But really, what was he expecting? Did Chris Brown really think he'd be able to release this album with all of that business with Rihanna behind him? He made the face of one of America's favorite R&B singers into something viciously unrecognizable by beating her.
Since the infamous incident, the public has - for the most part - taking Rihanna's side in the highly public beating. Chris Brown has tried to improve his image, but has apparently failed, if record sales have anything to do with it.
Chris Brown's "Graffiti" sold fewer than 100,000 copies in its first week - considering less than the almost 300,000 copies "Exclusive sold in its first week. Rihanna's "Rated R" sold 180,000+ copies in her first week.
A potential problem for the girlfriend-beating R&B crooner could be that many stores are refusing to stock his album. Brown has been RTing tweets from his followers about their experiences being unable to purchase his album. The tweets range from sympathetic, to outright angry, with one user claiming they were told by a manager that they don't sell things made by wife beaters.
A few days ago, Chris Brown lashed out at Rolling Stone's rating of his album, saying that they "must have got a big check for that one." Oddly enough, Rolling Stone reviewed Chris Brown and Rihanna's albums simultaneously: they didn't even both to post different reviews for each album.
When Brown found out about stores not stocking his record, he wasn't exactly pleased:
But Brown wasn't done with his diatribe just yet. After finding out that Alica Keys's new album was given preference over his own, he wasn't too pleased with that either. Way to endear yourself to the people who already dislike you for what you did to Rihanna. Brown's PR rep needs to wrangle him in before he does anymore damage to his potentially flailing career:
Stores refusing to stock Chris Brown's album are taking a stand against domestic violence. Let's hope this refusal by big box stores to boycott Brown's album will lead to more decisive action against domestic violence. Wal-Mart claims that the CD sold out, and that they have no been able to restock it.
Is it fair for big business to boycott Brown's CD, or should that decision be left to the fans? Of course, Brown has a right to be angry, but is his anger going to actually help him get his CD stocked in stores? Probably not.
During the time in which it took me to compose this post, Chris Brown's Twitter account has been deleted.