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Chris Brown is the boy who would be a playa -- a career trajectory hammered home by the dual images on his self-titled 2005 release. On the cover the Virginia R&B/pop singer has got his Fedora, his bling and his whites, ready... Read More

Chris Brown is the boy who would be a playa -- a career trajectory hammered home by the dual images on his self-titled 2005 release. On the cover the Virginia R&B/pop singer has got his Fedora, his bling and his whites, ready to make the scene in da club; inside he's a ball-capped kid who looks like he's just come in from playing an afternoon of touch football. The twain meets in the music.

On Chris Brown, interestingly, the 16-year-old artist seems much more interested in pushing himself into adulthood than the older producers and writers who wrote most of his lyrics -- an interesting role reversal. On "What's My Name," one of the three tracks to which Brown co-wrote the words, he admits that "I know I'm just a youngin'," but that's not stopping him from making a booty call: "C to the H to the R.I.S./I know you like it mama, just say yes/And if you didn't know, now you know/I'm a pro and I can go on and on ..." In the lyrics to "Winner," meanwhile, he treats romance as a boxing match, declaring "Baby, you're a winner/Didn't even take ya 12 rounds to do it/You got the title now." An overall lyrical sense of innocence informs most of the album, however, though the dual-edge of the line, "I can show you why I make them straight A's in school," from "Gimme That" indicates the kid is out to make the grade with more than just his grades.

Two years on an 18-year-old Brown is even more forthright and in the mix on 2007's Exclusive, co-writing eight of the album's tracks. On "Kiss Kiss," his sexy team-up with T-Pain, Brown sings that, "I know I just turned 18/And I can get a little mannish ... So get it, shawty/We parkin' lot, dippin' in my dome/And I know what you want." That doesn't mean he has all the answers, though; in "Throwed" he tells us that "I'm try'na give it but I'm loosing my cool (for you)/Cause shorty got me thrown." It sounds like he's in a little bit over his head, and maybe that's OK. The young playa also gets a lesson in humility, doing his best -- to little avail -- to apologize for an infidelity in the lyrics to "Damage." Older, and better, men than you, Chris, have learned that "Girl I love you/With her it was lust" gets you more of a kiss-off than a kiss-kiss.