When his second album, Don't Be Cruel, hit #1 US in 1989, Brown was just a few weeks shy of his 20th birthday. This made him just the fourth teenager to have a #1 album in America, following Ricky Nelson, Stevie Wonder and Tiffany. Debbie Gibson became the fifth when her album Electric Youth hit #1, replacing Don't Be Cruel at the top spot.
He was 12 years old when he formed New Edition with his childhood friends Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe and Ralph Tresvant. He was the first to leave the group, getting out in 1985 because he felt he was being exploited. Brown says the group members were getting $500 a week while their record company was making millions.
Growing up in the Roxbury area of Boston, he had it rough. He was one of eight children in a poor family. Unsupervised most of the time, he ended up hanging out with gang members, and when he was 10 years old he was shot in the knee during a skirmish. A year later, his good friend Jimbo Flint was stabbed to death at a party.
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