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Bobby Brown

Born in 1969 in Boston, MA

Bobby Brown's Genre:

New Jack Swing, R&B, Contemporary R&B, Urban, Dance-Pop, Club/Dance, Electronic

Biography

One of the brightest R&B stars of the late '80s and early '90s, Bobby Brown was the performer who popularized new jack swing, a blend of classic soul, synth-funk, and hip-hop rhythms that often featured rap breaks in between the conventionally melodic verses and choruses. Guy's Teddy Riley may have been new jack's greatest innovator, but Brown was its greatest hitmaker, crossing over to pop audiences with his blockbuster Don't Be Cruel album and thus making new jack swing the dominant trend in R&B through the early '90s (which, in turn, helped kick-start the solo careers of his former bandmates in New Edition). As R&B tastes changed, Brown became better known for his private life than his music; a sometimes rocky marriage to Whitney Houston and a series of run-ins with the law kept him in the tabloid headlines for most of the '90s and 2000s, even though he wasn't actually recording much music.

Brown was born February 5, 1969, in Boston, and began singing with Roxbury schoolmates Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell in 1978. The group developed into New Edition and, after a few talent show wins, was discovered by producer Maurice Starr. Starr signed the group to his label and co-authored its debut hit, "Candy Girl," which helped get New Edition a deal with MCA. After a few years of teen stardom, Brown longed to move on to an adult solo career, and left New Edition in 1986. He 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 another ballad, "Rock Wit'cha," all hit the Top Ten 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. In 1990, 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 many of Brown's former New Edition colleagues at the forefront: Bell Biv Devoe, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant. 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 superstar diva 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 Five on the former. However, Bobby didn't sustain the momentum of Don't Be Cruel; perhaps it didn't stand out from the pack the way Don't Be Cruel had in 1988. 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 -- which were compounded by substance abuse issues -- over the next several years.

After a number of incidents that included a club brawl, a battery charge that led to probation, a drunk-driving accident, and a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic, Brown found time to record with the fully reunited New Edition, whose comeback album, Home Again, entered the charts at number one in September 1996. Brown toured with the group, but departed when the tour was over. The tabloids, meanwhile, had a field day over Brown and Houston's rumored marital problems. Brown released his fourth solo album, Forever, in 1997, but it was a commercial disappointment that failed to break the Top 50.

In 2005, he rejoined New Edition once more, broke off with fellow members Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant as the touring act Heads of State, and starred in the BET reality program Being Bobby Brown. Shortly after the show's brief run, he and Houston divorced. A few months after Houston's February 2012 death, Brown released his fifth solo album, The Masterpiece. ~ Steve Huey

AOL Radio Stations Bobby Brown is Featured on (12)

Boston Strong

The residents of Boston have had a heartbreaking and difficult week. Today, Slacker is paying tribute to the resilient residents of one of the greatest cities in the world the only way we know how: via the universal language of music. On this station you'll hear the greatest musical artists to come from Boston, and there's a ton of them. The music spans many genres and eras, but they are all united by one thing: they are all Boston Strong.

Old School R&B

Old School R&B on Slacker Radio is the station that will put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip! You'll hear all the classics from Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Motown, to Earth, Wind and Fire, The Gap Band and Kool and the Gang, to Michael Jackson, Prince and Rick James, to Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Boyz II Men. Old School R&B on Slacker Radio will not only keep you singing along with a smile on your face but will make you get up and shake it.

Whitney Houston Tribute

This station is the musical story of Whitney Houston. You'll hear the artists that influenced her, like her cousin Dionne Warwick, her Godmother Aretha Franklin, and her mother Cissy Houston. You'll also hear the artists that she had a profound impact on including singers like her friend Mariah Carey, aspiring divas like Christina Aguilera, and the next generation of great voices like Beyonce and Rihanna. Join Slacker Radio as we pay tribute to one of the greatest and most inspirational voices of all time.

Michael Jackson Tribute

Since the passing of Michael Jackson on June 25, 2009, the World has mourned the loss of this Pop icon. Join Slacker Radio in celebrating the incredible music legacy of one of the biggest and most influential Pop music stars of our time. Hear songs from Michael Jackson's most popular albums as well as his early years with the Jackson 5. You'll also hear covers of MJ’s music and hits from artists that are influenced by the King of Pop including Justin Timberlake, Usher, Ne-Yo, Alicia Keys and more.

Patrick Stump Showcase

This is the Patrick Stump Artist Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune-in to hear music hand-picked by Patrick as well as commentary about the songs that influenced his music and his life.

R&B

Slacker R&B is built upon a vast library of sexy music for sexy people, centering on the past 15 years of hits. You'll hear the biggest songs of today, as well as the tunes you've been grooving to since the mid-nineties--with a bit of old school flavor and a lot of surprises.

