I can transform ya

Barely a year after their unforeseeable domestic violence dispute, the case still resonates in all of us. Since then, both Rihanna and Chris Brown have debuted new albums; therapy for each of them, as well as a kind of fresh start for both.

Rihanna especially has taken the breakup to create a new, hard-edged, tough and strong, don't-mess-with-me look.

When Chris Brown's album first came out in the fall, around the same time as Rihanna's Rated R, I, never having established myself as a Chris Brown fan originally, stayed away from it on principle. I didnt want to support him after what he supposedly did. None of us know what happened behind the scenes, and none of us should know anything more than it happened. It. The unspeakable, unforgivable. What we all assumed happened after seeing the photos of Rihanna's pummeled face.

I heard the first single from Chris Brown's new album, Graffiti, "I can transform you," and initially I stayed strong. I continued my indifference, on principle. Then I began to like it. And soon, I really liked it; it was all I wanted to hear. When it comes on the radio, even if you are tied up, in a straightjacket, to a pole so tightly so as not to be able to move, you would still find yourself dancing to this song.

Little "Weezy" lends himself to the song as well, with his extremely unique and immediately recognizable voice, with catchy rap and entertaining rhymes.

I was never an anti-fan; I never disliked him, I just somehow never became a fan. I sort of just stayed away when the craze was thick, took it for any other fad that would pass.

My sister, Tarah, however, was a fan from the beginning, of his music, of his portrayals in films, of his relationship with Rihanna. So after I began to truly, sincerely enjoy this song, I searched iTunes and found the rest of the cd, which was long, and surprisingly cheap to purchase on iTunes for that amount of songs. I very briefly listened to the snippets of music, the samples of each of the songs, and they were good. Catchy, entertaining.

I bought the cd to give to Tarah for Christmas, and decided that even if I didnt like the rest of the cd, at least I would have "I can transform you," and could discard the rest.

Listening to the cd in my car before making the cd to give to Tarah turned out to be a bit of a mistake because it ended up ruining part of her Christmas present (and I proceeded to ruin the other part later in the week before Christmas -- sorry, T!) but it was good in the sense that if I hadnt, I probably would have never listened to the cd in its entirety and grown to LOVE it!

Now, I listen to it all the time and am still astounded at the range of the songs. Some are glimpses into his worries, concerns, and the causes for his sadness; the apologetic, self-loathing serenades. Others are the superficial glosses over those innermost thoughts: the high-energy, upbeat, fast-paced club-style songs in which he admires the way women move and dance, and the way they look.

He sings about the way he feels always being in the spotlight, wanting to hide, but not wanting to let anyone down,

"Sometimes I don't wanna wake up alone,

Sometimes I wanna wake up and be on my own,

Sometimes I don't wanna walk by and smile,

But at the same time, I don't wanna let people down,

Can you imagine the weight of the world,

placed on your shoulders,

trapped in this world and noone can reach you...."