By Oyinlola Awonuga (The New Diplomat’s Entertainment, Fashion and Sports Desk)
Popular American singer, Bobby Brown, has been hit by another tragedy, five years after his 22-year old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, was found dead.
This time, his 28-year-old son, Bobby Brown Jr. has been found dead at his home in Los Angeles.
This is one death too many for the singer – eight years ago, he lost his wife, Popular R&B singer, Whitney Houston, who was found dead, having drowned in a bath.
In January this year, his daughter’s ex-boyfriend, Nick Gordon, who was found legally responsible for her death, died of an overdose, aged 30.
Based on an emergency, police rushed to Bobby Jr.’s home at White Oak Avenue in Encini, California and, upon arrival, pronounced him dead.
However they are not suspecting any foul play.
Bobby Jr.’s elder brother, Landon who is also a singer and songwriter, confirmed his death though an Instagram post that reads: “I love you forever King.”
Still, the intriguing thing about Bobby Jr.’s death is that two days ago, he had posted a photograph with his girlfriend, Anya, 22.
Meanwhile, Anya, reacting to Bobby Jr.’s death tweeted today: ‘The heavens gained an angel but I lost my soulmate.’
Bobby Jr. was one of Brown’s seven children, including the late Bobbi Kristina, Landon, 34, LaPrincia, 30, Cassius, 11, Bodhi, 5, and Hendrix, 4.
LaPrincia is Bobby Jr.’s only full sibling, born to Brown and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Kim Ward, with whom Brown had a tumultuous 11-year relationship. It was less than a year Brown and Huston had their daughter, Bobbi Kristina that Ward gave birth to Bobby Jr.
In a 2006 interview with Boston magazine, Ward had complained that Houston never liked Bobby Jr. because of how close Bobby Jr. and Kristina were born, adding that Houston “has a problem with little Bobby.”
“There’ll be times she’ll call me,’ Ward said. ‘She’ll be like, ‘Oh, well, can LaPrincia come down to spend time with Krissy (Bobbi Kristina) while we go to such and such?’ Hello? No! He has another kid here, too.” Ward said.
Ward’s relationship with Brown was fraught with quarrels over child support payments before the deaths of Houston and Bobbi Kristina. In 2007, Brown was sentenced to 30 days in prison for failing to pay $20,000 to Ward for their two children, LaPrincia and Bobby Jr.
He spent three nights in a cell before a radio station paid the debt. In 2004 and 2005, Brown was also sentenced to jail in Massachusetts for failing to pay child support.
In both cases, he later paid up.
When his half-sister, Kristina died in 2015, Bobby Jr. reacted angrily to those who started following him on social media.
‘People really don’t give a f**k about you unless you’re relevant,’ he wrote in a since-deleted tweet.
‘And they don’t love you till you’re famous or gone. I don’t want these follows. Your follows ain’t gonna fill the hole in my heart, and y’all gon unfollow me once you stop caring,’ he said.
Bobby Jr. and his sister, LaPrincia were very close and he appeared in all her photos on her Instagram page. On 17 September 2018, Bobby Jr. shared a black and white throwback Instagram photo of him and LaPrincia when they were kids with their mother, Kim. And the caption read: “I love dis picture so much Happy Birthday La!! Love you so much! @laprinciaxo. And you too momma!”
Bobby Jr. was an upcoming musician following his father’s footstep. In September, he dropped the single, “Say Something” with a teaser video clip on his Instagram handle.
Bobby Brown also doubles as a songwriter, rapper, dancer and actor. Brown, alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley , is noted as a pioneer of new jack swing : a fusion of hip hop and R&B . Brown started his career in the R&B and pop group New Edition , from its inception in 1981 until his exit from the group in December 1985.
