In today’s music entertainment news industry, negative
behavior by celebrities is often more in the spotlight rather than the positive
news. Sure there is news out there promoting upcoming albums, tours, and other
projects. However, when it comes to the gossip columns, they would much rather
post a story about some drunken incident after leaving a club, that one of
these music artists was a part of rather than promoting a story about them
giving back to their communities.
R&B superstar Chris Brown is constantly in the news, and
it’s usually something damaging to his reputation. Whether the things in the
gossip columns are true or just rumors, they tend to neglect to promote the
positive things he does. On July 6 Chris Brown participated in the
“WE
US: Walk Everywhere in Unity’s Shoes” charity event held at Crenshaw High
School in Los Angeles, California. He donated over 1,000 Reebok shoes to the
students there. Brown called upon the L.A. mayor’s office, L.A. County
sheriff’s office, L.A. graffiti artists, youth development organizations, gang
reduction organizations, and his fans to help with the logistics and to inspire
change and comfort. “Thank you for allowing me to continue to inspire change in
the world. Today was a great step forward,” tweeted Brown to his 12.8 million
followers. This event was so successful that Chris Brown
repeated this past weekend
on July 20, not only to promote unity, but also to show support for the murdered
young teen, Trayvon Martin.
This event is just one part of the Unity
Campaign that Brown is a part of. The point of the campaign is to promote an
end to violence and unity within our communities. His commitment to this
message can be seen further in the release of his second single from his
upcoming album X. The video for the single “They Don’t Know,”
featuring the late R&B singer, Aaliyah could have gone in many different
directions, but Brown decided to shoot the video in Compton, CA featuring the
local youth. The video was shot in black and white with just a few shots of red
and blue (two rival gang colors). The video starts with the quote “Every two
hours in America today a child dies of a gunshot wound.” The next screenshot is
of the quote “Unity is what we are afraid of so fear is insanity, lets love
each other.” The message intended for viewers is to see the community coming
together to take a stand against violence. It’s not even relevant to the actual
song, but it works.
