Singer Chris Brown is perennially surrounded controversy. In addition to his career as a singer, songwriter, rapper, dancer and actor, he has lived an eventful life.

Brown was born in 1989 in Tappahannock, Va. In 2004, he signed with Jive Records when he was just 15.

One year later, he released his first hit record featuring the song “Run It!” He has been nominated for 15 Grammys and won one in 2011 for Best R&B Album.

In recent years, Brown has faced a series of legal troubles. He pled guilty to assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. That year a photographer also filed a lawsuit against him claiming assault by Brown’s bodyguards.

His past legal troubles caused two international shows to be canceled in 2015. His most recent legal hurdle is an arrest on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

He welcomed a daughter, Royalty Brown, in 2014.

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney — pictured during a hearing Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 — has cleared the way for Georgia's State Election Board to obtain Fulton ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC