Chris Brown (CD - 2005)

Based on the runaway success of his first single, "Run It!" it was clear that 16-year-old Chris Brown was onto something. The song, which rides a pulsing hip-hop beat with Brown's smoothly styled R&B vocals coming in over the top, shot straight to the top of the charts, virtually guaranteeing an ecstatic reception for his full-length self-titled debut.

Brown lights upon a clever formula here by combining edgy tracks with a sultry urban-contemporary delivery, and bringing to that mixture the fresh-faced innocence of teen pop acts. (In the photo spread inside the CD's booklet, Brown is dressed in what looks like a Boy Scout uniform.) Like Usher, whom he resembles in some respects, Brown's music is likely to make 15-year-old girls swoon, yet there is a vitality here (thanks in part to high-end production by Scott Storch, the Underdogs, and others) and a musical sophistication that promises even better things to come from this young upstart.

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 minimize