The world of hip hop is like any other celebrity world, the reputation precedes the individual. With hip hop, the necessity to look and act tough, do outrageous things, and accumulate “street cred” is all part of the formula to success. Living in a world where image is orchestrated and manipulated, it can become a feat to create a stir in order to fill the space with interesting content.  When we read stories about who’s feuding with whom over some trifling thing, we can easily pass it off as a publicity stunt. And yet, there’s a handful of hip hop artists who seem to be PR-challenged and wind up getting attention for their REAL troubles- whether they created it or got caught in the middle of it. When the stories are genuine, it seems to stick to the person a lot longer. Take Chris Brown.  He’s no stranger to the music industry for producing Billboard hits; unfortunately, he’s been more famous for the people that he hits. The DV incident gave him the fighter image and persona which he grudgingly carries to the present,  but it also won’t release him the baggage of notoriety.

It started in early February 2009 when he turned himself in to a Los Angeles police station and booked on suspicions of making criminal threats. It turned out that there was a domestic violence situation that occurred earlier that day with his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, where she was assaulted and showed black and blue facial injuries that required hospitalization. The aftermath of the explosive private details of their love life resulted in Chris’ commercial ads being pulled, his music withdrawn from radio stations, and forced to lay low from the public, in addition to his legal woes. Meanwhile, Rihanna’s battered face pictures went viral and constantly served as a loud reminder for his indiscretion. It didn’t help his career when Rihanna had a restraining order in place and it barred Chris from performing anywhere she would be. In June 2010, Chris was denied entrance in the UK because of his criminal assault and had to postpone his European tour. In March 2011, Chris responded violently after a Good Morning America interview had asked him about the Rihanna assault and restraining order. He left Times Square Studios cursing and shirtless, posting on Twitter, “I’m so over people bring this past s**t up!! Yet we praise Charlie Sheen and other celebs for there bullshit [sic].”

These days, Chris’ reputation for getting into trouble hasn’t waned. In mid-June 2012, Chris and Drake along with their entourages got into a bottle throwing melee at a SoHo nightclub which scratched the right cornea of Eva Longoria’s ex-husband and NBA star, Tony Parker and may prevent him from playing in the 2012 Summer Olympics. The brawl was reportedly sparked over Rihanna, as both of them dated her. The repercussion didn’t get either of them the girl, but instead resulted in a domino effect of litigations- Tony Parker suing the nightclub for $20 million, the nightclub suing NYC for shutting it down and causing it to lose nearly a quarter million dollars’ worth of business per week it’s closed, and even made Jay-Z  think twice about having bottle service at his upcoming nightclub in Brooklyn.  Getting into fisticuffs didn’t change Chris’ image, but could lead to some perks and maybe even work to his advantage.  Celebrity Boxing offered Breezy and Drizzy  $1 million if they choose to really duke it out in the ring. Although this is unlikely to happen, 50 Cent already has his money on Chris, “I guess it’s ’cause of all the physical things with dancin’ and movin. He be slippin’ and movin’. I don’t see Drake doing that. Chris be havin’ his shirt off. He got one of them MMA fighter looks. Like he might have did karate when he was a kid. He kickin’, doin’ splits and stuff. This could really get interesting.”