Slow-News-Weekend Twitter Feud: Brian McKnight Vs. Chris Brown

Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 06/03/2012 at 2:41 PM News

The Popdust Files: Beef, brian mcknight, chris brown, feuds, twitter

What happens when, after years of musical near-silence, a joke song Brian McKnight (yes, the “Back At One” guy) writes about a particular not-entirely-printable sexual act becomes a half-laughed-at, half-laughed-with hit? A Twitter feud, naturally. You can’t have a 2012 quasi(?)-comeback(?) without one.

This really isn’t a fun story to write up, but well, it’s this or the Queen’s Jubilee, so here you go:

THE PEOPLE: Brian McKnight, former crooner now resigned to explicitly provocative and/or self-aware–read: trollgazey–how-to odes to pleasing women; Chris Brown, the antimatter to remorse.

THE TWEETS:

Brian McKnight, seeming a bit resigned, asks for career advice:

(There are also digs at R. Kelly later on; he hasn’t answered, but he hasn’t tweeted since May.)

And interspersed are these from Chris Brown, which we’re somewhat surprised haven’t been deleted.

I see how this works now… When peoples careers get to the “nobody cares” stage they use my name for publicity! Lol

— Chris Brown(@chrisbrown) June 2, 2012

TEAM AFFILIATION: How do you even choose? Joking about abuse isn’t exactly cool, and Brian McKnight’s Twitter-feuding in the first place because it’s the logical aftershock of “If You’re Ready To Learn”‘s Twitter earthquake, the next inch down a viral rabbit hole (er, don’t analyze those metaphors), and even the beginning–”since you’re all so opinionated”–suggests he’d rather not be doing any of this at all if he doesn’t have to. But he’s got an automatic wild card, which is that he’s not Chris Brown. Brown’s enablers don’t help.

DRAMA RATING: 2.5 out of 5. If only because Chris Brown getting upset with someone over Twitter is not news, and because this particular detour in Brian McKnight’s career doesn’t seem to be one he’s entirely happy about.

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