He's about to play his third sold-out show at Dublin's O2, so why has nobody heard of Chris Brown?
YOU DON’T have a clue who Chris Brown is, do you? Be honest, you don’t have an iota. Maybe you heard about this 19-year-old who sold 50,000 tickets for four Irish shows in a couple of seconds, the guy who is going out with Umbrella girl Rihanna, and went “Chris who?”
SCREEEEAM!
This is the sound of 13,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs in Dublin’s 02. Your ears will still be ringing the following evening. The only people not screaming are beginning to wish that they had earplugs. (Memo to the 02: start selling earplugs.)
SCREEEEEEEEEAM!
The object of these shrieks is standing with his arms folded on the stage, smiling at the crowd. This is Christopher Maurice Brown, “a country boy from Tappahannock, VA” as he puts it in Kiss Kiss. He is the most famous dude ever to come from that neck of the woods and, as both Justin Timberlake and Usher are otherwise engaged, he is probably the biggest thing in r’n’b and pop to boot.
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM!
You are now probably thinking, why the hell have I never heard of him, this kid from nowhere who has already chalked up two multimillion-selling albums. You’re fairly up to date with new music, after all. You can tell your Kings of Leon from your Jay-Zs. But Chris Brown? Are you really this past it? Once upon a time, everyone would know about someone with this pulling power.
But music audiences have splintered, and Brown is proof that you can become a huge star without becoming a household name. Chances are if you haven’t yet come across Brown, you don’t listen to Dublin’s Spin 1038, where the text system crashed under the weight of 38,000 texts in 40 minutes when they gave away tickets for the show.
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM!
The show is super-sized, slick and spectacular. There are fireworks and pyrotechnics going off like it’s New Year’s Eve. For some reason there’s also a red British telephone box on the stage. Brown doesn’t have a band – there’s a guy playing drums in one corner and a DJ in the other but no one here seems to mind, or even notice. Brown sings, raps, dances, grins a lot and chats up the female members of the audience.
Halfway through the show, Brown appears on a second stage in the middle of the hall, suspended over the audience. With safety harnesses in place, he and two dancers engage in some bumping and grinding. The screaming gets even louder.
In-between the fancy dancing and production eye candy, Brown turns out the songs. It’s a game of two halves: tough, body-popping grooves back to back with slow jams and ballads. The sound throughout is synthesised and processed (Brown adores the auto-tune effect), which lends a strange sci-fi feel to the concert. In the middle of the set, just to make it abundantly clear what’s going on, Brown does a few Michael Jackson numbers.
Yep, he’s going for that king of pop crown. Want to scream?
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM! It’s the evening of Brown’s second Dublin show, and fans are streaming down the quays towards the venue. This was the first of his Irish gigs to sell out, so these are the true fanatics.
A woman is standing at one of the entrances with a clipboard. She has a list of those who have paid $200 a pop through the fan club to meet Brown before the show. Other acts may do the meet-and-greet routine with competition winners or friends of the record label; Brown will gurn for a picture with anyone willing to pay for it. This is just taking care of business, he says.
“With the way the economy is right now, you have to have the business side wrapped up,” he says afterwards in his cluttered dressing room. “If you don’t have the money end of what you do together, you’re doing yourself no favours. If you don’t know what your revenue is going to be or how you’re going to make your revenue and what’s going to continue to bring you in revenue, you’re going to end up with nothing to fall back on if you want to stop singing.”
Such sage business analysis is not what you expect to hear from a 19-year-old, but Brown spent his teenage years developing a career, building an audience and making sure he got paid. He started looking for a record deal when he was 13, persuaded Jive boss LA Reid to take a chance on him when he was 15, and had his first hit ( Run It) when he was 16.
Brown’s first live show was his own. “Shows didn’t come to where I’m from so I didn’t see any live shows until I probably did my first live shows. Yeah, I saw shows on television, you know, like awards shows, or I’d buy DVDs of people’s concerts, but I never went to shows when I was younger.”
