Once again Twitter gets another celebrity in trouble. Chris Brown is the latest high profile name to make the Twitter outburst list. On Wednesday, Raz-B, a former member of the R&B group B2K, tweeted, “I’m just sittin here Thinking how can n——-s like @ebenet & @ChrisBrown disrespect women as Intelligent as @HalleBerry11 [and] @Rihanna”
Brown promptly forgot his anger management classes and let his fingers guide him in response. He went on a tirade that included tweets taunting Raz-B over his allegations of being sexually molested by Chris Stokes, his former manager who created the boy band B2K. At its height, B2K produced several chart-topping singles, gold and platinum albums, and starred in the dance film You Got Served.
In 2007, three years after the group disbanded, Raz-B made his first allegations against Stokes. During the Twitter exchange, Chris Brown asserted that Raz-B, whose real name is De’Mario Thornton, enjoyed the encounters and called him “gay” in a disparaging manner. Brown even used the tag #homothug in one tweet.
Raz-B retaliated by accusing Brown of being on the ‘down-low’ but Brown relentlessly taunted him back. “This argument lasted longer than your career @razb2k,” read one tweet. Brown boasted about his successful career in the tweet ”@razb2k it’s funny how I’m nominated for 3 grAmmys off of a mixtape and ur scrambling for change!!,” Brown tweeted.
Defending some of his earlier comments about Raz-B’s sexuality, Brown tweeted, “I’m not homophobic! He’s just disrespectful!!!”
This beef prompted TMZ to title its special “Breaking News” post ‘Chris Brown — Racial, Gay Slurs in Twitter Feud.’ NYDailyNews.com also jumped on the story, posting ‘Chris Brown Twitter feud: Singer Chris Brown trades barbs with Raz-B over Rihanna comment.’
This can’t be good for Chris Brown who recently appeared to be making something of a public relations comeback. In November a female judge praised Brown for how he’s handle his probation from the 2009 assault on his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. The judge said she was blown away by Chris’ work ethic, commenting, “No one has ever done a better or more consistent job than you have.”
He’s just been nominated for three Grammy Awards. His charitable appearance at the Thanksgiving Carnival in Atlanta garnered positive news coverage. And just last week Brown graduated from his domestic violence class and sent out a twitpic showing off his certificate of completion.
With a solid hit in his new song “Deuces,” and the song “No Bulls**t” receiving radio play, slowly but surely Brown was once again rebuilding his stardom. Yet, in a flash of a tweet, Brown risked ruining it all.
It didn’t take too long for Brown to go into damage control. He issued an apology to all of his gay fans. “BTW… i love all my gay fans and this immature act is not targeted at you!!!! Love,” Brown tweeted.
What Brown fails to realize is that this is bigger than him and his pop career. In an age where bullying of gay teens is rampant, Brown needs to understand the weight of his words. Too many kids look up to Chris Brown, which is why he should do all of us a favor and grow up.