Singer Chris Brown (or perhaps, his team?) appears to be changing his tune after denying he was responsible for disappointing thousands of lesbian fans by failing to appear at a Traxx Girls event during Labor Day weekend.
Georgia Voice was the first to report that Brown, who was scheduled to introduce tour mate Teyana Taylor before her performance at The Georgia Freight Depot, had bailed on his contractual obligation along with the deposit paid by Traxx Girls due to his unwillingness to be in the presence of gay men.
TMZ is now reporting that Brown and Traxx Girls founder Melissa Scott “have settled their differences…and all it took was CB forking over $12,500.”
Georgia Voice spoke with Scott to get her reaction to Brown’s continued public denial, the anticipated return of the deposit, and why she thought it was a good idea to even hire an artist with a history of homophobic and misogynistic behavior.
Scott on Brown’s behavior:
"Chris Brown is a business. It’s a lot of moving parts. It’s either A or B: one, he’s out of his mind and crazy or the right hand isn’t talking to the left hand. Those are the only two options in the world. But as a sane person, if you see that people are saying such and such, I’d do a little bit more research to see what in the hell happened. So I’d have to go with option A and say you’re crazy! What do you mean you weren’t booked? There is a contract…money was paid. That’s how you book people. People were telling me that I could have done more to make him show up. What more could I have done; kidnap the man and blindfold him to make sure he showed up? "
On Brown’s history of homophobia:
"I literally didn’t know that Chris Brown felt any way against gay people. I’m personally a fan of his music. I still like his music…can’t take the man’s sound away from him. I thought that caliber of artist is where my brand is at this time. The beauty of it is that their tour was in town the same night, so for me as a business person that meant I didn’t have to pay travel, so that’s why we booked Chris and Teyana Taylor because they were already going to be in town."
On Brown’s misogyny and abusive past:
"To be honest, I’ve gotten into trouble for fighting with my girlfriend before. That was twenty years ago when I was younger. I’d hope the world wouldn’t hold that against me. I don’t know him to have done that again. I literally didn’t consider that when booking him. I thought he was very talented. And with the level of my personal brand and the level of artists we bring he made sense."
On giving openly gay artists the opportunity to perform at future Traxx Girls events:
"For example, take Frank Ocean: I can’t afford him. He wants $100,000.00. In order for me to book him, I’d have to charge people $100 to get in. I can afford him personally but that’s not fair to my girls. Chris was reasonably priced. When you get to $100k it makes the door price way too much. Believe it or not, openly gay artists tend to be expensive. And once again, they still have to be at a certain level…and most openly gay artists I’ve already booked and I don’t like to do repeats."
On whether or not she regrets booking Brown:
"That’s the million-dollar question. I do not regret booking Chris Brown. I regret his behavior. You know, the gay community can buy concert tickets all day and worry about whether or not people are going to hate on us in this environment, etc. This was an opportunity for them to enjoy Chris Brown and Teyana Taylor in our own environment. All he had to do was show up and speak. All he had to do was introduce Teyana Taylor and keep it moving. Those ladies love Chris Brown’s music, they would have loved to have seen him. How dare he not show up? That’s so not cool."
Both sides have been working to resolve the deal gone badly through their attorneys.
“There’s supposed to be a refund, says Scott. "They’ve been talking as if there will be a refund as of last week. I’m still waiting."