Chris Brown criticised for ‘aggressive’ rant at female pop star
Ben Williams
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@chrisbrownofficial
Chris Brown has been criticised online after a video of him hitting back at criticism over his new album began circulating on social media.
The singer, 37, recently released his 12th studio album BROWN, a 27-track project which dropped on 8 May and features the likes of Bryson Tiller, Leon Thomas, GloRilla, and YoungBoy Never Broke Again.
While the album has been praised by some of his fans, it has also received a wave of mixed and negative reactions online.
As noted by Soap Central, Pitchfork handed the record a particularly harsh score of 1.3 out of 10, with the review reportedly describing it as ‘a piece of s**t’.
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Still, it wasn’t just music critics Brown appeared to take aim at. In a clip shared from his Instagram Story, Brown could be seen addressing the backlash while sitting outside.
The video was later reposted by Pop Base on X (formerly Twitter), where it quickly sparked further debate.
In the clip, Brown said: “If you not my fan, I don’t want you to listen to my sht. Go listen to m**********g Zara Larsson or somebody.”
The name-drop immediately caught people’s attention, as Swedish pop star Zara Larsson had previously spoken about blocking Brown on Spotify.
During an interview with Cosmopolitan, Larsson was asked about an artist people would never find on her playlists.
She said: “There’s so many artists I have blocked on Spotify, and all of them are, like, abusers. You certainly wouldn’t find a Chris Brown song.”
The comment appears to have stayed on Brown’s radar, with his latest response prompting a fresh wave of criticism.
One person on X wrote: “somebody pls notify me when she drags him again.”
Another said: “he can’t even hold back his aggression to film a 30 second video lol wow okay.”
A third questioned: “why tf he name- dropping her?”
Before the latest clip began making the rounds, Brown had also responded more broadly to the reaction to BROWN.
Taking to Instagram Stories, as well, he wrote: “Been a lot of mixed reviews and I can take my audience’s criticism and opinions. The last [three] albums have came under the same scrutiny and it eventually grew on people.”
The latest backlash comes as Brown’s past controversies continue to be part of the conversation around his music. In 2009, Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault after attacking his then-girlfriend Rihanna. He was sentenced to probation, community labour, and domestic violence counselling.
Larsson, meanwhile, has previously made clear that she does not separate certain artists’ actions from their music.
Since Brown’s video surfaced, social media users have remained divided, with some defending the celebrity’s right to respond to criticism and others saying the mention of Larsson was unnecessary.