You can call Chris Brown the comeback kid, at least if his standout performance and sweeping victory at the 2011 BET Awards is any indication of the much-maligned R&B star's buoyant popularity.


He was nominated for six awards and took home four, including the viewer's choice award. And he killed it with a performance of his hit "Look At Me Now" with Busta Rhymes (see video below).

What a difference a year makes.

At last years BET Awards he was a snotty-nosed mess, weeping hysterically and unable to finish his part in a Michael Jackson tribute. In 2009 he was nixed from the show -- still too much lingering hate from the Rihanna beating incident.

But last night Brown was in rare form, generating nothing but love.

"All my fans are everything to me," he said after taking the stage to accept his first award of the night. "I know it's been a long road. I just appreciate every blessing that's been put in front of me."

While Brown has rebounded in the eyes of many fans and for a moment, the court of public opinion, he still seems to be struggling to keep out of controversy.

Months ago he trashed a dressing room at Good Morning America after host Robin Roberts pressed him about the whooping he gave Rihanna and his path since.

And more recently the gay lobby has attacked him after what many perceived as an anti-gay slur when he lashed out at paparazzi that he believed called the police on him to incite a reaction.

"Yall n**gas is weak. Did you all call them to try and film me? Yall n**gas is gay," Brown said, according to reports and video taken at the scene. He then took to twitter to apologize to the gay community.

Some might be wondering how Brown has managed to crawl back from the bowels of public opinion to the top of the game (and the charts).

It's all about performance. He has two songs in the top 10 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop charts and continues to deliver solid stage performances.

The brazen and boastful "Look At Me Now," featuring Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne speaks best to Brown's post-scandal attitude, an attitude that, paired with his unquestioned talent as an entertainer, is the sure fire prescription to induce amnesia.

"Look at me now," the chorus goes, "I'm getting paper."

It's a page out of the R. Kelly book of comebacks.

In the shadow of pedophilia rumors and an alleged sex-tape with an underage girl, R. Kelly kept pumping out hits. That's what matters to people. As long as the relationship between artist and audience is mutually beneficial, almost any act short of murder, well, probably including murder if we're talking the rap game, can be forgiven.

All it takes is good music. Period.



In the black community forgiveness and empathy are easy to come by. Former D.C. mayor Marion "The Bitch Set Me Up" Barry (pictured above), was elected to public office again and again after he was caught up in a drug sting by police. But he didn't just hang is head and sulk back into the arms of constituents, he went on and created programs that fed and provided for the community. He went back to being his community's fiercest advocate.

Again, it's about the second act, the next of your nine lives.

Because in the black community, frailties are common. We all know good people who have done bad things, be it selling or using drugs or acts of violence. We all have an uncle or brother, cousin or sister who is or has been locked up. Folks struggling to get by with heaps of pressure on their shoulders and stumbling blocks around every corner come a dime a dozen. And we feel for them when they fall and cheer for them when they rise.

And sadly enough, even domestic violence can be a forgivable offense. Many are numb to it. Others, though it may be taboo to suggest, invite the physical drama brought on by unhealthy relationships. That includes some women who sometimes function best when the drama is highest. In the fallout after the Rihanna beating many female fans took to online message boards, Facebook and Twitter to suggest that Rihanna must've done something to spark the fight that ended with her face bloodied and battered. It was sad, really.

Some of what has enabled Brown's somewhat smooth return is a pathology. But much more of it is born from our hunger for talent and our unyielding, often foolish, support for our brothers and sisters. And Chris Brown clearly has a lot of that. He's young, gifted and black and that means something to us, as sordid and co-dependent as it might be.

Look at him now.