Chris Brown

The Times Magazine, December 2009

They arrived at the Beverly Hilton on Wiltshire Boulevard that Saturday evening 10 months ago as urban music's golden couple. Clive Davis's pre-Grammy party is one of the music industry's premiere occasions, almost as headline-worthy as the awards show it precedes by one night, and with their combined star power they were to be key attractions at both events. But singers Chris Brown and girlfriend Rihanna never made it to the Grammys on Sunday.

The two had left the glittering celebrations - Barry Manilow, P. Diddy and Leona Lewis were among the performers, Whitney Houston topped the bill - by sports car and had headed off into the Los Angeles night amid a haze of paparazzi flashbulbs. Brown, just 19 at the time, was the small-town boy whose female-friendly vocals and smooth dance moves had brought him instant fame (his very first single, released when he was just 15, hit Number One). Even the late Michael Jackson, his musical hero, was impressed, calling Brown his young successor. And she, aged 20, was the Barbadian r'n'b star whose track Umbrella had swept the globe. Together they were pop deities, a young god and goddess living the showbiz dream.

That dream would soon shatter. On their journey the couple rowed and that row turned into a fight. Official reports filed afterwards claim that during it Brown bit Rihanna, put her in a head lock and punched her several times in the face. Such information was shocking enough. But a photograph taken of Rihanna that night by the Los Angeles Police Department and later leaked (by female employees, it is believed) to the gossip website TMZ.com was more shocking still. It shows her with closed eyes, puffy lips and bruised skin - a physical violence victim, not a pop princess. How did Brown himself feel when he first saw it?

"It's unbearable to view," he says quietly. "It's something that I have to live with every time they show it. I'm embarrassed that I couldn't control my anger at that time. It's a reminder that I have to be in control of my own actions and not anyone else's. My actions today and in the past shape my future."

As he speaks, the now 20-year-old looks straight ahead through the windscreen of the black Lincoln people carrier that brought him to this rooms-by-the-hour motel at the wrong end of Sunset, venue for the Times Magazine photoshoot. Brown is tall, toned and athletic-looking (he's said to have shot up in height over the past couple of years to his current 6'1") but there is no swagger or attitude to him. In fact, I notice that consistently he tries to make himself appear less physically imposing, as if fearful he might intimidate. He has a smile that, though shown only rarely on this particular day, is a thing of wonder, lighting up his face. He is soft-voiced, puppy-eyed, polite. In short, he is no-one's idea of a violent man. You wonder what could have so changed him on the night of February 8 2009. Was it alcohol perhaps, or drugs? His answer is brief but categoric: "No."

Ever since that date, Brown has held fast to the belief that it would be wrong to discuss what happened within that rented Lamborghini. "Otherwise it just continues to escalate. It keeps the negativity going. If I did talk people would only say, "Oh, he's just saying stuff in order to sell records', and it'd be a scandal all over again. I've looked at Michael Jackson's career and how the public totally turned on him then switched and got back with him again, back and forth. Other artists too. They throw you to the dogs. They don't even see you as a person. So I've just concentrated on accepting full responsibility for the wrong things I've done, without going into detail about what happened or what made me lose ... I just feel that it's the right way forward."

But in recent weeks and amid the promotional schedule for her new album, Rated R, Rihanna has begun to press her side of the story, most notably in a two-part televised conversation with veteran broadcaster Diane Sawyer for the US current affairs programme 20/ 20. When ordinary couples break up they talk to their respective friends about the who-did-what-and-why. But in this case and in a weird, celebrity twist on the old game of He Said, She Said, both participants find themselves releasing new albums within just days of each other (the tracks on Rated R, though stylistically disaparate, portray her frequently as an avenger and love as some kind of battlefield). The opportunities to confide in an entire modern media are there to be grabbed, should either participant want it - and Rihanna, it seems, does.

In that TV interview she stated that as they drove away from the party Brown had received a text from another woman, but denied the fact to her. "I caught him in a lie and he wouldn't tell the truth," she told Sawyer. "And I wouldn't drop it. I couldn't take that he kept lying to me and he couldn't take it that I wouldn't drop it. And ... it was ugly."

