Chris Brown Is Good At... Dancing?

REASONS WHY CHRIS BROWN IS OVERRATED.

Lately, a lot of people have been making pretty bold claims about Chris Brown...
"THE FUTURE OF R&B"
"THE NEW USHER"
And Billboard Magazine (!!!) actually had the audacity to call him "the King of Pop" on their cover.

WHAT???????

Wait JUST a second.

What exactly has Chris Brown done to deserve all of this acclaim?

Sure, a few years ago when Chris Brown first came onto the scene, I was impressed. Here was a young kid, about 16 years old, that was holding it down with a smash hit ("Run It!"), killer dance moves, and impressive vocal runs. His first album, Chris Brown was pretty solid R&B. Young and poppy, yes. But GOOD R&B.

Then something happened.

For one thing, he grew up. Obviously this was unavoidable, but it changed the dynamic.

No longer was this an innocent, talented kid. Suddenly, this was a cocky young man with an overly-inflated ego. And I don't think that's an arguable statement based on opinion. There's no question that after his first few hits, Chris Brown's "confidence" increased ten-fold.

Ok, fine. That's what happens with success to most everyone. When swarms of women are screaming your name and crying at the sight of you, you might get a little proud.

The reason why this is a problem is because I truly no longer see the talent to back it.

Something that people like to forget is that the first single off Chris Brown's most recent album, Exclusive, last summer's "Wall To Wall," tanked hard. Expectations were high and a mediocre song was released. Luckily for Brown, "Kiss Kiss" was the follow-up and that did extremely well, but what is important to note is that Brown did not immediately come hard with his second album. Because of the first single difficulty, the album was pushed several times. Also, Brown was said to have named the album "Exclusive" because he said it was an "exclusive" for his fans. But how is releasing an album to the public in any way "exclusive"??? What does that even mean? I think he just liked the word "exclusive"...

In any case, aside from initial bland material, my real problem with Chris Brown is his voice. When he first came out, he had a really great voice and had some damn good runs going on on that first record. Unfortunately, it seems that puberty has NOT been good for Brown's vocal capabilities, because these days Brown is auto-tuned nearly as much as T-Pain. Is this only temporary or did his voice not survive the transition from boy to man? Only time will tell. What we DO know, however, is that most of his performances are lip-synched and his vocals on his records are heavily processed.

What Brown is most often heralded for is his dancing and performances (which of course, do not feature live vocals). His dancing is pretty fantastic. That much is clear. But at times, it's also kind of goofy looking.

So really, the hype around Chris Brown is based on solid material and slick dancing. This begs the question: is this really enough to make one "the future of R&B"???

History has shown that stylized artists do not last long. Styles change, and these artists don't have the substance to change with them.

If Chris Brown could go out on stage without a posse of dancers, without a loud beat, without pre-recorded vocals, and belt out some classic R&B the way Usher or Boyz II Men or R Kelly or Brian McKnight or even Michael Jackson can/could, then I would have a lot more faith in him. But quite frankly, he cannot.

What will happen when his following of horny teenage girls move on to the next big thing? Does Chris Brown have the talent to continue to grow and evolve? I'm really not sure.

The Usher comparisons bother me the most. Even Usher has said Chris Brown is the next him. While the similarities do exist: young, black, highly sexualized, dancing R&B singer; Usher could always belt it out on a slow jam when necessary. He would stand at a mic stand, and belt out "Nice & Slow" or "U Got It Bad." Chris Brown has to DANCE to his slow songs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is a problem for me.

I want to like Chris Brown. I really did like Chris Brown a lot at first. But if he is going to be around in 5 years, and even SOMEWHAT live up to the hype around him, he needs to pull it together and find some substance. His new single, "Forever," may be in high rotation in my iPod, but Chris Brown the artist is not.

- Originally Posted: 6/24/08 3:07pm -