About

Chris Brown is an American singer-songwriter who is well known for a number of chart-topping R&B singles and a highly publicized domestic violence case involving his then-girlfriend and pop singer Rihanna in February 2009.

Online History

2009 Domestic Violence Arrest

On Febuary 8th, 2009, Rihanna was hospitalized after getting involved in an argument with her then boyfriend Brown, which escalated to physical violence leaving the celebrity diva with several visible face injuries. Later that day, Brown turned himself into police custody and was arrested under suspicion of making criminal threats.

On February 10th, the entertainment news blog Inside TV^[1] published an article titled “Chris Brown and Rihanna: More Fallout,” which reported that several companies and organizations had begun distancing themselves from Brown, including the Wrigley Jr. Company, the Milk Mustache campaign and Sesame Street.

GMA Interview

On March 22nd, 2011, Brown was interviewed on the talk show Good Morning America, in which he was asked about about his legal issues regarding the assault case (shown below). The same day, TMZ^[7] published a post titled "Chris Brown Violent Outburst at 'GMA'," reporting that the singer-songwriter was enraged after the interview and stormed into the dressing room before shattering a window with a chair.

Following the outburst, Brown reportedly tweeted "I'm so over people bringing this past shit up! Yet we praise Charlie Sheen and other celebs for their bullshit!", which has since been deleted.

Twitter Feud with Andy Levy

On August 16th, comedian Andy Levy responded to a tweet by Brown about the photo fad planking, saying that he "spelled 'punching' wrong." As of November 11th, 2012, the tweet has been retweeted over 11,800 times and favorited over 2,850 times.

You spelled "punching" wrong. RT @chrisbrown: No more planking for me unless it's on a sexy lady! Lol

— Andy Levy (@andylevy) August 17, 2011

On August 18th, YouTuber PathOfJioFreed uploaded a video clip of Levy on Fox News sarcastically apologizing to Brown for insulting him on Twitter. Within one year, the video accumulated over two million views and 11,900 comments.

2012 Halloween Costume

On November 1st, Brown published a photograph of himself and several friends dressed as Middle Eastern terrorists to his Instagram^[8] account (shown below). The picture was criticized by many as being culturally insensitive toward those of Middle Eastern descent and was subsequently reported on by various news sites, including BuzzFeed,^[9] Vibe,^[10] The Sun^[11] and Yahoo News.^[12]

Rihanna's Photo at Chris Brown's Concert

On November 9th, Redditor krillokrokodil submitted a post to the /r/WTF^[13] subreddit titled "Posters of beat up Rihanna posted in Stockholm before Chris Brown concert," which highlighted a photograph of a poster advertising an upcoming Chris Brown event with a superimposed photograph of Fenty with visible facial injuries (shown below). Within 19 days, the post received over 23,700 up votes and 2,100 comments. The following day, Vice^[14] published an article criticizing the posters, claiming it was unethical to use the image of a battered woman to make a point.

Twitter Feud with Jenny Johnson

On November 25th, 2012, Brown tweeted that he looked "old as fuck" to which comedian Jenny Johnson responded by calling him "a worthless piece of shit." Immediately after, Brown responded by attacking Johnson, saying she should perform fellatio on him, that he would like to fart on her during intercourse and defecate on her eyes. Following the exchange, Brown deleted his Twitter account.

I know! Being a worthless piece of shit can really age a person. RT @chrisbrown: I look old as fuck! I'm only 23…

— Jenny Johnson (@JennyJohnsonHi5) November 25, 2012

2013 Assault Arrest

On October 27th, 2013, Brown was arrested in Washington D.C. on charges of a felony assault after getting into an argument with a stranger and allegedly attacking him outside a hotel. According to TMZ^[16] and the police report, the alleged victim, who was later identified as a 20-years-old Maryland resident Issac Parker, claims that Brown and his bodyguard punched him in the face after he and his friend tried to photobomb two women trying to take a picture with the R&B singer, who allegedly said "I'm not down with that gay shit, I feel like boxing" before throwing a punch. Meanwhile, unnamed sources close to the singer disputed Parker's account by asserting that the man tried to trespass onto the singer's tour bus.

On October 28th, after spending a day and a half in police custody, Brown and his bodyguard Christopher Hollosy were released after pleading "not guilty" to the reduced charge of misdemeanor assault.^[17] If convicted, Brown faces a maximum of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. Within hours of release, Brown thanked his fans for supporting him via Twitter.^[18]

2019 Rape Complaint Arrest

On January 22nd, 2019, the Associate Press tweeted,^[19] "BREAKING: Police officials say US singer Chris Brown detained in Paris after rape accusation." The tweet received more than 7,700 retweets and 12,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

The news outlet followed the tweet with a full report, stating that Brown and his bodyguard were detained for allegedly raping a woman in a hotel room the week prior. The woman filed the complaint to French authorities. Brown faces charges of aggravated rape and drug infractions.^[20]

According to AP, "The woman who filed the Paris complaint said she met Brown and his friends overnight Jan. 15-16 at the club Le Crystal in the 8th arrondissement near the Champs-Elysees, and then they all went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel near the Concorde Plaza in central Paris."

That day, people criticized and defended Brown as "Chris Brown" became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter. In a three-part thread, Twitter^[21] user @carayxz tweeted, "Chris Brown smacked the shit out of Rihanna, stalked and harassed Karrueche to the point she had to get a restraining order, is now being accused of rape and STILL I’m seeing men talk about the ‘world being out to get him’ and the fact he doesn’t ‘need’ to rape anyone 😐😐😑. Fact check: No one NEEDS to rape anyone. People don’t rape because they need to you absolute idiot. They do it because they are ABUSIVE. I didn’t say JUST men, I was referring to my own TL. I also didn’t say the accusation is true. No one knows yet. But given his *proven* abusive history with women, I cannot relate to anyone jumping to defend the guy." The initial tweet received more than 3,200 retweets and 11,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Twitter^[22] user @messykenny tweeted, "chris brown stans having a hard time believing he’s capable of sexual assault is the CACKLE of the day. he has physically assaulted, threatened, and stalked his ex’s but rape is were he definitely draws (and snorts) the line ok sweetie." The tweet received more than 80 retweets and 230 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).

Reputation

MAD Magazine Parody

On March 13th, 2009, the humor publication Mad Magazine released a comic titled “You’re a Bad Man, Chris Brown!”, featuring a parody of the Charlie Brown comic series in which the R&B singer is portrayed as a misogynist who is prone to violence (shown below). The comic was subsequently featured on BuzzFeed,^[4] Funny or Die and FunnyJunk.^[6]

2012 Grammys Performance

On February 15th, 2012, the viral content site BuzzFeed^[2] published a post titled "25 Extremely Upsetting Reactions to Chris Brown at the Grammys," which featured updates on social media websites by people saying that Chris Brown could "beat" them if he wanted (shown below).

That Guy with Glasses Review

On March 11th, Todd from That Guy With Glasses posted a video review of the Chris Brown song "Turn up The Music" (shown below), in which he scolded the performer and promoted his single topic Tumblr^[15] blog "Trolling Chris Brown."

Key and Peele's Parody

On October 10th, the sketch comedy television show Key and Peele featured a parody music video mocking Brown's abuse of Rihanna (shown below).

Search Interest

External References