'80s Hits

80's Hits takes the biggest hits from the decade of big hair and music videos and puts it together on one station. From the new wave of Duran Duran, to the arena rock of Def Leppard, from the end of disco to the beginning of hip hop (remember Tone Loc?), it's all on 80's Hits.

Classic Soul

Classic Soul on Slacker Radio celebrates some of the greatest music ever made, spanning almost 40 years of smooth, soulful tunes that'll make you feel the true power and passion of music.

Chicano Old School

Chicano Old School on Slacker means classic Latin Soul, Oldies & R&B. All the rolas you loved over the years, and a soundtrack to chill with while hanging out with the homies. OG Jams from Santana, El Chicano, War, Tierra, Malo, Brenton Wood, Billy Stewart, Earth Wind & Fire, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Rose Royce, The Stylistics, Zapp & Roger, and more. Cruise to this- Old School Chicano on Slacker.

Bobby Brown's Selected Discography (19)

Artists Related to Bobby Brown (50)

	New Edition	New Edition's early, Jackson 5-inspired material made them the forerunners of two generations of teen pop (most of which was geared to white audiences).
	Janet Jackson	Few celebrity siblings can emerge from the shadows of their already famous relations to become superstars in their own right and with their own distinct personalities.
	Keith Sweat	Keith Sweat, a Harlem-born R&B singer/songwriter known for his distinctive "whining" vocal style, co-produced 1984/1985 singles by GQ and Roberta Gilliam and issued independent singles of his own ("Lucky Seven" and "My Mind Is Made Up"), but he didn't release his debut full-length, Make It Last Forever, until November 1987.
	Prince	Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. During the '80s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock.
	Johnny Gill	A singer behind eight solo and duet Top Ten R&B hits, as well as a member of New Edition since 1987, Johnny Gill was born in Washington, D.
	Michael Jackson	Michael Jackson was unquestionably the biggest pop star of the '80s, and certainly one of the most popular recording artists of all time.
	Boyz II Men	According to no less an authority than the RIAA, Boyz II Men are the most commercially successful R&B group of all time.
	Kool & the Gang	Formed as a jazz ensemble in the mid-'60s, Kool & the Gang became one of the most inspired and influential funk units during the '70s, and one of the most popular R&B groups of the '80s after their breakout hit "Celebration" in 1979.
	The Isley Brothers	First formed in the early '50s, the Isley Brothers enjoyed one of the longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music -- over the course of nearly a half century of performing, the group's distinguished history spanned not only two generations of Isley siblings but also massive cultural shifts which heralded their music's transformation from gritty R&B to Motown soul to blistering funk.
	Rick James	In the late '70s, when the fortunes of Motown Records seemed to be flagging, Rick James came along and rescued the company, providing funky hits that updated the label's style and saw it through into the mid-'80s.
	Earth, Wind & Fire	Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially popular funk bands of the '70s.
	Zapp	One of the most underrated funk groups of the 1980s, Zapp revolutionized the computer pop of electro with their trademark vocoder talk boxes and bumping grooves, emulating the earthier side of Prince and Cameo, with a leader in Roger Troutman who was more than efficient at polished production.
	The Gap Band	The Gap Band, centered around brothers Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson, toiled in obscurity for several years prior to becoming one of the most popular funk groups of the late '70s and 1980s.
	Babyface	As a singer, producer, and songwriter, Babyface was an inescapable presence in virtually every major facet of pop music during the '90s.
	Freddie Jackson	To urban contemporary listeners, Freddie Jackson was one of the biggest stars of the latter half of the '80s, dominating the R&B charts seemingly at will.
	Marvin Gaye	One of the most gifted, visionary, and enduring talents ever launched into orbit by the Motown hit machine, Marvin Gaye blazed the trail for the continued evolution of popular black music.
	The Jackson 5	The Jackson 5 were one of the biggest phenomenons in pop music during the early '70s, and the last great group to come out of the Motown hitmaking machine before Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder shifted the label's focus to more individual visions.
	Whitney Houston	Whitney Houston was inarguably one of the biggest female pop stars of all time. Her accomplishments as a hitmaker were extraordinary; just to scratch the surface, she became the first artist ever to have seven consecutive singles hit number one, and her 1993 Dolly Parton cover "I Will Always Love You" became nothing less than the biggest hit single in rock history.
	Stevie Wonder	Stevie Wonder is a much-beloved American icon and an indisputable genius not only of R&B but popular music in general.
	Luther Vandross	Luther Vandross was one of the most successful R&B artists of the 1980s and '90s. Not only did he score a series of multi-million-selling albums containing chart-topping hit singles and perform sold-out tours of the U.