Of her escape from the situation, Rihanna said, "I was battered. I was bleeding. I was swollen in the face. So there was no way of me getting home except ... to get out of the car and walk. Start walking in a gown, in (sic) a bloody face. So I really don't know what my plan was." (Eventually, on discovering her in distress, a passer-by called the police.)

As her recollections made headlines all round the world, Brown issued a statement that read, "While I respect Rihanna's right to discuss the specific events of 8 February, I maintain my position that all of the details should remain a private matter between us. I do appreciate her support (she had gone on to tell Sawyer she still loved and cared about Brown and that she wanted him 'to do well, have a great career, have a great life and grow up.') and wish her the best. I am extremely sorry for what I did and I accept responsibility for my actions. Abuse of any kind is wrong. The rest I leave to God."

And to the legal system. When his case came before LA County superior court judge Patricia Schnegg in August, Brown was put on five years' probation, ordered to complete 180 hours of community labour and undergo a year's domestic violence counselling. Additionally, a five year restraining order was imposed, requiring him to keep 100 yards distance from her at all times - 10 yards should they be attending the same event (Rihanna herself has described this measure as "unnecessary").

At the time of sentencing, Judge Schnegg publicly gave Brown credit for having gone to the police of his own free will, rather than leaving them to find and arrest him. "I've never been a guy who's obstructed justice or who has broken the law," he says of that decision. "I've always followed the rules and had never got in trouble with the authorities before. So being in the situation I was in and hearing that the police were looking for me, I knew what I had to do. I'm a man, at the end of the day. I own up to what I've done. I was wrong and had to be punished so it was only right that I should turn myself in."

But despite his resolve to say nothing about what happened in that car on the night of February 8, Brown comes astonishingly close to revealing his version of the truth in this, the only in-depth interview he will onduct for the release of his new album, Grafitti - that truth being that the attack was not one-sided.

"Domestic violence is totally wrong whatever the circumstances, no exceptions," he tells me. "But a lot of people think it's a one-sided issue, i.e. only men on women. Let's give an example ... I'm not saying verbatim it's what happened but if a woman hits her man it's looked on as it's he who's not being macho. It's kind of laughed at, like (he imitates a mocking male voice), 'Ha-ha, your girl beat you up! Not much of a man, are you." But if a man, let's say, were to defend himself or to use force back, then he's wrong - and in every sense he is wrong, of course, because there are choices that you make. It's always a mutual situation though. I feel if force is being used by both of them then both are wrong.

"We've been told (by those leading the mandatory group counselling sessions in which he is now taking part) that in domestic violence situations 60, maybe 70 per cent of cases are male on female, which means that the other 40 or 30 per cent must be female on male. And that figure could even be higher, 'cos who is going to find it easy to come and say, 'Yeah, my girl beats me'? I'm not talking about my case here ... But it's just wrong, all wrong. Any one person hitting another is completely wrong."

Ironically for someone now perceived as being mysoginistic ("I don't hate women. I love and have the utmost respect for them. All of them," Brown insists) and violent, the support team the entertainer has chosen to assemble around him is almost entirely female (and this within a genre of music famed for its testosterone). His PRs both in the US and UK are women, as is his television/ acting agent, and he is co-managed by his mother Joyce and Tina Davis, the former Def Jam executive who both discovered him and steered him towards his first record deal.

Says the latter of the two-year relationship between Brown and Rihanna, "He adored her. It got to the point where they didn't want to be separated. Both us and her management would be saying, 'OK, now you need to go and do this or that', and they'd reply, 'But we don't want to be apart.' We were like, 'My God, please. Just for five minutes, couldn't you ...?' We ended up trying to coordinate their schedules so that they'd both be in the same city at the same time. They loved each other so much, which is why I couldn't believe this thing had happened. It was just surreal."

