Christopher Maurice Brown was born in Tappahannock, Virginia in 1989. A cozy small town with a population just over 2,000, Chris learned to sing and dance mostly by listening to the radio, inspired by the likes of Michael Jackson and Sam Cooke. The fresh-faced teen was discovered in 2001 when his father - a gas station manager - struck up a conversation with a customer who turned out to be a local record producer. Chris started recording and performing locally, and in 2004 left school to begin recording sessions in New York.

After over a year of hard work in the studio, Chris released his first self-titled album in late 2005 under Jive Records - the same New York-based label that launched the careers of the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, among many others. The album was an instant success, entering the Billboard Top 200 chart at #2. Though only 16 at the time, Brown’s expressive falsetto and incredible charisma permeated the entire album - his first single, "Run It!", knocked Kanye Wests’s "Gold Digger" off the top of the Billboard Hot 100 days after its release. Brown released four more successful singles off of the album throughout 2005 and 2006, including "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" and "Gimme That" featuring Lil Wayne.

2007 proved to be a successful year for Chris. In addition to releasing sophomore album Exclusive, Chris won two Grammies and made his acting debut in Stop The Yard alongside R&B star Ne-Yo. Exclusive went on to outperform his debut album, selling a staggering 300,000 copies in its first week on store shelves alone. Like his previous album, Exclusive is profanity-free and appeals to a younger audience though it still enjoys widespread success in mainstream urban circles, making Chris something of a crossover success. Standout tracks off the album include "Kiss Kiss" and "With You".

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