	Toni Braxton	Toni Braxton was one of the most popular and commercially successful female R&B singers of the '90s, thanks to her ability to straddle seemingly opposite worlds.
	Al Green	Al Green was the first great soul singer of the '70s and arguably the last great Southern soul singer.
	The Temptations	Thanks to their fine-tuned choreography -- and even finer harmonies -- the Temptations became the definitive male vocal group of the 1960s; one of Motown's most elastic acts, they tackled both lush pop and politically charged funk with equal flair, and weathered a steady stream of changes in personnel and consumer tastes with rare dignity and grace.
	The O'Jays	The O'Jays were one of Philadelphia soul's most popular and long-lived outfits, rivaled only by the Spinners as soul's greatest vocal group of the '70s.
	Commodores	Renowned for the R&B hits "Just to Be Close to You," "Easy," and "Brickhouse," to name but a few, Commodores were one of the top bands during their long tenure at Motown.
	Atlantic Starr	Atlantic Starr was among the top urban contemporary acts of the '80s and fared well in the adult contemporary market as well, but their roots were '70s soul and funk.
	Barry White	Say the name Barry White and you'd be hard pressed to follow it with the name of any other recording artist with such a huge, cross-sectional following.
	DeBarge	Groomed to be the heirs to the Jackson 5 throne in the early '80s, DeBarge mirrored the Jacksons early success with a string of hits, but were unable to sustain their winning streak.
	Midnight Star	The synth-funk unit Midnight Star scored several times on the charts during the mid-'80s, led by their double-platinum album No Parking on the Dance Floor in 1983.
	Cameo	An outlandish, in-your-face stage presence, a strange sense of humor, and a hard-driving funk sound that criss-crossed a few musical boundaries earned Cameo countless comparisons to Parliament/Funkadelic in their early days.
	Gerald LeVert	A contemporary soul singer whose smooth yet robust vocals brought energy and emotion to even his most serene recordings, Gerald LeVert grew up in the shadows of his father, Eddie LeVert, Sr.
	L.T.D.	Long-running funk outfit L.T.D. -- Love, Togetherness and Devotion -- was formed in Greensboro, NC in 1968 by keyboardist Jimmie "J.
	Teena Marie	No white artist sang R&B more convincingly than Teena Marie, whose big, robust vocals were so black-sounding that when she was starting out, some listeners wondered if she was a light-skinned African-American.
	R. Kelly	R&B producer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter R. Kelly and his supporting band Public Announcement began recording in 1992 at the tail-end of the new jack swing era, yet he was able to keep much of its sound alive while remaining commercially successful.
	LeVert	The son of O'Jays founder Eddie Levert, R&B vocalist Gerald Levert launched his own recording career in the mid-'80s as the leader of the group LeVert.
	Heatwave	Completely cosmopolitan with international grooves to spare, Heatwave emerged as one of the disco era's funkiest dance groups.
	Ready for the World	A Michigan funk band with slight rock leanings, Ready for the World parlayed Melvin Riley's whining vocals and some trendy production into a pair of number one R&B hits in the mid-'80s for MCA.
	Lionel Richie	After leaving the Commodores, Lionel Richie became one of the most successful male solo artists of the '80s, arguably eclipsed during his 1981-1987 heyday only by Michael Jackson and Prince.
	Chaka Khan	Best known in the mainstream for her superb 1984 cover of Prince's "I Feel for You," R&B singer Chaka Khan enjoyed solo success as well as popularity as a member of the group Rufus.
	Jodeci	If Boyz II Men are portrayed as a clean-cut, wholesome R&B vocal group, then Jodeci's wild, sexual, bad-boy image represents the other side of the coin.
	Shalamar	Shalamar was the creation of Dick Griffey, the booking agent for the television R&B program Soul Train, and British R&B producer Simon Soussan.
	Anita Baker	With her classy, refined brand of romantic soul, Anita Baker was one of the definitive quiet storm singers of the '80s.
	Tony! Toni! Toné!	Brothers Dwayne and Raphael Wiggins and cousin Timothy Christian have proven themselves durable guardians of the soul and funk tradition, while also infusing their music with enough contemporary devices to remain popular.
	Aretha Franklin	Aretha Franklin is one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged.
	Teddy Pendergrass	Teddy Pendergrass started singing gospel music in Philadelphia churches, becoming an ordained minister at ten years old.
	Maze	Combining a Philadelphia soul sound with a strong appreciation of Marvin Gaye, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly was among the top R&B acts of the late '70s and '80s.
	Stephanie Mills	Stephanie Mills first came to fame as "the little girl with the big voice" as the star of the hit Broadway play, The Wiz, an adaptation of L.
	The Time	From their origins as Prince's first pet project to their self-produced funk-rock oeuvre, the Time has been a fascinating and outrageous congregation.
	The Stylistics	After the Spinners and the O'Jays, the Stylistics were the leading Philly soul group produced by Thom Bell.
	Smokey Robinson & the Miracles	Scoring over 40 hits in the R&B Top 40 charts, the Miracles started out as the Five Chimes in the mid-'50s while the members were still in high school.