Following his release from jail back in June, Chris Brown and Drake surprised fans when they patched things up and hit the studio together. They then took it one step further and really shocked viewers by appearing together in a skit for the ESPYS in July.
As he gears up for the release of his new album X on Tuesday, Breezy opened up about his former rival in an interview with MTV News’ Sway Calloway.
It was Drake’s camp who approached Brown with the idea. “Especially after getting out of jail, going through whatever I’m going through, I just didn’t have any animosity towards anybody. I’m just focused on me and what I was doing,” said Brown.
“I wanted to be able to bring light to the situation and just grow up. I’m 25 and I’m not getting younger. You can’t walk around holding grudges, looking over your shoulder, being negative all the time. I’m tired of being looked at as the aggressor, so I just wanted to show my maturity.”
But they didn’t need a therapy session to resolve their issues. “We’re young, so it’s not like [we had] a pow wow over tea or nothing,” he said. “It didn’t need to be explained. It wasn’t no problem.”
When they were in the studio, they realized they had different recording habits. “[Drake] was like, ‘Oh, man, I need to have my studio like this,’” said Brown. “My vibe is a little different—I like to have a party. It’s like the club in my studio with 15 or 20 girls, a couple of my homies, couple drinks, everybody’s having fun. I just get the vibe off the energy from them.”
But Brown is unsure where their collaboration will end up.
“Working on music is something we’re gonna continuously try to do and make happen,” he revealed. “I know it’ll be a big thing for the fans if they hear a song—but it has to be the right song, for both of us, at the end of the day.”
Additionally, Chris shared what advice he would give to ex-Baltimore Raven Ray Rice or anyone dealing with domestic violence.
“I think help is great,” he added. “I still talk to my therapist twice a week, and it helps me to…if I’m frustrated and I’m dealing with something, to vent and say what I’m going through so I can hear from an actual clinical person, ‘this is how you should react,’ or ‘it’s good to feel this way because feelings, emotions, and energy are supposed to come and go. It’s not supposed to stay there, you’re not supposed to keep it inside, because it’ll bottle up and you’ll become a monster.”
But he stopped short of passing judgement. “To Ray, or anybody else—because I’m not better than the next man—I can just say I’ve been down that road. I deal with situations and I’ve made my mistakes too, but it’s all about how you push forward and how you control yourself.”
