In a series of Instagram stories, the singer—who is also a domestic abuser and an alleged rapist—attacked Robert Glasper, who beat Brown to the Best R&B Album award.
You might be surprised to learn that Chris Brown, the alleged serial rapist, actually seems to be a rather bitter loser.
Brown’s Instagram stories blew up with a series of cartoonishly infantile postings insulting Glasper and criticizing the Recording Academy for allegedly snubbing him shortly after he lost the Best R&B Album award to renowned pianist Robert Glasper.
In one post, Brown writes, “Yall playing,” beneath a picture of Glasper. Who the hell is this? He writes, “I’m going to keep kickin’ yo ass! Respectfully,” (awesome!) and “jokes” about how perhaps he should pick up the harmonica to gain recognition similar to that of Glasper Mind you, this man is 33 years old, and as many have noted, this is far not his first defeat: It seems inappropriate to vent fury on Glasper when, as one Twitter user put it, “those 19 Ls are the true enemy” because he has only won one Grammy out of 20 nominations.
In any event, although we’re all compelled to discuss Brown against our will, I should note that Brown’s breakdown and the several questions he posed—specifically, “who the fuck is Robert Glasper?”—raise problems of their own. Specifically: Why, if at all, was Brown nominated for a Grammy? At this point, I don’t have high hopes for the program; on the same evening that Brown whined about being overlooked, Dave Chappelle won Best Comedy Album for his one-hour anti-trans humor special, The Closer, in which he flaunted his odd obsession with trans women’s genitalia. But only a year ago, Brown was charged with drugging and raping a woman on a Miami yacht. Prior to that, he was charged with raping a woman in Paris in 2019 after being accused of punching a lady in the face in 2016. In response to Brown’s abusive and threatening communications to his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran, she was awarded a five-year restraining order against him in 2017. And maybe most infamously, in 2009, he beat up his ex-girlfriend Rihanna.
These accusations are only the very beginning of Brown’s long history of abusing and assaulting women. The fact that Brown made merchandise ridiculing the women who claim he assaulted them and sold “That Bitch Lyin” t-shirts for $38 shortly after the 2019 Paris rape allegation speaks for itself.
At this point, criticizing organizations like the Recording Academy—or really any other organizations and entertainment industry leaders responsible for honors like the Grammys—for breaking their MeToo-era promises is like pounding a dead horse. Kelly Rowland defended Chris Brown in a vague, meaningless rant about how we all deserve “forgiveness” and “grace”—apparently even when we haven’t apologized and instead sold t-shirts mocking our alleged victims—when she accepted the favorite male R&B artist award on Brown’s behalf at the American Music Awards in November. Before that, only months after we learned of a series of heartbreaking disclosures regarding his alleged abuse toward ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp strangely made a surprise appearance at the VMAs last summer. More recently, despite being accused of abusing his ex-wife Angelina Jolie and their children on a plane, Brad Pitt was the talk of the Golden Globes.
The claims against Brown, though, are so disturbing and numerous that I’m still in disbelief that he was even nominated for Best R&B Album, and no one seemed to even blink. Maybe this outburst will be the death knell for him?