A Chris Brown appreciation post

Something I think about a lot is how amazing Chris Brown’s music and the different parts that make it great.

Photograph of Chris Brown mid performance, taken
by Prince Williams

The main reason that I appreciate his music is because he seems to make music just for the sake of it. The length of his albums alone shows how much he loves to create music with his last two, Heartbreak on the Full Moon and Indigo, being long enough to be considered double albums. Although, I would prefer short and more succinct albums, he’s able to create songs that everyone adds to their playlist and manages to cover topics like relationships from a new angle.     
        
 Along with this Chris Brown is often making songs with artists that you’ve probably never heard of and who collaborating with has no benefit for him. Working with Brown is also the claim to fame for many upcoming artists on reality TV franchise Love and Hip Hop. The list of reality stars that have written and produced for Chris Brown includes A1, Lyrica Anderson and Roccstar. On top of that he is always in the music video for these songs and although this may seem like a small thing, it’s not uncommon nowadays for artists to make a hit song without meeting. Plus, I think it’s safe to assume that someone at Chris Brown’s level has a busy schedule, so making time for a music video may be difficult.

Michael Jackson inspired choreography
from Chris Brown's She Ain't You 
music video. 

Also, it seems that he continues a fan of music. From the start of his career his love of Michael Jackson and the influence that he’s had on Brown’s own career has been well documented. Early in his career he sampled Human Nature for his song She Ain’t You and the video even features choreography inspired by Jackson. Recently, he adopted Jackson’s attire and dance moves again in his music video Back to Love which was released as a promotional single for his latest album.

On top having the King of Pop as an inspiration he seems to be a fan of his peers and is up to date on what is going on in music. In Kid Ink’s song Hotel, the collaborators interpolate lyrics Ty Dolla $ign’s hit song Paranoid.  This reference to his now long-time collaborator appears to me as someone paying homage to their peer and the song that some regard as his breakout hit. Not long ago he even interpolated Donell Jones lyrics for his song Hope You Do which also samples Jacquees’ Come Thru, continually showing his love for the musicians then and now.

It would be unfair and inaccurate to say the Chris Brown makes all of these musical decisions by himself, especially at the beginning of his career; however I do still believe that they reflect him as an artist and has caused many to consider him to be a legend.