Bobby Brown Could Have Ruled The 90s But Chose Drugs & Complacency Instead...

[Ziggiy]

Nah breh Ralph and the rest of NE definitely were using coke, including Johnny. The reasons Ralph wasn't huge in the 90s was because his drug issues and also he wanted to write AND produce his own music. That's where he went wrong. He absolutely needed the likes of Jam & Lewis, Babyface, Teddy, or some of the up and coming super producers of the 90s overseeing his projects. People like to say is because of his gentleman persona and the 90s were all about the street image but they're wrong because Ginuwine was damn near a carbon copy of Rizz and he basically took his spot. You can replace G with Ralph on Ginuwine's first 3 albums and you get the same or better results.

This kind of true. Even the NE TV movie hinted that Ralph wanted to go the Prince route and basically do his own thing. I respect that, I really do. But its always a toss up when you go the Prince route. There’s nobody to fall back on

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Coli A&Rs bombing away
@thedevilyouknow you a fukking bassmentdwelling moron, nothing more

My nikka

 

[DoomzdayzV]

Bobby was a vastly inferior musician to R Kelly...........its not even close.

 

[wizworld]

Do y'all ever consider that he had bad ADHD?

For a lot of Black boys it seems to leads down the road of self medicating. Many of our people didn't even believe it was a real thing in the 80's & 90's.

Chris Brown probably dealing with the same but he created an environment where he can hyper actively record songs. Dude is dropping 30+ song albums and doing jump kicks on stage.

Death Row tailored the recording process to Tupac's hyperactive nature and he did a ton of quality songs.

DMX had a platinum album and had another one ready to go that same year.

Bob probably needed the same type of environment but it may not have made sense back then when albums only had 9 songs. Also he wasn't writing the songs, so that would have been another issue.

Anyway the hyperactive types always tend to get in more BS and burn out faster, the situation isn't so simple that we can say "he chose drugs over the music".

 

[lurker emeritus]

as someone else said, i think bobby overachieved
he wasn't a true front man, he became one by accident (getting kicked out the group)
in that bet new edition interview, at the height of his success, he was talking about still wanting to be involved with the group

then he literally became ralph tresvant's hype man and back up dancer


he also became a part time feature rapper


and took part in the mini ne reunion

he should have been using that time to construct his follow up album
but he let mj steal and kill his thunder
again he wasn't a true front man
i mean, this is the same guy that became mr. houston
and took a back seat to whitney's career
remember, don't be cruel was the highest selling album of 1989

he is absolutely a legend no debate if you was in tune with rnb during that time, but what i'd like to know is what led to him getting his own boulevard named after him in atl since he is from boston

not sure exactly why, but fun fact:
people always give la and babyface credit for their migration to atlanta to launch laface and tap the talent there but
bobby brown moved there first and they followed on bobby's advice as they were closely dealing with him during that time
he definitely was important to the city

 

[director_of_bands]

not sure exactly why, but fun fact:
people always give la and babyface credit for their migration to atlanta to launch laface and tap the talent there but
bobby brown moved there first and they followed on bobby's advice as they were closely dealing with him during that time
he definitely was important to the city

 

[Sbp]

This kind of true. Even the NE TV movie hinted that Ralph wanted to go the Prince route and basically do his own thing. I respect that, I really do. But its always a toss up when you go the Prince route. There’s nobody to fall back on

I would've worked had he put in the time to become a great composer and producer. From what I've heard he put in a lot of time in the studio in his early years but that was mainly as a vocalist. He did play the drums and I believe keyboards but the bulk of the music education was singing and dancing which he became great at. He'd probably still be a great singer if not for his smoking.

 

[Sbp]

Oh and for the record Bobby and Ralph were seen as lead singers of the group by fans even though Ralph's was featured more. Now I will say Ralph was pretty much the maestro in concert.

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

as someone else said, i think bobby overachieved
he wasn't a true front man, he became one by accident (getting kicked out the group)
in that bet new edition interview, at the height of his success, he was talking about still wanting to be involved with the group

then he literally became ralph tresvant's hype man and back up dancer


he also became a part time feature rapper


and took part in the mini ne reunion

he should have been using that time to construct his follow up album
but he let mj steal and kill his thunder
again he wasn't a true front man
i mean, this is the same guy that became mr. houston
and took a back seat to whitney's career
remember, don't be cruel was the highest selling album of 1989

not sure exactly why, but fun fact:
people always give la and babyface credit for their migration to atlanta to launch laface and tap the talent there but
bobby brown moved there first and they followed on bobby's advice as they were closely dealing with him during that time
he definitely was important to the city

Let me ask you a question

You said he should have been working on a follow up to come in 90 while he was doing everything else but pushing new material...

Do you think had Bob come back out in 90 91 does he do that same 2 million or more?
And if you do think he would’ve sold more does his career trajectory as well as black music play out differently going forward?

 

[Canon]

For the Bobby album he reminded me of Roberto Duran. He won the belt then proceeded to lose focus. It’s clear by the 3rd album he had put on some weight and he wasn’t even dancing as well due to that. Plus by that time the Whitney shyt was in full swing so that heartthrob status was changing
/QUOTE]
lol this is an on point metaphor

 

[lurker emeritus]

Let me ask you a question

You said he should have been working on a follow up to come in 90 while he was doing everything else but pushing new material...

Do you think had Bob come back out in 90 91 does he do that same 2 million or more?
And if you do think he would’ve sold more does his career trajectory as well as black music play out differently going forward?

i'd say double that (4 million), which is about half of what he did with don't be cruel

if he'd scooped those dangerous beats around 1990, that'd been crazy
and who's to say that if bob was in the studio that new producers wouldn't have tried to give him songs that went to other acts
on the other hand, i think his original plan was to start producing his own sh!t
but he teased that "tap into my heart" in late 1990 and that wasn't really it so...

when i think about it, bobby probably went about as far as he could go regardless of the circumstances
he was in the right place at the right time, catching fire w/ two ascending producers, one of which invented an entire genre seemingly tailored for him
he hit the lottery, got his dream girl, and basically retired

imo, bobby lacked the character to be that ambassador to shift or steer the genre further than he did. he played his part, and that was it

 

[KidJSoul]

Bumping because of that A&E special....

Yeah he DEFINITELY should have released a follow up in 1990. NJS was still alive at the time.

Also... fix that gap tooth, and keep the haircut for a little longer, make your signature.

Bobby went too long without any albums, and got stale musically and visually. He was happy to be on top but the motivation and hustle to stay on top wasn't there... can't blame him tho.. dude was 19 and became not just popular... but the biggest music star in the world... DBC was literally the best selling album globally in 1989.

He needed better management. Release that follow up in 1990, have some new innovative videos or dance moves... feature some rappers (and vice versa)


People say that R Kelly was gonna come... but shyt, you can still compete.

In 93, you have two options. Either go mid temp like Pony by Ginuwine (I think that would have been perfect for Bobby Brown)... or go house music (yes, listen to Two Can Play that Game remix)...

And fix that gap tooth...

That alone would have given him a 7 year run of domination.

 

[King Sun]

Its crazy but OP is kind of right. Bobby Brown sound would have translated into where modern R&B was going back then.

 

[King Poetic]

1 hit album and that was it for him

 

[Filthy Sanchez]

Bobby actually recorded an album that was supposed to drop before "Bobby" called "Mystic Magic" but got shelved because of constant touring. By the time he was done touring that sound was dated.

Here's 2 songs that were supposed to be singles from that album



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