Chris Brown's popularity gets taken for granted. He hasn't been a critical darling for over a decade, but he has continued to sell massive quantities of records due to his pop instincts. He knows what the fans like, and what the fans absolutely love right now is the "Residuals" challenge. The singer invited fans and other singers to contribute verses to the 2024 song of the same name. The most surprising contributor was disgraced R&B legend R Kelly. Chris Brown decided to break his silence on the trend and show love to all involved. Yes, including Kells.
"I just wanna take this time to show my thanks and love for everyone who is doing the 'Residuals' challenge," Breezy wrote on Instagram. "I'm glad it’s giving people the opportunity to be seen and heard." The singer then claimed that those who supported the challenge are fans of authentic R&B music. "Real R&B isn’t dead," he asserted. "And I thank you for showing me that." Chris Brown is no stranger to controversy, but he was likely just as surprised as the fans when R Kelly decided to drop "Residuals" of his own from prison. The attention from the Kells remix helped to boost awareness of Brown's challenge, though.
Are Chris Brown And R Kelly Friends?
Brown and R Kelly have collaborated multiple times over the years. The latter was a massive Breezy supporter during the first leg of his career, and praised him accordingly in the media. He told Guardian that Chris Brown was historically talented in 2013, and commended his ability to bounce back after the Rihanna controversy. "He's obviously one strong individual to be able to do what he's done," Kels noted. "He got knocked down a little bit and he climbed up. You know, that sounds like Ali to me. That sounds like Martin Luther King to me." Brown, in return, has cited Kelly as a major musical influence.
The controversies that both artists have been linked to have often led to them being discussed in similar breaths. Tinashe, for example, claimed that was embarrassed by the songs she recorded with both men during the Zach Sang Show in 2023. "That is so embarrassing. That is so unreal that I even have a song with R Kelly," she stated. "That's so embarrassing." Despite said controversies, both Brown and R Kelly remain two of the best-selling R&B artists of all time.
