November 09, 2007

Kanye West Put A Stop To Chris Brown's Graduation Plans

By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Yasmine Richard (MTV.com)

If Chris Brown had his way, his latest album - the recently released Exclusive - would've been named Graduation instead. But according to the fleet-footed dancer, once Kanye West caught wind of the potentially overlapping LP titles, he ... er ... politely requested Brown consider renaming his project.

"At first I was naming it Graduation because I was 18," Brown explained to MTV News. "But then Kanye was like, 'I heard Chris is naming his album Graduation. I'm naming mine ... .' [He laughs.] I was like, I'll change mine because I respect his reason more with [The] College Dropout and Late Registration, all that, so it kind of went with his. So I was like, I don't need mine to be Graduation, you know, I'll change mine to Exclusive, because I'll make an album exclusively for my fans."

Brown wasn't so exclusive when it came to putting the project together - the Virginia native worked with Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Will.I.Am and other guests to make it happen. But the singer's next single, the Stargate-produced "With You," features Brown solo. According to him, the matching video - which he has already shot - also showcases Brown more singularly than his previous clips.

"I co-directed it as well," he said of the video. "And it shows me more solo. Like, it shows the grown side of Chris - it doesn't show the kiddie side. 'Cause with this album, I wanted to blend, I wanted to do all different visuals of me. The first [video] 'Wall to Wall,' the acting, the vampires, the spookiness, then you go to 'Kiss, Kiss,' that had the little goofy part, now this one is solo, the main [performer] is me. Me freestyle dancing - just showing people me naturally, not a choreographed routine, just me dancing and showing you what I'm capable of. But at the same time, just having fun with the camera, and just one-on-one time with me and my audience."

Brown's label, Jive Records, recently announced plans for the singer to head out on a co-headlining tour with Bow Wow beginning December 6. The tour - which will also feature Soulja Boy, Lil Mama, Shop Boyz and Sean Kingston on select dates - is slated to run through Christmas and end two weeks into the new year. But Brown said to expect the tour to extend beyond the holiday season and the States as well.

"We doing it for the down South side [with the lineup], but me and Sean Kingston, he got it for like the south, south, in Jamaica," Brown joked. "And then I got it for Virginia, so we gonna go crazy. It's like a holiday tour, but I'm taking it worldwide. It was just fortunate that it started on the holiday, but once it starts, it's gonna go worldwide."