By Rebecca Thomas
Chris Brown released the visuals for "Look at Me Now" last March, and shortly afterwards he jokingly told MTV News that it was his "first rap video." Despite his sense of humor about it, however, Brown was serious about the track giving him a chance to showcase his rhyming skills.
Featured guest Lil Wayne gave the pop and R&B singer a co-sign, famously telling Rolling Stone that he would stop at letting Brown spit on his own record, insisting, "I cannot have Chris Brown rapping on Tha Carter IV." Weezy offered this by way of explanation: "Do you know how many rappers would be like, 'I can't get on Tha Carter IV, but this n---a put Chris Brown on that bitch? Rapping?' "
Well, Chris wasn't going to sit around waiting Wayne to give him a feature. Having made enough believers out of the chart-topping track, he decided to keep it coming.
"I didn't sing on the record at all. It just was a rap song," Brown told us when he visited the MTV Newsroom last week, incidentally, hours before he found himself at the center of a bottle brawl with rapper Drake. "So I was like, 'Cool, if they going with it, I'm gonna keep going.' "
Freestyles followed as Chris shored up his rap cred. And on the upcoming Fortune, he put the growth on display, teaming up again with F.A.M.E. collaborators Big Sean and Wiz Khalifa for the drum-laced "Till I Die."
But Team Breezy shouldn't worry that Chris plans to quit crooning. Though he has the full blessing of his (initially reluctant) management team to craft sweet 16s, he's just having a good time. "With the hip-hop and the rapping, it's more of — I wouldn't say [a] hobby — it's just me expressing myself.
"I'm not going to sit here and say I'm the best rapper or I'm a rapper," he added with a big smile. "I'm just saying I could do it, I guess, if y'all like it."
How do you rate Chris' skills as an MC? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
