Bobby Brown

When 'Don't be Cruel' bum-rushed the pop charts in 1988, it looked as if Bobby Brown had
single-handedly rewritten the rules of contemporary R&B. He certainly wasn't the first
singer to take advantage of New Jack Swing's blend of hard hip-hop beats and smooth soul
crooning – Keith Sweat had by then already cracked the R&B charts with "I Want Her" – but
Brown turned the sound into a mainstream-pop bonanza. Some of that had to do... More >