Today is Chris Brown‘s birthday, one of my favorite artists. A lot has happened in Brown’s career since his debut in 2005, including a sobering fall from grace after his dust up with then girlfriend Rihanna. It’s a stain Brown will have to carry for life, in contrast to his impressive musical success. Chris Brown has collaborated with the industry’s top artists such as T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes, and gets most of his inspiration from the likes of Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, and Usher. In honor of his birthday, here are 10 of his songs that I believe are timeless!
1) With You
With You is one of Brown’s most successful songs to date. You may think of Beyonce’s Irreplaceable when listening to the melody, but his fans don’t care. The song is beautiful, and I remember that year people not only had it set as their ring-tones, but proms and weddings had this song on replay.
2) Gimme That Remix
This song was released in 2006, and is a remix from Brown’s debut album. The music video was directed by Erik White who was inspired by Michael Jackson. This song features Lil Wayne and the video set was meant to be a Harlem train station from the 1920s.
3) Run it!
In this particular song the phrase, “run it” means to pick up a girl, and finding out whether or not she is girlfriend material. Brown dedicated this song to “hearts all over the world” and it caused a stir that put the 16-year-old on the charts!
4) Kiss Kiss
This song features T-Pain, and with T-Pain comes auto-tune. This song became a certified triple platinum blockbuster.
5) Poppin
In this particular song Brown sings about a gorgeous girl which he describes as “poppin.” The remix version to this song features Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana.
6) Damage
This particular song caused a lot of hype because the lyrics talk about the unfortunate event that took place with then girlfriend Rihanna.
7) I Can Transform Ya
This song was inspired by the movie Transformers and talks about being able to provide a woman with any and every thing she could hope for and desire. The song features Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz.
8) Crawl
Crawl was featured in 2009’s Graffiti, and is about losing control over a relationship. When asked, Brown denied claims that the song was in fact about his recent breakup with Rihanna.
9) Yo (Excuse Me Miss)
This track was featured in the video game, “Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party.” The music video had special guests such as Trey Songz, DeRay Davis, and Lil’ JJ.
10) Take You Down
Take Your Down earned Chris Brown a Grammy nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal performance. I cannot agree more – “Take You Down” is no. 1 in my book!
What is your favourite Chris Brown tune?