The Scandal
I know, you're probably reading this right now thinking "Wait, there was a scandal involving Chris Brown? I've heard nothing of this!" So let me be the first to tell you ... Chris Brown punched Rihanna. In the face. Hard. A lot of times.
The fact that the beating took place the night before both stars were set to perform at the 2009 Grammy Awards, along with Brown's arrest on felony charges and the brutal images of Rhianna's battered face, led to an immediate and intense media circus. Overnight, Chris Brown went from squeaky clean Wrigley's gum and milk spokesperson to the most reviled man in music.It seemed as if he had maybe another month or two on the entertainment planet before he finally departed in the same rocket that took Vanilla Ice to wherever he's been exiled to for the beating he gave the good name of rap music.
Why It Should Have Destroyed Him
"Don't hit women" is like a basic principle of male behavior. Those who don't abide by it are rightfully outcast as a lower form of person. And that's just when a regular dude hits a regular woman. But we're talking about a pop princess who was signed by Jay-Z here (I mean Rihanna, by the way).
Damn if we weren't wrong about that! Chris Brown stayed out of the public eye approximately as long as it took to record a new album. He then released that album, released a bunch of videos and went on tour, because when life hands you a reputation as a woman beater who deserves to hide in shame for the rest of his days, you just fucking punch that in the face too and carry on, apparently.
And gradually, people fell for it. Before long, Chris Brown was doing talk shows and performing on award shows and even winning awards. Sure, pockets of resistance still pop up on the Internet, and he's even dumb enough to try and respond to them sometimes, but when it comes to the career of Chris Brown, for all intents and purposes, the Rihanna incident might as well have never happened.
And if you're still holding out hope that Chris Brown will somehow suffer a fatal blow to his singing career as a result of his unsavory treatment of Rihanna, I regret to inform you that the exact opposite thing is about to happen. Rihanna's most recent album, Unapologetic, includes a song called "Nobody's Business" that features, on co-lead vocals, you guessed it, Chris Brown. And if recent news reports are correct, it's going to be her next single.
Ike Turner would be proud.
