The week
"Run It!" was released, it went straight to the top of the
Billboard Hot 100 and became the first single from a male artist to debut at that spot. That's no slight feat, especially for a reheated version of
Usher's
"Yeah!" made by a fresh-faced teenager who reps a little town in Virginia that rhymes with "grab a hammock." On
"Run It!," Chris Brown is boosted by production from
Scott Storch and an appearance by
Juelz Santana. The song's way of tempering
Brown's small-town innocence with hard-edged backing and a guest spot from an MC of ill repute is clearly a strategy to make the singer appeal to more than tween girls. (Had
Brown been coming up in the early '90s,
Quincy Jones -- not
Dr. Dre -- might've produced him and
Prince -- not
Luther Campbell -- might've assisted, which just goes to show how much
R&B has changed in 15 years.)
Chris Brown, a durable debut album, almost always involves an even push-and-pull between what appeals to kids who don't consider street credibility and those who do, all the way down to the visuals: check the album cover, featuring the singer's strained "Don't mess with me!" face, and compare it to the photo spread inside, featuring
Brown's natural "Pinch my cheeks!" face. He doesn't often try to sound harder or more demonstrative than necessary, unlike a lot of singers his age who have sprouted during the late '90s and early 2000s, and he rarely oversteps the kind of romantic territory that most teens find relatable. Toughness comes instead from the beats, whether they're provided by
the Underdogs,
Dre & Vidal,
Cool & Dre, or the overworked
Storch. While
Brown's audience will be almost exclusively 18 and under, few of his fans will feel sheepish in owning this album. He's a refreshing presence, a high-schooler who's neither as family friendly as
Will Smith nor as comically vulgar as
Pretty Ricky. ~ Andy Kellman
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