Tina Davis, now Empire president and formerly Chris Brown’s manager, has opened up about how the team handled the singer’s career following his 2009 assault on ex-girlfriend Rihanna.
During a recent sit-down with NandoLeaks, Davis discussed how she and the Phase Too team (the firm through which she managed Brown early in his career) strategized to rebuild his career following his guilty plea to the assault.
Davis reflected on the challenges of the time, noting that radio wasn’t supporting Brown’s music, which presented a major setback from an artist management perspective.
“At that point, you had to have radio,” she explained. “There were no DSPs and different other platforms for you to use to break. No TikTok. Twitter wasn’t even around really. It was just starting. So it was hard to try and get him over that hump or get people to change their minds because before it happened everyone loved him.”
To illustrate Brown’s early popularity, Davis described how fans—and even their parents—adored him.
“Parents were dropping their kids off at hotels like, ‘Go get Chris Brown! Go get him!’ and I’m like, ‘If you don’t put your daughter back in your car. Stop!’ Parents were sending their kids to the hotel.”
“It was that bad. Because he was a sweetheart to the world, right? So they were like, ‘He’s a good kid. I want you to marry this kid. Go get him,” she recounted, adding that the team, including Brown and his mother, strongly condemned this behavior.
“Fortunately, him, his mom, and all of us were not down with that. We were like, no, take your child and leave,” Davis clarified.
Davis then outlined the team’s plan to restore Brown’s reputation and career. They focused on flooding the industry with mixtapes and features to keep him relevant.
The strategy eventually gained traction when Brown teamed up with Tyga, resulting in mixtapes that produced hits like “Deuces.” The track peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since been certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.
“[Tyga] was the only one that would stand right next to him and do videos and whatever else with him,” Davis added.
If you’re unfamiliar, Tina Davis’s years of significant behind-the-scenes impact in the music industry includes a decade at Def Jam and establishing Phase Too, which managed Chris Brown during his early rise to fame.
More recently, Davis and the Empire team became one of 2024’s biggest success stories with the breakout hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey.
You can watch the full interview below:
