Since the age of 15, Chris Brown has been pursuing his dream of becoming an artist. Now, at age 34, he reflects on how his business thinking has changed over the years.
On a recent episode of the “Club Shay Shay” podcast, Brown told host Shannon Sharp that he owes much of his success to having good people on his team, especially on the professional side.
His recipe for success
“You know, I was able to put together a great team,” Brown shared. “I’ve been through ups and downs, I had a lot of financial setbacks in the beginning, but now it’s just about creating things that create things that will be accessible to everyone. It doesn’t have to be named around my real name or brand. “I just want to be able to leave a legacy for my family outside of music… I want to be rich, not wealthy.”
The Virginia native has kept a low profile since entering the game.
As AFROTECH previously reported during a 2015 interview, Brown revealed that not only did he own 14 Burger King franchises, but when he first broke into the industry as a teenager, the “Yo (Sorry Miss)” singer bought his mother. house for 1 million dollars.
This family-first attitude continues now that he has his own family.
As the father of three children – Royalty, Aeko and Lovely – Brown says some of the business decisions he made early on will benefit his descendants in the long run.
Making music history
Moreover, at the age of 29, Brown made history as the youngest artist to gain ownership of his work, and he says he will stay that way because it is important to him to ensure that his children are set up for success.
“I don’t think I’d sell them,” he told Sharp when asked if he plans to follow in the footsteps of his colleagues, who have been cashing in on their catalogs lately. “I could rent them out and stuff like that later (he laughed), but I don’t think I would do that because I feel like as black artists, that’s what we’ve always wanted… to be able to have our masters.”
Sets your children up for success
Brown continued, “For me to be able to do this and be one of the first young cats to do it, it’s like I won the game. But I feel like at this point I wouldn’t (sell my catalogue) because that’s what my children’s children can eat.”
Nearly two decades and 10 studio albums since the start of his music career, Celebrity Net Worth reports that Brown is worth an estimated $50 million, so it looks like those early business moves are continuing to pay off now and in the future.