Chris Brown Throws Twitter Tantrum, Deletes Account

The deck seems to be stacked against singer Chris Brown, or maybe its all in his head. Apparently the disgraced performer went on a celebrity rant on Twitter last weekend and ultimately ended up deleting his account. The tantrum was thrown over the perception that he was being blackballed by major retailers, whom he felt were not stocking his newest album “Graffiti”.

Mashable posted some of the  meltdown.

(That’s the clean portion of the rant. It goes on to degrade into an expletive-laced monologue, that I chose not to post.)

According to CNN, fans responded to Brown’s tirade with reports that store managers informed them that there were no plans to ever carry Brown’s music in light of his recent domestic violence incident with ex-girlfriend Rhianna. Once the larger media outlets got wind of the story, they went to the horse’s mouth — the retail stores to see if Brown’s claims were true. According to Billboard, they weren’t. In fact Wal-Mart representatives had this to say.

We are surprised at the comments on Twitter, since all Walmart stores carried the CD since its release, including the Wallingford store mentioned in the post. This store had in fact sold through their copies over the weekend. The majority of our stores are showing today they have copies on hand.”

Hmm, seems like the artist might be buckling under the pressure of the aftermath of celebrity scandal. It sounds like he might have gone to one store, got scared when they didn’t have “Graffiti” in stock, and went on a Twitter rampage. Unfortunately, the fans out of sympathy and probably more than a few haters, fed his increasing paranoia with reports of Brown-bare shelves and talk of banishing him and his music into pariah-land.

So here are the facts:

• Major retail chains are in fact, carrying Brown’s album.
• The album is not doing well compared to his pre-scandal releases. First week sales were an abysmal 102,489 copies, putting him at number seven on the Billboard charts. Not bad, but not great.
• Rhianna came in at number three with 181,000 copies sold.
• Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent is number one on the charts with 582,000 sales.

In his last tweet, Brown bid his followers a fond farewell saying, “I WANNA THANK MY FANS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT. I LOVE YALL. GOODBYE!!!!!!!!!!!!”

So in light of all that unnecessary and unprofessional twittering, where does this leave the embattled entertainer? Well, he’s not exactly up a creek without a paddle, but it just goes to show that a baby blue bowtie with matching sweater vest will not swing the tide of public opinion in your favor when it comes to domestic violence. In 2010, Brown’s handlers need to have an extremely tight rein on what the singer says, when he appears, and what he tweets if he decides to reopen his account.

As much as the public at large loves celebrity scandal, they love a comeback story even more. Instead of doing all this touring and saying he’s sorry for what happened why not take some action? Really take stock of the incident and pledge to change the behavior. Try reaching out to one of the many organizations trying to stop domestic violence and ask how he can use his incident to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Make a viral campaign and live it. In the business of spin every action helps and right now, whining about how Alicia Keys’ album is everywhere is not endearing you to the public.

About the Author
Sherri is a freelance writer that has a love of all things fun and geeky including gadgets, gaming, anime, and comics. When she isn't writing or out on the town living it up, she loves doing 10-12 hour marathon sessions on her Xbox 360 or one of her older consoles. It's not an addiction, it's a way of life!
See all posts by Sherri L. Smith.