemeanours - should be brushed under the carpet. Rihanna will doubtless never do another interview, or have another review written about her music, that doesn't somehow allude to what Brown did to her that night, making his righteous indignation at having the incident used against him even more repellent. He may have owned up to making a mistake, but remarks like these hardly demonstrate that he has "[learned] from it".

(You may remember that in March 2011, after being asked about Rihanna on Good Morning America, Brown threw a chair through a window and stormed out of the building shirtless).

But what's equally as pernicious as Brown's lack of remorse is the way that the culture industry at large has decided to gloss over what he did. When Usher tweeted disparagingly about photos depicting Brown appearing on a jet ski in Miami shortly after the initial incident, he later issued an apology, just in case his comments had offended anyone. Website Hello Giggles ran a brilliant piece on why Brown's appearance at this year's Grammys was Very Much Not Okay, drawing particular attention to this abhorrent quote from Grammy Executive Producer Ken Ehrlich, who said:

The Grammys… were the victim… of Chris Brown beating up his girlfriend… The awards ceremony were the victim… of Chris Brown trying to strangle and bite Rihanna. Nope, it doesn't make any more sense the second time.

It's this kind of laissez-faire, woolly clutching of Brown back into the media's bosom that doubtless fostered the incredibly ignorant responses to his performance - you may well have seen blogposts featuring screen-caps of (mostly) women tweeting things along the lines of, "I'd let Chris Brown beat me up any day lol". Reading these lists makes for profoundly depressing reading.

But what's worse is that there's been no strong, en masse media message that has emphasised that Brown's behaviour is totally unacceptable. Until that happens, idiots will continue to make uninformed, flippant remarks like the above, teenagers will still continue to think that Rihanna was responsible for her attack, and Brown will be able to consign the incident to the past whilst his ascent continues.

A large swathe of Brown's audience is made up of teenage girls, a group who need to be made aware from the word 'go' that violence against women is never, ever acceptable. I'm not saying Chris Brown should be stripped of his record contract, but he should never expect for what he did to be forgotten. Highlighting the fact is hardly going to feature in RCA's marketing campaign (and clearly, the industry's failings to disgrace Chris is all about the $$$), so it's vital that other media platforms continue to draw attention to it. Sadly, this brushing under the carpet of musicians committing violence against women is nothing new. John Lennon, Keith Moon, Nick Oliveri, Ian Brown; the music industry is disturbingly quick to forgive artists who beat up women.

Chris Brown later tweeted (also deleted), "I'm so OVER everyone's opinions.. Really!!!" Chris, I'm so OVER the people with power - awards bookers, radio station heads, record label executives - not having an opinion on this, not coming down on you like twelve tons of bricks, failing to make the decision not to legitimise your deeply unacceptable behaviour.

Also deleted was this festive missive, which made me vomit out my own heart: "HAPPY VALENTINES DAY ladies… Let today be about u!!! Love you."

[Niall]

Originally Posted by Shaun

On NME today:

That is class A evidence for why I hate him. He's a vile and arrogant man. Maybe if he handled the Rihanna situation then people wouldn't still talk about it.

Piece of ****.

[Niall]

I only like Beautiful People.

Other than that, no. He can go fall in a ditch and remain there. Asshole.

[SoBig]

Where the Chris Brown haters at? I got something to make y'all mad.

Chris Brown's 'Turn up the Music' debuted at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.