While he limbered up for his big break, friends in Tappahannock kept him grounded. “Of course I had role models when I was growing up. I looked up to my parents because they played a really important part in my life – all my family did – but I was more of a peer kind of guy, you know. I liked to hang out with kids in school or out of school, and they’re the ones I looked up to.”
Like every singer worth their salt – even one who can flog 70,000 tickets for a show in the Philippines or charge people to have their photo taken with him – Brown has a fine line in side projects. There are acting gigs ( This Christmas, The OC), his label (the first signing is Scooter Smiff: "he's 13 years old and a talented dancer and he writes his own stuff") and work as a songwriter for hire.
Brown knows the value of a Chris Brown tune.
“I’ve pulled a few songs back because I realised I wanted to sing them myself first. I gave one song to The Pussycat Dolls, but they turned it down. I mean, I can understand that, people send me songs all the time that I just can’t record for various reasons. But sometimes it takes somebody else to do something for people to go ‘I want that song’. When The Pussycat Dolls heard that two other artists wanted the song I’d sent them, they wanted it back but they didn’t get it. I think it’s bad business if you’ve already said no to a song to want it back.”
He believes writing songs for others is a way to try out some new angles for himself. "When I wrote Disturbiafor Rihanna, a lot of people are surprised because they never expected Chris Brown to write a song like that. That's some of the stuff that I have in my mind that I don't show people all the time.
“I think too many artists are trying to do what everyone else is doing rather than trying to be themselves. That’s why I stand out from what everyone else is doing. When it comes to my next record, people are going to really know what I’m capable of. They’ll see that I want to step out of the box and go to a whole new level.”
He appreciates artists who take chances, such as Kanye West. “I wasn’t so sure about Kanye when he started singing first because he was using vocoder and I thought it was a little played out. I’d done it, T-Pain had done it, he’d started it. Now, everyone’s doing it. But Kanye’s songs and production work is just incredible, and he really stepped to another level with the new album.”
He laughs when he hears his fans have compared him to Puff Daddy (see panel above), but seems chuffed with the comparison. “I think the brand is bigger and his name is bigger than his music right now, but that’s a pretty dope comparison.
“Diddy is one of the few black moguls out there right now and I think, like him, I can do it all if I put my mind to it. I’m still young, you know.”
Chris Brown plays The 02 in Dublin tomorrow. The show is sold out
Brown sugar: the crowds drawn to Chris
They came, they saw, they loved him. Jim Carrolltalked to the punters at Brown's early January dates at the O2
Maria Hanlon (17)
The Liberties, Dublin 8
It was my boyfriend who told me about him first. I just love his music and his songs. He’s good-looking and he seems very genuine. You really feel he’s going to be huge and around for a long time and have his own business empire like someone like P Diddy. Because he’s only 19, he’s someone people our age can look up to.
Shane Gunning (16)
Swords, Co Dublin
I first heard him on the radio, I think it was on Spin, and I just thought he was amazing. He’s so talented for someone so young. I’m more of an indie fan, more into bands like the Kooks and MGMT than r’n’b or 50 Cent or Eminem, but Chris Brown is the exception to all that. His lyrics really stand out.
Alex Sangster (18)
Dundalk, Co Louth
He’s so young and energetic and his music has such an amazing sound. We go to the clubs a lot and he’s played a lot and always get a really good reaction. His music is very user-friendly compared to a lot of the hip-hop and r’n’b you’d hear at the moment.
Sarah Garvey (19)
Navan, Co Meath
I’m more into pop than r’n’b and acts like Take That and Westlife, but Chris Brown is so versatile. His songs are brilliant, the sound is really good and he’s an amazing dancer too. I remember seeing him on TV when he first came out and it’s amazing how he’s taken off. Ask him is he really engaged to Rihanna!
Chad Conroy (18)
Dundalk, Co Louth
Because he’s so young, we really feel he’s more like us, so I hope he has the crack with the audience tonight. Too many acts disappoint because they don’t have that, and you need that in a big venue. I’m aiming to get as close as possible to the front for this one.
