Rihanna’s beating by Chris Brown confirmed: Anatomy of a career in rehab

The face of domestic violence - like a shot from the morgue. The pic leaked from the LAPD photo lab. Noone has denied its authenticity. Copyright © TMZ 2009

The pic has been out for eons and it tells a horrific tale of what happened to Rihanna, the star of Umbrella, just before a Los Angeles Police Department photographer took pictures of her face. Rihanna had been injured in a reported “fight” between her and Chris Brown over her reaction to some text messages he had received from another woman on the eve of the Grammy’s.

With the plea bargain made in  Los Angeles court on June 22, Chris Brown’s career enters uncharted waters on the downslide.  The Washington Post reports that Chris Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting rihanna” in an agreement with prosecutors that calls for him to spend five years of probation and attend courses on domestic violence.” He will be formally sentenced on August 5.

(Chris Brown) had faced four years in prison if convicted in a trial on charges of assault and a making a criminal threat. There was no plea deal on a second charge.

In addition to the probation and the domestic violence course in his home state of Virginia, Brown also must perform 180 days of community service.

He was ordered to keep his distance from Rihanna, 21, who was in the courthouse on Monday and prepared to testify against him. (The Washington Post, Jan. 22, 2009)

So Chris Brown enters into some kind of rehab under probation. So does his career.  The plea bargain was designed to avoid details of what happened from coming out,  as well as keep Chris Brown out of jail. Mission accomplished on the second goal, but irreparable damage has already been done to Chris’ career. The picture is exhibit one.

The  picture of Rihanna, closed eyes, bloody bruises and all,  struck the viewer with the full force of an autopsy  shot; an image which should have no place in an entertainer’s portfolio,  let alone a platinum selling star like Chris Brown. No amount of parsing,  lawyering, or PR can erase the shock and dismay that image created.

The pictures, first released by TMZ were the result of an unauthorized leak from somewhere within the  Los Angeles Police Department,  (LAPD); a  departmental breach which lead to an  official investigation .

Intimations of a chameleonic ingenue: Rihanna could have been a successful model any day of the week. Her ambivalence over what many say was an abusive relationship raises many questions about her.

This appears to be an unfortunate incident that could have been headed off by any or all of the people with influence or leverage on Chris and Rihanna. People familiar with the story say that this is not the first time violence, or evidence of  it had shown up in the relationship. At that earlier stage, influential parties could have mediated conflicts  without the duress of a cause celebre like this.

Rihanna signature template: Retro chic l'outrance in stark contrast to the TMZ pic.

The rumors that Jay-Z, Rihanna’s mentor, has called Chris as a “dead man walking” for messing “with the wrong crew” is most probably recycled internet drivel. It is  representative of the mentality that has kept hip-hop in the juvenile gutter for a long time.

Whichever way one slices this, Chris Brown’s career is most probably over. He can pick up the pieces and try to put them together again but for all intents and purposes he can kiss meteoric stardom goodbye. The reasons for this are myriad:

1.  The entertainment business is fickle – especially in an age when home studios, pro-tools,  mp3s, Youtube and the world wide web has leveled the playing field and undercut the industry that has made  Chris Brown a rich young man. Translation: The recording industry is going to hell. Hello LiveNation, Youtube and a myriad ways of distributing entertainment.

2.  Sing and dance routines are a dime a dozen, especially when one is traversing terrain that has already been traversed by icons such as Michael Jackson and Usher.  Chris Brown broke onto the music scene at the age of 16 with an infectious dance hit “Run It!“, which topped the Billboard Hot 100. His dancing prowess is unimpeachable, but, as mentioned before, it does not break any new ground. His voice is good, but not good enough to buy him lunch without a fresh face and a fleet-footed dance routine. The sum total of all this is that he is not as unique as he, or others around him think he is; which makes “easy come, easy go” perhaps more applicable to his career than otherwise. Sitting on a perch is tricky  in this biz, especially if you are not unique in a certifiable way.

3.  Being marketed as a wholesome  wunderkind is a double-edged sword – and  And Chris Brown is already finding out that he may have to fall on his sword before finding redemption.  Got Wrigley chewing gum? “Got Milk?”.  Both Wrigley’s  Gum and the milk board have dropped Chris Brown from their ad campaigns in the wake of the Rihanna incident. This is perhaps Chris Brown’s biggest vulnerability when it comes to business and marketability. I mean, where would Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods be as  business moguls without all their marketing endorsements?

4.  Strutting your stuff on the stage for money is, in ways more than one, a privilege. Entertainment legends who had long careers understood it fundamentally, and the result was lifelong careers that were successful until the very end.

Word On The Street: “Fashionable” or street-approved misogyny doesn’t cut it when one comes to the big leagues where the “mike thrillas make their scrilla.”   Bitchslappin” talk may very well be a shibboleth of authenticity on the street,  but it doesn’t cut it when juxtaposed with pictures as horrid as the one originally posted  on the  TMZ site. This is reality check time, and one that separates the men from the boys and the  savvy from the doggone  stupid.

The Rihanna beating and that horrific picture works against Chris on so many levels I will not even count the ways.

How much is too much? Could this be one of those obsessive relationships where little is not enough?

There is no excuse for beating a woman like that unless one is  in mortal danger of having one’s  head knocked off; a difficult argument to make  for a dude who  is anywhere from 6.0″ to 6.2″ versus a woman who is only  5.6″ to 5.8″.

The bite marks, oh the bite marks! (if the reports are indeed true):  A real man does not bite in a fight, especially when that man is “fighting” with a woman.  There is no quicker way for a dude to lose street creds than bite someone in a fight, even in a hombre  mano-a-mano tussle. The last time I looked, Rihanna was a woman, unless Chris knows something we don’t. Nothings says punk-bitch-ass  louder than biting an equal or lesser opponent.  Remember Mike Tyson  vs Evander Holyfield? I am sure you do. The ear chomping incident marked the end of Mike Tyson’s career …. or what remained of it.

The sheer weight of that single TMZ pic is  gonna slam through the roof of  Chris’ career like a vengeful asteroid.  If he has doubts about where his career is headed, he just needs to look at Michael Vic,  DMX,  Bobby Brown and yes,  Iron Mike. Remember him?

Update: Unfiltered Reflections on Rihanna and Chris Brown (Following news on 02/27/09 that Rihanna had reunited with Chris Brown in Miami.)