It looks like the tagline “Chris Brown album in stores everywhere on December 8th” was a bit of an overstatement - at least in his opinion. The R&B singer is accusing Walmart of intentionally not selling his new album, Grafitti. It all started two weeks ago when fans of the 20-year-old singer claimed that they were having difficulty finding the album at mainstream CD retailers. To investigate what he determined as “major retailers blackballing his album”, Brown visited a Walmart store in Wallingford, Connecticut last weekend and found that the store did not have his album on shelves and also did not have any copies of his CD in stock.
He alleges that major stores are boycotting his album as a result of the domestic violence incident which occurred in February where he physically assaulted his then-girlfriend, pop singer, Rihanna. Music fans may remember that following the Rihanna controversy, many pop and R&B radio stations across the country refused to play Chris Brown’s songs and support him. That sentiment has eased a bit, but there are many who believe his recent interviews expressing his remorse over assaulting Rihanna were not sincere.
Walmart has stated that they are not in anyway excluding Brown’s album from the shelves and released a statement saying that the exact opposite is true. The store’s statement was, “We are surprised at the comments online,” read a statement released by the store today. “All Walmart stores nationwide have carried the CD since its release, including the Wallingford, [Conn.], store mentioned in the post. This store actually sold through its initial shipment over the weekend. The majority of our stores today are showing they do have copies available.”
Brown, a former avid celebrity tweeter on Twitter, used the site to direct his anger toward the stores that he believes did not appropriately promote his album, and yesterday he angrily quit Twitter. Before quitting the popular social networking site he had tweeted, “I’m tired of this s—-. Major stores r blackballing my CD. Not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers. What the f— do I gotta do.”
Is it possible that he was expecting bigger record sales and wants to pinpoint a scapegoat to blame, or are some retailers really not giving the album equal shelf time as other recent releases? Obviously, cleaning up his image is his main priority after such a controversial and violent incident. However, maybe he was counting his chickens before they hatched and felt after a few interviews expressing his regret and releasing a few songs which were apologetic and introspective, he could ease back into public admiration again.
It could be he is paranoid because he knows that there are some music buyers who are still unsure what to think about him because of the domestic abuse charge. His charming looks, smooth vocals, and dance moves may not be enough for some music buyers to easily forgive him, but on the other hand haven’t some of his fans already forgiven him?
2 Responses to “Chris Brown: Acccuses Wal-Mart of Blackballing & Purposely Not Selling His Album”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Katy Capsule and Ock Andretti, Mary Bradley. Mary Bradley said: I just found this – Chris Brown: Acccuses Wal-Mart of Blackballing & Purposely Not …: .. http://bit.ly/6xlL0U [...]
[...] Here is the original post: Chris Brown: Acccuses Wal-Mart of Blackballing & Purposely Not … [...]