Emotionally Charged New Singles...Chris Brown and Rihanna

By now we all known how it went down between Chris and Rihanna that fateful night where they went from America's hottest young couple, to another sad example of a high profile domestic violence case.

Since then apologies have been made, physical scars have healed and although much of his fan base has eroded due to his violent act, I predict that America will continue to be the forgiving country it has always been and slowly warm up to CB's music again. He'll continually be haunted by his mistake (as he should be) and be fighting an uphill battle with public appeal...

With that being said, both Chris and Rihanna are now turning to music to vent about what went down. The first instance of this will be when you hear Rihanna's new single Russian Roulette, which is extremely vivid depiction of the struggle that anyone goes through in a domestic violence riddled relationship. The chorus tells it all:

"And you can see my heart beating
You can see it through my chest
And I’m terrified but I’m not leaving
Know that I must must pass this test
So just pull the trigger"

The theme sticks with you in a very honest, I've been there sort of way and I'd argue that although she's accurately comparing staying in a battered relationship to rolling the dice by playing Russian Roulette, the brutal imagery with the gunshot at the end of the song may be a little much for the younger demographic of her fans. Just sayin', I was a little taken aback the first time I heard it, but hopefully it has the desired effect of shedding some light on domestic violence...give it a listen:

Rihanna - Russian Roulette First Single Off Rated R!!!

On the other side of the fence, we have CB, who is doing his best to get back in the game with a hot first single with Captain Cameo, none other than Weezy F. Check the video if you haven't seen Transform Ya:

Put it this way, he did what he needed to do to get himself back on the radio with the track(I mean honestly even if people hate on him, they'll make the excuse that they like it because of Lil Wayne, let's be honest). The second single is him putting in his time with an "I want you back and I'm willing to rebuild from the ground up" effort with his song Crawl.

"Everybody sees it's you
I'm the one that lost the view
Everybody says we're through
I hope you haven't said it too

So where do we go from here
With all this fear in our eyes
And where can love take us now
And we've been so far down
We can still touch the sky"

Needless to say, it's a slow to mid-tempo ballad that shows his softer side. He's always done a great job at crafting slow jams, so this is right up his alley and will definitely have some radio appeal. He's 1 for 2 in my opinion on singles on his new album Graffiti with this single being the less successful of the two. Check out Crawl:

Chris Brown - Crawl Second Single off Graffiti!!

As a bonus, here's a continuation of his song Crawl as he continues to lament the end of his relationship with his song So Cold, saying:

"If you ever see her
If you ever meet her
If you ever get a chance to sit down, talk to her
Then tell her it's so cold
It's so cold, it's so cold
Here without her
And tell her I miss her
Tell her I need her
Tell her I want her
I really want her to come back home, back to keep me warm
Tell her I'm sorry, I'm really sorry
Can you forgive me?
Please forgive me
And come back home, keep me safe and warm"

Check out the track, it's a much better effort at a single as Polow lays a picturesque piano beat to set the vibe for an "I'm missin you" "I'm so lonely and cold" type track.

Chris Brown - So Cold (prod by Polow Da Don) Great Ballad!!!

Needless to say, both young artists are using the experience as an emotional springboard for their new albums. As a result, we as fans get an out pour of emotionally charged music from two extremely talented pop stars. I'm betting both albums will end up being one of their best and I hope that as we fans benefit from their inspired work, they will also grow and continue to mature musically and in life through all this...