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’s album an abysmal 1.3 rating, and fans online are piling on, with some also pushing back.
Pitchfork’s takedown of Chris Brown’s 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’s continued quest for redemption considering his success in the last year, and more. But one of the more aggressive angles taken is the following:
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’s got bigger problems. It’s hard to find anything redeemable about the album, and I tried hard. I wanted to like “Slow Jamz” because it has the cloudy, slow-mo bounce of DeVanté Swing’s Da Bassment demos, but Brown’s history gives his sex diaries a sinister edge: “When it feels this good you can’t say no.” I wanted to like “#BodyGoals,” with Tank, because it’s always kind of funny seeing the old heads try to make TikTok trend music. But Brown doesn’t match Tank’s silly yearning; his lust is a crutch. He’s not even good at glomming onto trends anymore, which had been his thing since the very beginning, considering “Run It!” was a diet “Yeah!” His sexy drill one-off, “It Depends,” has been getting nonstop play on Hot 97 for a year, and my theory is that when he co-opted Cash Cobain’s sound, he flattened the coolness of the entire subgenre. I think he picked up his Jamaican patois on the Vybz Kartel-assisted “F*ck and Party” from studying Taye Diggs in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Compared to the way he butchers Memphis club rap on “Call Your Name,” a $uicideBoy$ mixtape might as well be Mystic Stylez.
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.
While Chris Brown is enjoying the support of his most dedicated fans for BROWN, there are others who agree with Pitchfork’s breakdown. We’ve got reactions from all sides below.
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