Brown Bobby

American musician whose breakthrough album was "Dont Be Cruel," 1988. Continually surrounded by a maelstrom, Bobby has been reputedly doing coke, on crack, in fights, getting some girl pregnant. He and his famous wife, Whitney Houston, maintain a steady position on the headlines of the scandal sheets, both for their talent and for their highly visible marital battles. Growing up in the projects, he says that he was first famous for dancing - and fighting. The youngest boy in a family of six, he was first put onstage by his mom when he was three. He was never shy, not Bobby, and he just kept on winning talent contests. "I dont think I ever felt like a kid," he recalls, "I was always around older guys." He was a baby criminal, following the ways of the ghetto big boys. When he was 11, his friend James was killed in a knife fight, which turned his head around. Bobby formed his first group, "New Edition," and they got a recording contract, putting out their first hit song, "Candy Girl," in 1983. The group members average age was 14. "There were little girls chasing around us," Bobby said, "Little panties thrown onstage. Some of those girls were fast and it broke a lot of us down." He got $500 and a VCR out of his first recording experience along with a lot of conflict, so he decided to go solo. At 17, he made a recording deal with MCA - and became a father for the first time, to Landon Brown. His first love and longtime girlfriend was Kim Ward, who gave him another two kids, Laprincia, 1989, and Robert Jr, December 1991. In 1988, Bobby made "Dont Be Cruel," a combination of hip-hop, pop and a bit of funk; the album sold an astonishing eight million copies. Bobby was a big hit in live shows and he performed exhaustively, shows soaked in sex. His dancing was electrifying. In spite of being the baddest dude, he was not happy, but felt alone and heavily down. In 1989 he met Whitney Houston and he proposed in September 1991. Both wearing white, they married in July 1992. As Houston walked down the aisle in a dress of French lace costing $40,000, 800 guests looked on. Bobbi Kristina, their first child, was born 3/09/1993. In March 1994, Bobby launched a $10 million lawsuit against his former business managers. The IRS billed him for $2.1 million the same year. He had kin and freeloaders living on his $3 million Atlanta estate. During the prior five years he had brought in some $27 million but was dogged by mismanagement and runaway spending sprees. At the same time his wife had brought in more than $30 million a year, and their dream house in New Jersey in her name was worth some $20 million. Fights and rumors kept surrounding Bobby. He beat up a patron at a nightclub near Orlando, Florida in April 1995 and was charged with aggravated battery. On 8/18/1995, he kicked a security guard in Los Angeles who had asked him to keep down the party noise. He went into alcohol rehab at the Betty Ford clinic in October 1995. On 1/29/1998, Brown was sentenced to five days in jail, 100 hours of community service, and 30 days in rehab after being found guilty of DUI. DUI charges were brought against Brown after a car accident in Hollywood, FL in 1996; he broke four ribs and a foot. Reports of a stormy marriage continued, but one in which there was obviously strong dynamics of attraction. In summer 2003 he violated the conditions of his probation from a drunk-driving conviction in Georgia. A state judge ordered his arrest, b Read less