Chris Brown Shows Off His Jamaican Connections Once Again On ‘Brown’
R & B superstar Chris Brown loves the Caribbean and its people. A simple scroll through the playlist of his twelfth studio album, Brown, will show that he has a notable collaboration with dancehall icon Vybz Kartel on the juicy cut, ‘F#ck N Party’.
Few people, however, will know that track number 6, “Hate Me”, has a fascinating Jamaican connection. The track, produced by Alan Sampson and co-written with UK songwriter James Essien and Plested, leans into classic R&B sounds.
The brilliant James Essien is one half of Pick Pockets Music, the brainchild of Essien and industry executive Isaac ‘Blak London’ Brown. Brown, who has Jamaican parentage, is a former A&R executive at Empire Distribution. He discovered James Essien and later became his manager.
“We wrote this song like four years ago and Chris (Brown) just picked it up six months ago, but we have the original version written and sang. Our production team and writers are next level, we are doing everything right now. Essien is one of the biggest songwriters right now, I manage him under the whole Blak Friday Management umbrella,” Blak London said.
Blak London has played a key role in Essien’s development as a UK hitmaker, including a publishing deal with Funfair/Kobalt. Essien secured three cuts including the monster hit, SWIM, on the new album from global superstars K-pop group BTS.
In March, SWIM surged straight to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, while the group’s fifth studio album ARIRANG crowning the K-pop idols the first South Korean act to debut at No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 in the same week.
Essien has co-writing credits on comeback single Swim, alongside additional tracks titled Alien and Please. Notable achievements include co-writing the lead single Here from Tom Grennan’s No.1 album What Ifs & Maybes, as well as co-writing for Clean Bandit, Mahalia and James Blunt.
When Blak London was an A & R at Empire Music, he was always trying to do ‘something Jamaican because his parents were from yard’. His grandparents hail from local towns such as Kingston, Savanna-la-mar (Westmoreland) and the parish of St. Elizabeth.
“My mom was born at Kingston Jubilee (hospital), so a lot of my people are between Maverley, Red Hills and Rema, so I am full blown Jamaican,” he said, proudly.
Blak London has doubled down on his love for Jamaican as he has also signed emerging social media sensation and dancehall artiste Jamaican Monifa Goss under the Blak Friday Management (BFM). Essien is also signed to BFM.
“When I signed Monifa five years ago to Empire, Monifa was working with him back then, but nothing really came out because Monifa was on the come up and James hadn’t blown up yet. But Essien’s been killing it, so it’s time to bring Monifa back to the Caribbean and flip the whole sound, and give them a worldwide sound,” Blak London said.
Blak London and James Essien are UK’s biggest export when it comes songwriting on the international stage right now.
He explained the special connection that Chris Brown has with Jamaica.
“Chris Brown thinks he is a yard man, you hear how he talks the Jamaican patois like a yawdie. When you meet him, he is just so humble, he will just be there, chilling and vibing with everyone,” Blak London joked.
CHRIS BROWN’S JAMAICAN CONNECTS
Chris Brown has had a great history of working with Jamaican musicians and artists.
In 2009, Brown joined forces with Sean Paul for the song ‘Brown Skin Girl’, which is featured on Brown’s album Graffiti.
Brown continued that trend with 2023’s album 11:11 which featured the Afrobeats-dancehall mashup collaboration Nightmares with Jamaican-born Byron Messia. That song charted at #73 on the UK Singles chart and made it to #22 on Billboard’s R&B Songs chart.
Brown notably collaborated with dancehall artiste Konshens for a remix of the hit song ‘Bruk Off Yuh Back’ and also collaborated with Elephant Man’s ‘Feel the Steam’ for his 2008 Grammy-nominated album ‘Let’s Get Physical’.
LYRICS TO HATE ME
You can hate me
But I’ll still be there when you need me
If it makes you feel better, then break me
I’ll be the one left in pieces
If you wanna see me in a hearse
That’s probably what I deserve
All I ever wanted was the best for ya
I just couldn’t find the words
So I’ll be here to take the pain
And you can make me out the same
If that’s what it takes to love yourself again
You can hate me
But I’ll still be there when you need me
If it makes you feel better, then break me
I’ll be the one left in pieces
If that’s what it takes
I’ll go get all my things
Throw them in the flames
Just get it off your chest
The shit you gotta say
I admit it, it was different
We were only kids, who we kiddin’?
Put a hit on my name if that’s what it takes
You can hate me (Hate)
But I’ll still be there when you need me (Need me, yeah, yeah)
If it makes you feel better, then break me (Break)
I’ll be the one left in pieces (Left in pieces, oh)
If that’s what it takes (Yeah)
If that’s what it takes (Hmm)
If that’s what it takes (Ooh, ah, oh)
If that’s what it takes (Yeah)
If that’s what it takes
If that’s what it takes (Hey)
Girl, you can hate me (If that’s what it takes)
Hate me
But I’ll still be there when you need me
If it makes you feel better, then break me
I’ll be the one left in pieces
Oh, if that’s what it takes