Chris Brown (July 2005)
Chris Brown: What's up?
MiddleChild: Just chillin man. Chillin. How things going?
Chris Brown: They're going great, man.
MiddleChild: Cool. Well we're going to go ahead and jump right into this. I was just actually watching your video on BET.
Chris Brown: Oh word?
MiddleChild: Yea. You and Juelz getting mad spins on there.
Chris Brown: That's what's up.
MiddleChild: I know. So let me know when the album drops.
Chris Brown: Fall 2005.
MiddleChild: Alright. And who has been your favorite producers you have worked with?
Chris Brown: Bryan Cox..I'll have to say all of them for real. It was Jazze Pha, Cool and Dre, Bryan Cox, Underdogs, Jermaine Dupri, R. Kelly, Carvin and Ivan, Andre and Vidal, and Scott Storch.
MiddleChild: So you did get to work with R. Kelly, huh? I know that was a goal of yours.
Chris Brown: Yea.
MiddleChild: That's cool. So how many songs have you recorded so far for the album?
Chris Brown: Like 48 or 49.
MiddleChild: Oh, you getting your grind on.
Chris Brown: Gotta do it man.(laughs)
MiddleChild: I feel you. So how has your life changed since you dropped "Run It". I mean the video is playing heavy.
Chris Brown: It's been really really hectic. I can walk on the streets, but I have to have my hat real low. Wear my hat real low.(laughs) I mean I'm still the same dude. Like when I would go to Harlem.. I'm not from Harlem, but I used to go out there when I was working with this production team. I used to stay on the Harlem blocks all day, so everybody know me. Most people, when they from a hood they don't really go back to their hood and show love. I'm the type of dude.. matter of fact I was there last week. I played ball in the hood the whole week and just chilled with all of my homies. It be like "Yo. Man, I like how he come back to the hood and show love." I'm not one of them fake type dudes that's scared to go back to where I came from.
MiddleChild: I hear that. SO are you still in school or are you doing like the private tutor type thing?
Chris Brown: Yea. I'm doing the tutor.
MiddleChild: Ok. Your video for "Run It" is getting major burn and you're dancing throughout the video and whatnot...so with you being young and all you of course are getting the Usher comparisons. Just because you're singing...you're dancing.. that's automatic. How does that feel?
Chris Brown: You know what. I like the comparisons, but at the same time you don't always want to be compared to somebody. You want to be your own person. Like with me..I don't want to be everybody else. I want to be me. I want to be "Chris Brown". I want people to compare a new artist to me. I don't want to be like stuck under somebody or for people to think I'm trying to be somebody else. I'm not. I'm trying to be "Chris Brown". Just the same dude from Tappahannock, Virginia. Nobody else.
MiddleChild: I feel that. I know you have been singing since the age of eleven. So who discovered you?
Chris Brown: It was a small town production team I was working with. And from there I went to different writers and little producers. But the first person who discovered me in the industry...that wanted to meet me was my manager, Tina Davis. She worked for Def Jam for like 10 or 11 years and she was the Senior Vice President of A&R. She wanted me to come into the office, so I went into the office and performed for her and L.A. Reid. At the end of the day they wanted to sign me. Tina got bumped from Def Jam, unfortunately. But it was fortunate for us because she became my manager. She took me to Jive, Atlantic, and Warner Brothers to see who would give me a deal. Everybody wanted to sign me. At the end of the day I just picked Jive.
MiddleChild: Interesting. So what was it that turned you on to Jive? Are they giving you creative control of your project? Did it just feel like home? Was it something else?
Chris Brown: It's crazy. They actually gave me complete creative control over my album. Cuz my manager is so creative. We put all our ideas together that it just came out so incredible. Like for my video...I came up with the concept for my video. Although Erik White did the record. I came up with the whole concept and I just put in the treatment for my new video that I'm bout to shoot. So I come up with the concepts for my videos and I've always had different ideas to pop off.
MiddleChild: Ok. So what's the next video and single going to be?
Chris Brown: The new song is going to be "Yo". It's a song called "Yo". You can check it out on my website chrisbrownworld.com
MiddleChild: Oh yea. I've heard that on the sampler. That's got great production on it by Dre and Vidal. They did Ciara's "Oh", so I know you have another hit on your hands.
Chris Brown: Yea, you know it.
MiddleChild: So since you have complete creative control, what would you like us to get from you as an artist? What can we expect from Chris Brown?
Chris Brown: Just alot of music thats been missing in the game. I'm not discrediting any R&B acts but not the typical topics, you feel me? Not the typical "in the club poppin bottles", you feel me? My music is appealing to youngsters,as well as older people. It's that old tenderoni music. That Tevin Campbell feel with a new style of hip hop.
MiddleChild: I hear that. Sounds good. I was hanging with my guy Trey Songz a few weeks ago when he came down for a show. He was telling me that you opened up a few shows for him on the HBCU/Cingular College Tour. How was that experience?
Chris Brown: Yea. That's my homie. I mean we clicked automatically, cuz he from Virginia as well...like 30-40 minutes away from where I'm from. So, like we're familiar with each others areas. Played each others schools in football and stuff. But me and him.. it's like that chemistry.. especially that VA love.. that VA love is unconditional. So we we're just like brothers as soon as we met each other. We just clicked from there.
MiddleChild: Ok. What's your favorite part about hitting the stage?
Chris Brown: My favorite part about hitting the stage is being able to look at the peoples faces once I hit the stage. Like..when I perform there is like this demo that's playing before I even get on the stage and they be like "Where Chris at?" and then I just walk on the stage from no where and they go crazy.
MiddleChild: That's a good feeling, huh?
