Christopher Maurice Brown was born on May 5, 1989 in Tappahannock, Virginia to Clinton Brown and Joyce Hawkins. Despite Brown's interest in music at a young age, no other members of his family have been associated with music or the music industry.

Brown's vocal talent became apparent when he performed for local talent shows and in the church choir and his mother sought record deals for her son. When Brown was thirteen, a local production team discovered him while in the area searching for new talent. As a result, Brown moved to New York in 2004 and became associated with Tina Davis, an A&R executive at Def Jam Recordings. After some mergers, Davis lost her job and agreed to manage Brown's career.

Through Davis, Brown was able to get offers from a number of record companies including Jive Records and J-Records. He chose Jive because of their affiliation with lasting careers of younger artists like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. He signed in 2004 and began recording in early 2005 and was released later that same year. The self-titled album, "Chris Brown", debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 list. One of the album's singles, "Run It!", made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 list, the first male act to achieve the top spot on that list. Brown's second album, "Exclusive", was released in 2007 and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200.

Brown's film and television career began in 2007 with an appearance on The O.C as a band geek and later as a dancer in the movie Stomp the Yard.

Brown was scheduled to appear at the 2009 Grammy Awards but withdrew at the last minute. It later surfaced that Brown had allegedly attacked a woman and made criminal threats. A few days after the attack, news organizations released photos of Brown's then-girlfriend, Rihanna, who had supposedly been the victim. Chargers were brought against Brown who turned himself in to the authorities and sentencing was scheduled for August 5, 2009.

See also Famous Chris Brown Quotes