On Monday, Chris Brown canceled his Twitter account, thanking his fans on it before deleting the account. In the days leading up to the decision to abandon the site, he had used Twitter to vehemently express his anger over his perception that retailers were not carrying his new album, Graffiti, and his general discontent with the music business. Although no official reason has been given for why Brown decided to cancel the account, when he spoke to MTV News last month, the singer said sharing his thoughts on the site had burned him a few times.

"Honestly, Twitter has done nothing but get me into trouble," Brown told MTV News. At the time of the interview, he was speaking in reference to a fan-made video montage of him and former girlfriend Rihanna — Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting her on the eve of the Grammy Awards earlier this year — that he had posted, saying that he did so because it made him remember their good times together. But he added in the interview that he didn't want the "backlash" that can come with having a Twitter account.

"I would say Twitter is just a way for me to talk to my fans directly — the people who actually support me and want to know who I am," he explained. "Like, I get a chance to talk to them or say little things on there sometimes that might be funny sometimes. I might be arguing with somebody on there like ... somebody might say something and I might say something back. But for the most part I get a chance to talk to fans and [say], 'Look, if you all didn't see this video, look at that, look at this.' Or I am always just having fun on there, so it's an interaction thing for me and my fans."

Brown had been using the service to promote his new album, Graffiti, and its videos, but he also got into hot water when a comment he posted was perceived as a slam against Jay-Z — which Brown later denied.

As for his former Twitter account name, "Mechanical Dummy," he said it stems from pop culture jumping on trends like "robots." "Mechanical dummy means, back in the day, people were able to express themselves culturally and break in. All this stuff that people are into now on TV, the kids and people started that — artists didn't create that," he said, adding that people feel obligated to do what they are told is cool, even if they don't agree.

"So that's what makes Mechanical Dummy — they're robots, they're brainwashed. I want people to get the drift of that," he continued. "[We should] be ourselves, do what you think. I wear bow ties because I like bow ties, I do all that stuff because it's me, not 'cause I'm saying it's hot. I don't talk about people — I like what I wear, 'cause I wear it."