Looks like 20-year-old hip-hop star Chris Brown, whose next album will be called “Graffiti”, will be picking up trash and helping remove graffiti in Richmond Virginia. That is, if a Los Angeles judge approves the plan, after she sentenced the young man to five years of probation and six months’ worth of community service.
Brown wants to do the community service near his home town, away from the bright lights and insatiable celebrity media in L-A.
In case you don’t follow cheap, trashy showbiz news, and I usually avoid it, you may not be aware that the young man beat the crap out of his ex-girlfriend, a lady who goes by the name of “Rihanna” (her middle name) who purportedly sings and models. It was all big news when it happened back in February just before the Grammy Awards.
There’s always violence at music awards shows now. Just ask the folks in Milwaukee, who had a shooting at an awards show a few days ago.
True to form, after he clobbered Rihanna senseless, Brown hired Michael Jackson’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, to help him capitalize on his violence and attain more “street cred”, which is critical to success in the circles in which Mr. Brown travels.
The next step, after being convicted, of course, is to either go to rehab or go on a national TV talk show. Or both. Brown was on Larry King’s show the other day, saying he didn’t remember what happened. Then, of course, when the media railed at that, he said he “misspoke” and now, of course, it’s all coming back to him.
Yes, I’m sarcastic.
This sort of thing happens far too often. Some “star” gets out of control and then hires some pricey lawyer or PR-miester to “counsel” them. I still recall a 1997 incident, involving another one of Milwaukee’s notorious sons, basketball player Latrell Sprewell.
He took exception to a suggestion from his Golden State Warriors coach, P J Carlesimo, that he “put a little more mustard“ on his passes. He viciously attacked Carlesimo. Had it not been for other players who intervened to pry Sprewell’s hands from Coach Carlesimo’s throat, Sprewell would have probably choked the coach to death.
A day or so later, one of Sprewell’s sycophants characterized the incident as coach Carlesimo ramming his throat into Sprewell’s hands, with no consideration whatsoever for the hoops star’s well-being.
The team suspended him for ten days, but a few days later, when the incident got more widely publicized (it took a day or so back in the late 90’s), the NBA essentially suspended him for the rest of the season. A few days after the suspension, Sprewell was charged with reckless driving in a car accident that hurt two other people. He was on his best behavior.
In sports, the bad-boys sit out while, and then get hired again, ala Michael Vick. In hip-hop, outrageously unacceptable anti-social behavior is rewarded financially.
Don’t even get me started again on Hannah Montana’s stripper-pole dance at that music awards show a few weeks ago……
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