| Bobby Brown was born
February 5, 1969, in Boston, and began singing with Roxbury schoolmates
Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell in 1978. The group developed into New
Edition and, after a few talent show wins, was discovered by producer
Maurice Starr. Starr signed the group to his label and co-authored its
debut hit, "Candy Girl," which helped get New Edition a deal
with MCA. After a few years of teen stardom, Bobby
Brown longed to move on to an adult solo career, and left New
Edition in 1986. He released his debut solo album, King of Stage, in
1987, and while it didn't make a name for Bobby Brown as a pop
star, it did spawn a major R&B
hit in the ballad "Girlfriend." Overall, though King of Stage
gave little indication that Brown was about to become a breakout star on
the cutting edge of modern R&B.
For his follow-up, Bobby
Brown sought a more distinctive musical identity in the budding new
jack swing movement. He enlisted the emerging production/songwriting
team of L.A. Reid and Babyface to handle the majority of the record,
with new jack pioneer Teddy Riley coming onboard in a limited capacity
as well. The result, Don't Be Cruel, was a state-of-the-art, star-making
affair. Released in the summer of 1988, the record produced Brown's
first pop Top Ten hit in the title track, but really started to take off
when the driving statement of purpose "My Prerogative" went
all the way to number one toward the end of the year (and managed to
work the word "prerogative" into a catchy hook). From there,
Don't Be Cruel just kept spinning off hits: the ballad "Roni,"
the dance tune "Every Little Step" (which showed off Bobby
Brown's rapping skills), and another ballad "Rock Wit'cha"
all hit the Top Ten in 1989, with the former two both making it all the
way to number three. Don't Be Cruel topped the album charts and sold a
whopping seven million copies, making Brown a superstar. In 1990, he was
tapped to provide the theme song for Ghostbusters II and responded with
the number two smash "On Our Own," another rap/R&B
mixture; he also contributed a rap to friend Glenn Medeiros' number
one pop hit "She Ain't Worth It." Bobby
Brown was so popular at this point that even his 1990 remix album
Dance!...Ya Know It! went platinum.
And then, somehow, the momentum began to
slow. Countless other artists expanded on the new jack swing blueprint,
with many of Brown's former New Edition colleagues at the forefront:
Bell Biv Devoe, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant. Moreover, Don't Be Cruel
made L.A. Reid and Babyface into hot commodities, and their sound was
all over the airwaves. Just before his new album, Bobby, was released in
the summer of 1992, Brown married superstar diva Whitney
Houston, who sang the duet "Something in Common" on the
new record. Bobby's lead single, "Humpin' Around," was a smash
on both the pop and R&B
charts, reaching the Top Five on the former. However, Bobby didn't
sustain the momentum of Don't Be Cruel; perhaps it didn't stand out from
the pack the way Don't Be Cruel had in 1988, or perhaps white audiences
were too preoccupied with grunge. Whatever the reason, sales of Bobby
topped out at around two million copies, despite several more R&B
hits in "Good Enough," "Get Away," and "That's
the Way Love Is." In 1993, Georgia police arrested Brown for an
overly suggestive stage performance, an incident that would prove to be
the first of many legal difficulties for Brown over the next few years.
In 1995, Brown was arrested after a brawl
in a Disney World nightclub, in which a patron who allegedly made a pass
at a woman in Brown's party had his ear at least partially torn off.
(Charges were later dropped when Brown settled out of court.) Several
months later, Bobby Brown was charged with battery in Los Angeles
after allegedly kicking a hotel security guard who tried to halt a party
in Brown's room (he was sentenced to two years' probation). The same
year, Brown checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic to battle drug
and alcohol problems. However, in August 1996, he wrecked Houston's
leased Porsche while speeding in Florida; reportedly, his blood-alcohol
level was twice the legal limit. In the midst of all this chaos, Brown
found time to record with the fully reunited New Edition, whose comeback
album, Home Again, entered the charts at number one that fall. Bobby
Brown toured with the group, but departed for good when the tour was
over. Meanwhile, the tabloids were having a field day over Brown and
Houston's rumored marital problems; in 1997, Brown was accused of
spousal abuse when Houston suffered a cut on her cheek during a yachting
trip, although both Brown and Whitney
Houston denied the reports.
Also in 1997, Brown released his fourth
solo album, Forever, a commercial disappointment which failed to even
break the Top 50. In the summer of 1998, Brown was arrested for sexual
battery stemming from an alleged incident in the Beverly Hills Hotel,
although no charges were filed for lack of evidence. He served five days
in a Florida jail stemming from his drunk-driving incident, and after
spending time in rehab, he was arrested again for allegedly having shown
up at the jail drunk. Brown reportedly violated his probation by testing
positive for cocaine several times; while those charges were dropped, he
was sentenced to 75 days in jail for refusing to take another drug test
in the summer of 2000. Upon his release, Bobby Brown began
working in earnest on a new album, which was derailed for a time when he
suffered a seizure in the summer of 2001, reportedly from heat
exhaustion and dehydration. It wasn't until 2002 that he really came
back into the media spotlight; following a duet with Ja
Rule he was captured by the police for marijuana possession and
driving without a license after a routine stop for speeding. ~ Steve
Huey, All Music Guide
Bio From: VH1 |
