{"id":1190,"date":"2026-05-12T23:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funkynubianrepublic.com\/convo\/2026\/05\/12\/pitchfork-gives-chris-browns-brown-lp-a-1-3-rating\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:46:10","slug":"pitchfork-gives-chris-browns-brown-lp-a-1-3-rating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funkynubianrepublic.com\/convo\/2026\/05\/12\/pitchfork-gives-chris-browns-brown-lp-a-1-3-rating\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitchfork Gives Chris Brown’s ‘BROWN’ LP A 1.3 Rating"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chris<\/figure>\n

Chris Brown<\/a> should be enjoying the promo run duties of his latest full-length project, BROWN<\/em>, but he is instead the target of a brutal review of his album. Pitchfork gave Chris Brown\u2019s album an abysmal 1.3 rating, and fans online are piling on, with some also pushing back.<\/p>\n

Pitchfork\u2019s takedown of Chris Brown\u2019s newest set did not mince words, as the reviewer immediately dropped several zingers, up to and including his domestic violence incident with then-girlfriend Rihanna, Brown\u2019s continued quest for redemption considering his success in the last year, and more. But one of the more aggressive angles taken is the following<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If I were on the Chris Brown PR payroll, I would suggest he just cop to all of BROWN being AI, because if not, he\u2019s got bigger problems. It\u2019s hard to find anything redeemable about the album, and I tried hard. I wanted to like \u201cSlow Jamz\u201d because it has the cloudy, slow-mo bounce of DeVant\u00e9 Swing\u2019s Da Bassment demos, but Brown\u2019s history gives his sex diaries a sinister edge: \u201cWhen it feels this good you can\u2019t say no.\u201d I wanted to like \u201c#BodyGoals,\u201d with Tank, because it\u2019s always kind of funny seeing the old heads try to make TikTok trend music. But Brown doesn\u2019t match Tank\u2019s silly yearning; his lust is a crutch. He\u2019s not even good at glomming onto trends anymore, which had been his thing since the very beginning, considering \u201cRun It!\u201d was a diet \u201cYeah!\u201d His sexy drill one-off, \u201cIt Depends,\u201d has been getting nonstop play on Hot 97 for a year, and my theory is that when he co-opted Cash Cobain\u2019s sound, he flattened the coolness of the entire subgenre. I think he picked up his Jamaican patois on the Vybz Kartel-assisted \u201cF*ck and Party\u201d from studying Taye Diggs in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Compared to the way he butchers Memphis club rap on \u201cCall Your Name,\u201d a $uicideBoy$ mixtape might as well be Mystic Stylez.<\/em><\/p>\n

Considering the aforementioned good favor Brown achieved in 2025, with his Grammy Award win for Best R&B Album for 11:11 (Deluxe) and his sold-out Breezy Bowl XX tour, the Virginia native seemed poised to soar higher with all of the positive momentum.<\/p>\n

While Chris Brown is enjoying the support of his most dedicated fans for BROWN<\/em>, there are others who agree with Pitchfork\u2019s breakdown. We\u2019ve got reactions from all sides below.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Photo: Getty<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Brown should be enjoying the promo run duties of his latest full-length project, BROWN, but he is instead the target of a brutal review of his album. Pitchfork gave Chris Brown\u2019s album an abysmal 1.3 rating, and fans online are piling on, with some also pushing back. Pitchfork\u2019s takedown of Chris Brown\u2019s newest set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/hiphopwired.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/05\/17786165659264.jpg?w=1024&strip=all&quality=80","fifu_image_alt":"","buzzeditor_post_format":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPitchfork Gives Chris Brown's 'BROWN' LP A 1.3 Rating - Convo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/funkynubianrepublic.com\/convo\/2026\/05\/12\/pitchfork-gives-chris-browns-brown-lp-a-1-3-rating\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pitchfork Gives Chris Brown's 'BROWN' LP A 1.3 Rating - Convo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chris Brown should be enjoying the promo run duties of his latest full-length project, BROWN, but he is instead the target of a brutal review of his album. 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