Can't be arsed to scan in the cover, but it's the one with Giselle on the front. Did three pieces for the mag this issue, so here they are but you should really go get cos there's a whole heap of hot stuff in that issue.
Here's the Chris Brown one, first off.
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He may be just sweet 16, but R&B newcomer Chris Brown isn’t your average bump-n-grind teen.
Chris Brown feels weird. Something, he mutters, brow furrowed, is amiss. “I don’t have my basketball shorts on,” he realises with a slap of his head, fumbling about his baggy jeans to double check. “I always got them on underneath in case a game springs up. I like to be prepared, ya know?” There may not be a b-ball court for miles, but Brown’s ever-ready attitude is hardly surprising; this is a kid who’s been waiting for something else his entire 16 years.
Born in the teeny tiny town of Tappahanock, Virginia, Brown has long dreamt of the bigger picture that was busy living life to the full outside the confines of his humble hometown. “It’s very, very country, like 2000 people live there so everyone knows everyone,” Brown says in his Dirty South drawl. “But we have our problems still,” he adds of the town that deals with poverty and its violent byproduct on a regular basis. “I didn’t want to be a victim of a gunshot. Whether that was as an innocent bystander or as a mischievous kid, cos if you stay in the streets long enough, you’re gonna have a problem with somebody eventually. My friend got shot like that.”
Concentrating instead on making music and creating his Japanese Animé inspired cartoon characters, Brown hooked up with local management team Mystery who helped refine his raw talent into something more marketable. When he was ready, they took the wannabe R&Ber to New York where he soon found himself in the enviable position of turning down several major record deals, including one from LA ‘Def Jam’ Reid. “I just felt at home with Jive,” he shrugs of choosing the house of Britney n Justin with its proven track record of transforming Mini-Poppers into fully-grown superstars. “Nothing against LA or anyone else, but Jive felt right. I’m looking at the long term for sure. I think the key to making it from kid singer to adult icon is to keep focus and love what you do,” he says with the seasoned swagger of a kid twice his age.
Work on his self-titled debut began immediately and Brown soon found himself popping his vocal-chords for hit-makers like Scott Storch (Dr Dre, Lil Kim), Cool & Dre (Fat Joe) and Jermaine Dupri (Usher, Mariah). Chris is keen to point out that while there was some help in the songwriting department, unlike most pop-tarts he penned a number of records himself. “I was involved in like 50% of the lyrics because I wanted to really explain my perspective as a young kid growing up. I was like any other teen; getting into trouble but trying to do the right thing.” The end result was so scorching the cocksure kid could even afford to return R Kelly tracks back to their creator. “I was real glad to work with him, but we didn’t take a track from R this time,” Brown reveals. “We felt we could get a better one later on down the road from Mr Kelly.” There’s the cheeky chat-up of body-popper Yo, the smoothed out song-cry I Seen The Light and ferocious lead single Run It with its crunked out keys and a hot 16 from rap royalty Juelz Santana. “Honestly, I didn‘t want a rapper on that song,” admits Chris. “But when my manager suggested Santana, it made perfect sense,”
Inevitably perhaps, comparisons have been drawn between Brown and Reid’s former protégé, Usher as well as Mario, Omarion and countless other wash-board balladeers with a fine line in dance moves. “I like it, but I want to be known as Chris Brown, me,” he states. “I’m not coming in the game trying to be a clone of whoever did it before. No one wants to be second best.” In fact, he decides, he’d far rather be described as his alter-ego and animated muse, Charlie Brown. “We’re the same,” he smirks. “No one wants to be Charlie Brown, that’s the whole Charlie Brown thing. But I do. If you watch the cartoon, nobody likes Charlie Brown, so I wanted to be that outcast but at the same time, be that star,” he says perplexingly before trying to clarify himself. ”An outcast and a star at the same time. I want to stand out.”
At his showcase the previous evening, the 6’2 cutie has no problem getting the gaggle of girls on his side. “You’re sexy,” screams one as he grins goofily and bumps and grinds with extra verve. “It’s funny,” he says after. “Before, I had to run up to a girl and try and talk to her, but now I can lay back and they come and talk to me. I don’t know why that is…” he deadpans.
With the chutzpah to turn down deals from majors and songs from the Pied Piper, Brown is far from laurel-resting. Resides plans for “diamond” record sales, the guy has more than mere music on his mind. An all-singing, all-dancing, b-ball playing cartoonist, Brown has plans for a clothing line, with acting, computer game and comic strips in the bag. “I know you hear everybody say they wanna do this and that, but my whole concept is different. I’m going to amalgamate everything; incorporate my artwork into my clothing line; Picasso for pants.”
With work on Chris Brown: The Brand in full swing, you have to wonder where this kid gets his drive from “It’s probably looking back at my home town and seeing I don’t want to be there,” he concludes. “I don’t want to go back like ‘Yeah I did that song, yeah I was on TV, so what, now I gotta go work at McDonalds.’ I’m an intelligent 16 year old. Don’t under-estimate me,” he warns. “Although I’m young, I’ve got an old spirit.”
Album out now.
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