“Yeah 3X” by Chris Brown

As terrible a musician as Chris Brown, there are a tiny handful of his songs that I will stick up for, such as “Forever”, his guest choruses on “My Last” and “International Love”, and this one, the only decent track on his loathsome album F.A.M.E.. The thing about Chris Brown, though, is that while he’s sung a handful of good songs, he’s never actually contributed anything good to them. Granted, he can sing, up to a certain point…okay, his vocals are mediocre at best, but the primary problem with Chris Brown’s musical output isn’t his singing voice. But the fact is that none of his few good songs were actually written by him, and all of them would have been just as good if not better with a different singer. This song is a particularly blatant example, since the only reason it’s any good is an unauthorized sample of a Calvin Harris song (back before anyone in the U.S. knew who Harris was). Harris actually had to sue in order to get credit and royalties for his unwilling contribution to this song. So one can chalk up Brown’s occasional associations with artistic success to career luck (or in this case, outright theft), but they’re still something of a relief given the fact that, against all reason, he inexplicably continues to have hits to this day.

Verdict: Good, but no thanks to anything Brown himself contributed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *