September 05, 2006 @ 3:05 pm

Bobby Brown: Every Little Step

Rob Kenner

Yeah, it’s me—the crazy one.”//Bobby Brown, a half grin on his sweat-beaded face, addresses a vacant outdoor arena on this scorching Southern California afternoon. His band thumps, his dancers bounce, and Brown stands alone before the microphone stand, peeling off his Kareem Abdul-Jabbar throwback, exposing the muscular chest of a pop star and the pot belly of a 37-year-old father of four. It’s July 15, 2006, and way up in the hills of L.A.’s Griffith Park, inside the Greek Theatre, Bobby Brown—the man who once reigned as the King of Stage, an epic, flawed Dionysian hero, has come back to the only home he truly knows. Later tonight he’ll be headlining a KHHT (Los Angeles) Hot92 Jamz–sponsored ’90s-revival concert featuring three groups that have sold over 6 million records between them: En Vogue, SWV, and New Edition spin-off Bell Biv DeVoe. But even though he’s the main attraction tonight, Brown carries himself like a man who, twenty years after he left New Edition, senses his last chance may be at hand. His band stomps through “Two Can Play That Game” (Bobby, MCA, 1992), re-creating superproducer Teddy Riley’s trademark new jack swing sound: staccato drum hits and synth chops under glossy minor-key harmonies. Four curvaceous dancers follow the lead of a wiry choreographer named Life, who’s known Brown since their street-dancing days in New York. Catching the beat, Brown syncs up with the others, pleased he can still move with such effortless grace. Then he steps back to the mic, spits into a silver bucket strategically situated on the floor in front of the stage, and growls a few lines: “Lately you’ve been acting mighty strange / To me it seems your attitude has changed / And suddenly you just don’t seem the same….” The lyrics, more than a decade old, sound fresh because they seem to echo the very public struggles Brown’s been facing lately. On this day his wife, Whitney Houston, is some 1,900 miles away in Atlanta. Depending who you ask, she’s either working on another album or working through another rehab program. Brown and Houston have been married for fourteen tempestuous years, a time that has included jail sentences, a range of addictions, rumored affairs, and, happily, some beautiful music. Nevertheless, it’s their most painful moments that have captivated public attention—even though the softer nuances of their relationship, revealed on last year’s hit Bravo series Being Bobby Brown, have done some work toward rehabilitating the pair’s image. Since the show, though, Brown and Houston are weathering a different kind of storm: Where Brown once bore the brunt of public criticism, now his wife is the focus. The beauty-and-the-beast paradigm that once dominated their public persona has been reversed. The hair salon gossip is no longer about whether Whitney will tolerate Bobby’s hijinks, but whether he will stand by her. To Read The Rest of This Story, Get This Issue At Your Local Newsstand Now! Do you want VIBE delivered to your home or office? CLICK HERE. Also in VIBE's October 2006 issue:

• Next: Currenc$y, Danity Kane, and The Pack.

• New Reality: After hosting BET's 106 & Park for five years and topping MTV's Total Request Live in the ratings, adored video countdown show hosts AJ and Free were suddenly gone. AJ and Free talk together for the first time about their thorny exit, their fans, and the end of an era.

• Keeping it Rah! - After paying dues in the dancehalls of Kingston, Jamaica, Cham's ready to shine worldwide. Ghetto Stories are everywhere. But this one is Cham's.

• From Scratch: After serving seven years for armed robbery, Mysonne returns to the studio.

• Droppin' Dime: 10 Things You Need To Know About.

• Late Registration: Vibe takes a few of our favorite stars back to school with cool campus looks for fall. Photographed by Alex Tehrani at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute. Styled by Memsor Kamarake.