Davis had been with the couple at the Beverly Hilton on February 8th then left to take in a couple of after-parties before heading back to her home in the Woodland Hills area of the city. It was there later that night that she first heard word of the incident. "It was devastating," she says. "I couldn't believe he did it. It took me a long time to believe it could ever have happened. In all the time I've known him (six years) he's never done anything to make me think he even had the potential to be violent."

Then came a call from Brown himself. "He was crying. He told me, 'Tina, I've messed up. I don't know what happened but ...' And I said, 'I'm not even going to ask you about what went on in that car. Right now you just need to stay still and pray.'"

A firestorm of publicity and, rightly and obviously, condemnation of Brown followed news of the assault being made public. He apologised repeatedly to Rihanna both privately and publicly, accepting full responsibility for his actions, and the couple were actually reconciled for a time. Surely further confusing the situation was the fact that both had witnessed domestic trauma as children: following a divorce from his father, Brown's mother had been involved for a time with a man who was violent towards her, in his hearing if not in his sight, while Rihanna has said that during her childhood her father, a crack-cocaine addict, was physically abusive to her mother. Was it his instinct at any time simply to withdraw from public view, even if by doing so he was tacitly accepting that his recording and performing career was over?

"Not knowing what public scrutiny I'd be held up to or how people would perceive me when I go places, of course I felt that to some extent," he says (looking on youtube prior to meeting him, I found the most recent Brown-related video clip posted to be that of a woman shouting insults at him as he walked through a New York sportswear store). "But I'm only 20. This is a bad mistake I made but one that I'm not denying nor running away from. I don't believe I should let it shatter my life. I'm owning up to the wrongs I've done and am working on myself. I'm trying to find the positive amid the negative. I'm urging people to learn from what I did and not take the same route. If I do that - act as an example - then I feel I have no reason to go through the rest of my life with my head hanging down."

Brown's determination to address his personal issues would seem to be wholly genuine. Although he has five years in which to carry out the community labour aspect of his sentence, he has already completed 100 of the required 180 hours at locations close to his home outside Richmond, VA (currently on a low-key nationwide theatre tour, he flies back there to spend each Monday performing supervised tasks such as picking up roadside littler, cleaning off graffiti and washing government vehicles). This is not because he wants to get it over with, he stresses, but because he believes that he will benefit from the experience.

"It's humbling, yes, but that in itself is good," he says. "Coming into this business at 15 and having your very first record go to Number One, then having more Number Ones and getting used to having people scream your name?You get into that arrogant realm. I'm pretty sure everyone does who has such a thing happen to them. Being brought back down to earth is no bad thing. It makes you appreciate anew how lucky you've been."

Having called him back before her on November 19 for a progress report, Judge Schnegg pronounced Brown to have made an "extremely favourable" start to fulfilling his sentencing obligations. And certainly he himself believes the weekly counselling he is undergoing (at the time of our speaking he had completed seven of the required 52 sessions) to be of real benefit. "I'm getting everything I need from them in terms of making myself a better person. It's a domestic violence class but there's also an anger management element that helps you to deal with situations and gives you certain dos and don'ts. It's a blend of group therapy and learning how to manage your feelings. That it involves other people definitely helps you mentally in terms of making you aware of their problems and opinions and how your own behaviour is perceived. It's character-building. It's good."

Brown says that in addition to the remorse he feels towards Rihanna and to his family and friends for his actions of February 8, he is also distressed at the effect they have had on his young fans. "I was devastated when I saw the effect it was having on them (in 2006, the year after his chart debut, he won five Kids' Choice Awards in the US, against competition from Justin Timberlake and others, but this year withdrew himself from consideration). I was so disappointed in myself that I should have been the kind of person I said I'd never be. I have to try and win their trust again, show them that I'm learning from the mistake I made."

With this in mind, I ask about his reaction to Rihanna's decision, post-reconciliation, to finally end their relationship for good, citing her responsibilities as a role model (she told Sawyer she feared that by taking up with Brown again she might send the wrong message to other women dealing with abusive partners). "I don't know how true that was," he says, shaking his head slowly, causing one to wonder if he views her eventual decision to dump him as being a career-conscious PR move, pure and simple.

