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Robert Beresford "Bobby" Brown (born February 5, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American Grammy-winning R&B singer and dancer. Brown began his career with the popular boy band New Edition in 1980 and was later ousted from the group due to behavioral problems. He embarked on a solo career in the late 1980s and had a string of Top 10 Billboard hits. Brown was the husband of R&B singer Whitney Houston and the star of his own reality show, Being Bobby Brown. On September 13, 2006, Houston's publicist announced that after 14 years, the singer filed for a legal separation from Brown.
Biography and career
Brown was born in Boston, Massachusetts and was raised in the neighborhood of Roxbury. He began singing with schoolmates Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell in 1980. The group, which would later include Ralph Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe, developed into New Edition and, after a few talent show wins, they were discovered by producer Maurice Starr. Starr signed the group to his label and co-authored its debut hit, "Candy Girl", in 1983, which helped get New Edition a deal with MCA. Along with "Candy Girl", Brown and New Edition scored several other pop and R&B hits in the early 1980s, including "Mr. Telephone Man", "Cool It Now", and "This The End". After a few moments of teen stardom, Brown longed to move on to an adult solo career. His disruptive behavior led to Brown being kicked out of New Edition in 1986; he was replaced by Johnny Gill. Brown released his debut solo album, King of Stage, in 1987, and while it didn't make a name for 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, 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 Brown's rapping skills and earned him a Grammy in 1989 for Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance-Male), and another ballad "Rock Wit'cha" all hit the Top 10 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. That same year, 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." 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 Brown's former New Edition colleagues Tresvant, Gill, and Bell Biv Devoe at the forefront. 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 Dance-pop singer 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 5 on the former; however, Bobby didn't sustain the momentum of Don't Be Cruel. 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 October 2004 Don't Be Cruel appeared in popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on R&B, Soul radio station CSR 103.9.
Legal issues
In 1995, Brown was arrested after being accused of raping an under age prostitute. (Charges were later dropped when Brown settled out of court.) Several months later, 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. 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 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, 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 rapper Ja Rule, he was captured by the police for marijuana possession and driving without a license after a routine stop for speeding.
In 2003, Brown was charged with breaking the domestic violence law in the USA against Houston. [http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/10/brown.charged/index.html reference
In late 2005, Brown was charged with urinating on a car owned by one of Whitney Houston's former lovers. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service.
Writer Kola Boof (alleged to be one of Osama Bin Laden's "sex slaves") has said that the terrorist had an infatuation with Brown's wife, Houston, and that he allegedly planned to have Brown killed so he could make Houston one of his wives.
On September 13, 2006, Brown's marriage to Houston, which had been dogged by tabloid rumors and other legal issues from the very beginning, came to an end when Houston filed for a legal separation. One month later (October 2006), Houston officially filed for a divorce from Brown. [1]
Being Bobby Brown
In June 2005, Brown launched his own reality series, Being Bobby Brown, on the Bravo television network. Running for thirteen episodes, the reality show focused on the personal lives of the singer and wife Whitney Houston and their accompanying family, mostly of Bobby's children, brother Tommy and father. The show was one of the highest-rated shows on the Bravo channel, partially for Houston's off banter quotes, including the oft-repeated hell to the naw. The show has yet to be renewed and will not likely be after Houston filed for divorce. Houston was said to be the reason for the show's success.
Websites
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