Chris Brown: It's a great feeling!
MiddleChild: I finally got a chance to see you perform on 106 and Park....and big ups for taking part in the "SOS" Telethon they did for the Katrina victims...
Chris Brown: Gotta do that man. I got to help out.
MiddleChild: You have lots of energy on stage. How long have you been dancing?
Chris Brown: (laughs) It's crazy. I've been dancing in front of the tv since I was two. I actually starting taking dance and music serious when I was like thirteen or fourteen.
MiddleChild: Ok, so who would you like to battle "U Got Served" style?
Chris Brown: Who would I like to battle?
MiddleChild: Yea..(laughs)
Chris Brown: Uhm...I wouldn't like to say I'd like to battle somebody. I'm not the type that like to go at dudes and battle them. I mean dudes try and get at me and battle me, but for the most part I do my thing..they do their thing. I mean..you wanna...you wanna...at the same time you know you got that swagger in your dancing, but it might be that one time you mess up and it's a wrap. (both laugh)
MiddleChild: Oh trust me I know. I done been shut down once or twice. These young ones today be doing movements I ain't even thought about. Be making me feel old.
Chris Brown: I got a lot of different moves that I do just off my strength and my love for dancing, but battling...I can do that if that's what they want,,, whatever the case may be. But for the most part I'm just having fun with it.
MiddleChild: I see. What sets you apart from your peers?
Chris Brown: I would have to say....I'm not going to say that they're not intelligent...but my whole perspective on the game. I look at it as if it's my only shot. Let's do this and make sure it's right. Alot of people tell me that I sound a lot older than I am. So I just look at it alot different.
MiddleChild: Many new artists are worried with being trendy and not trying to have longevity in the game...
Chris Brown: I'm trying to be in it forever....
MiddleChild: (laughs) Making yourself a legend, right?
Chris Brown: Fo'sho.
MiddleChild: Make it happen, playa. Tell me your favorite three songs you've done for the album.
Chris Brown: I would have to say "Yo", "Give Me That", and "Thank You".
MiddleChild: What's "Give Me That" about?
Chris Brown: "Give Me That" is basically talkin to an eighteen year old...well I'm sixteen, so she is nineteen...three years older than me. Basically sayin "you may be three years older than me, but you're hot so give me that". Not going into context about sexual stuff or not being too kiddy and saying "let me take you out". It's out there for you. You take it how you want to take it.
MiddleChild: (laughs) Ok..so how do you take it?
Chris Brown: (laughs) How do I take it? Well..I would have to say..(sings) "Mama you may be three years older, but you hot. Give me that"...So I'm just saying....AHHH!..give me what you got. Give me everything. Word? (laughs)
MiddleChild: (laughs) Ok. I'll take that. Like I said there are alot of new acts to hit come out lately. Which ones are you really feeling?
Chris Brown: I'm respecting what Omarion is doing. I'm loving that "Naked" song by Marques Houston. Usher did his thing this past year and hopefully with his next album is going to be crazy. Mario is doing his thing. Trey Songz is definitely doing his thing. Just alot of different artists. I'm just loving the whole R&B feel... we taking R&B over right now.
MiddleChild: I assume you grew up on some of the older R&B records. Who did you grow up listening to?
Chris Brown: I grew up on Sam Cooke and Michael Jackson... Tevin Campbell, Bobby Brown, New Edition. Anita Baker.
MiddleChild: All that, huh. (laughs) So since you listened to Bobby Brown, please tell me you caught his reality show.
Chris Brown: Oh yea. (laughs) You know I be watching that man. It's crazy.
MiddleChild: You don't even understand. Like, I have no comment on that. Just hilarious. Would you ever do a reality show?
Chris Brown: Actually I would. That was like the first, initial thing we were going to do. Like have a Jessica Simpson thing, but "how to be an artist". That's what I was gonna do, but you know it's not gonna hurt me if I don't have a reality show. Ya feel me?
MiddleChild: I feel ya. You also have writing credits on your album. How long have you been writing?
Chris Brown: They actually made me start writing. I started writing rhymes and raps when I was young, but as far as lyric and melody I was writing as soon as I got in the game. As soon as I met Tina she was like "You gotta write. You gotta start writing".
MiddleChild: And where do you get your motivation from? Was it scary to do at first?
Chris Brown: Actually I didn't know what to write about. But then maybe I had a friend or a cousin who may have told me a story or something about different chicks or something that happened. So I just started putting it all together and write it on out.
MiddleChild: I got ya. Ok. Well before we wrap this up. We're going to play a little game of word association. So When I call out these artists names, you just tell me what comes to mind when I say it. Cool?
Chris Brown: Alright. Fo'sho
MiddleChild: Usher
Chris Brown: My Way
MiddleChild: Ciara
Chris Brown: She got Goodies
MiddleChild: Ginuwine
Chris Brown: Pony
MiddleChild: Janet Jackson
Chris Brown: Pleasure Principle
MiddleChild: Aaliyah
Chris Brown: One In A Million and a legend
MiddleChild: Destiny's Child
Chris Brown: Crazy vocalists
MiddleChild: Chris Brown
Chris Brown: Hopefully the best R&B, young dude that ever came out. (both laugh) I'm just saying hopefully now. I'm not saying I am because I'm not cocky. I'm just saying hopefully.
MiddleChild: I understand. So you're going to hit us off with a tour right?
Chris Brown: Fo'sho man. Anytime.
MiddleChild: That's good. I'll definitely come and check you out when you in my area.
Chris Brown: Alright. Fo'sho.
MiddleChild: Alright. Have a good one Chris.
Chris Brown: You too.