"All I can think is, 'OK, if that's how she felt ...' But I do know also that this is a business and people will do whatever it takes. I'm not saying her, but people will do whatever it takes to get to the top and win people back over. I've never once said, 'Yo, my album's coming out and by the way, I'm sorry.' I've always owned up to what I did. I feel like her being back with me would not have given the wrong signal."

In fact, Brown believes that they could have had greater impact in terms of raising awareness of the related issues had they stayed together. "We could have made it bigger by saying, 'Look, we're going to work our problems out. We're going to both get counselling and we're going to show that domestic violence is wrong.' Being back with me didn't have to say that, in such situations, the girl should go back to her man even though he might end up killing her. While I could see where she was coming from, I didn't agree with her. I think it was a drastic statement, personally."

So what of his romantic feelings for Rihanna now? He adored her, manager Davis has told me. But 10 months on from that fateful night? "I'm good," Brown says. "I think that interview (hers with Sawyer) helped put things in perspective. (Here he gives a dry little laugh). It just really made me focus on me. I think previously I was too focussed on love. There's nothing wrong with that, but sometimes love can make you lose sight of your goal, of what your purpose is. I'm always going to have love in my heart for her but I'm not heartbroken right now. I'm moving forward. I will always be remorseful for the situation but at this point I'm just living my life. And maybe one day I'll fall in love with someone who really loves me."

It has been a remarkable journey this far for someone born into a non-musical family within a town of just 2,000 inhabitants - Tappahannock, VA. Brown says that his parents, though divorced, retain an equal influence on his life - his mother a former day care centre worker, his father a prison officer. From her he thinks he gets his stubborness. And from him? "I've got his voice, his build, his height, his whole demeanour - he's kind of goofy but an intelligent guy who can talk like an encyclopaedia and who knows the biggest of the big words. As a kid I'd watch and listen to him, taking in the way he spoke and carried himself."

Michael Jackson records fuelled the young Chris Brown's dreams and in time he got to meet his hero and was endorsed by him. "To end up with him as a fan was just amazing. I first met him aged 17 when he invited me to perform at the World Music Awards and I did Thriller in tribute to him. Then he called me on my 18th birthday to wish me all the best and say how much he liked my music and saw me as his successor. I was due to see him again on the day he died. He'd invited me and Jamie Foxx down to the Staple Centre to watch him in rehearsal and of course I'd cleared my schedule."

That schedule involved the writing and recording of Grafitti. his third album, the successor to 2005's self-titled debut and 2007's Exclusive. Available worldwide from Monday, what should have been one of the season's major releases is now, he readily admits, an "underdog' project. While sitting here at the wheel he has played me a selection of tracks from it and on first hearing they sound (in their variety and in their confidence) a giant step forward from anything he has done before. "It's good to have this way of talking about my negative situation," he says. "This is me growing and becoming a man. Should you want to and if you really listen, you'll learn about me in a way you haven't been able to before." For those with open ears, the tracks Falling Down and Crawl are as good a place to start as any.

Time is running out. During the course of our conversation Brown has sat facing forward, only intermittently turning to make eye contact, leaving his heavily tattooed right arm (the left, which he calls his "art arm", is still a work in progress) constantly in my sight line. As a result, the single word Darkness has been visible to me on his bicep and, as our conversation winds up, I ask what is the full inscription.

He smiles, lifts the sleeve of his black t-shirt and shows me ... 'Darkness Into Light'. This is my spiritual arm, my good vs evil one, so here is my very first tattoo, Jesus (his head while hanging on the cross, complete with crown of thorns), and above Him some musical notes to symbolise God having given me the gift to entertain. And here right at the top (he points to cherubs on his shoulder) are the angels watching over me."

Saying which, Brown shakes my hand, opens the vehicle door and climbs down into the street. Stepping away, his body language - modest, purposeful - is that of a man who knows words of contrition and good intent alone are not enough and that he must continue to walk the walk as well as talk the talk, today, tomorrow and for weeks, months and years into the future. For the rest of his life, in fact. He appears determined to do so.

Copyright © 2020 Alan Jackson

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