The road to redemption is often a long, winding, unpredictable road that leads the condemned through a journey of reflection and maturity. Chris Brown is throwing up all the "I'M CHANGING, Y'ALL" signals, repeating in all of his televised interviews, "I'm sorry. I know what I did was wrong." The "Crawl" video and song appear to be yet another white flag that Chris is raising to the court of public opinion. Chris is now realizing what he had (career and love) now that one is gone and the other is being threatened.
Let's put aside any arguments about Chris' actions that night for a moment. "Crawl" as a body of work on its own, is a masterful power pop ballad, showing a Chris Brown full of regret, remorse and agony. His words ache with the pain of his loss and the ethereal production makes Chris sound like a ghost, singing about the sins of the past. The video matches this mood perfectly, with Chris throwing on his Urkel glasses from the "Kiss Kiss" video for extra woe-is-me sympathy points. Nice one, Team Brown.
The "Crawl" video is reminiscent of when Justin Timberlake used "Cry Me A River" to address his break-up with Britney Spears. Chris casts Cassie, Diddy's rumored sidepiece who's had trouble re-launching her career after her one hit "Me and You," as his leading lady, but make no mistake of it, that's Rihanna she's playing. The video finds Chris following her as she moves on with her superstar life as he's left in the cold and the desert. Yes, the desert. Somehow, Chris can twirl and end up in the Sahara within seconds. Believe in magic, kids.
Watch the video for Chris Brown's "Crawl" below.
Did you notice the Michael Jackson moves? Especially in the desert scene? Somebody's itching to do a tribute performance. Also the Batman-esque moves in the desert were pretty dope and remind you that Chris is an impressive athlete. The "Crawl" video is so far the most authentic-sounding weapon in Team Brown's PR arsenal. (It's much better than that 'Changed Man' trash.) But the PR campaign in the media isn't for his fans, that's what the fan appreciation tour is for.
Chris performed on the first date of his fan appreciation tour on Sunday and his mostly-female audience gobbled up every bit of it, Neon Limelight reports. So while "Transform Ya" pretends that nothing has changed in Chris' world and "Crawl" directly confronts it, the loyal Brown fans have already made up their minds to stand by their man.
