‘The Bobby Brown Story’ on BET Part 1 Recap: The World Is A Trip

Bobby, Bobby, Bobby! That’s why we are here, right? The Bobby Brown Story: Part 1 debuted last night centered and felt like a continuation of The New Edition Story, just centered on Bobby. Tackling his rise to fame as a solo artist, drugs, tragedy, and his relationships with multiple women, including Whitney Houston, the story takes place right after Brown (Woody McClain) is kicked out of New Edition. While most of Bobby’s bad boy persona is well known in the media, this story allows Bobby to share all of himself, how he sees fit to share. One thing is for sure, this is definitely Bobby’s narrative. For me, Part 1 felt as though you were supposed to walk away knowing that while tragedy has surrounded him, Bobby, continued to push himself to be the best.

Family

Bobby’s undeniable talent and fuel for the spotlight were not only rooted in his love of music and fame, but his hustler mentality that seemingly drove him to avoid the financial struggles he and his family endured during his youth. Surrounded by neighborhood drugs and violence, this story gave an inside look into Bobby’s family, and how they tried to overcome these obstacles. While supportive of his dreams, his parents, Carole (Sandi McCree) and Herbert (T.K. Carter) put everything they had into him and his career, so that he could and would make it. His mom arranged a meeting for him with Record Executive Jheryl Busby (Durrell “Tank” Babbs) to push that solo deal after she caught Bobby with a gun and realized that he was hustling on the streets. Bobby, chose older brother Tommy (Mekhi Phifer) to be his manager, claiming he was the smartest person he knew and only one he could trust. With a loyal fan base and an uncanny ear for production, Bobby’s vocals and exhilarating live performances turned him into a superstar. Of course, as Bobby’s fame began to peak, so did the women, drugs, loss of focus, financial issues, highs, lows, and family fallouts.

Love

Speaking of the women in Bobby’s life, the film showed some reckless sexual behavior for the star, but it mostly focused on his friendships & relationships with 5 women in particular: Melika Payne (Brittney Level), Kim Ward (Asia’h Epperson), Janet Jackson (Cree Davis), Whitney Houston (Gabrielle Dennis) and Alicia Etheridge (Alyssa Goss). Fatherhood is also tackled; the show goes to great lengths to show that this was one of Bobby’s top priorities, but definitely not his top priority. So what was his top priority, then? Women.

Bobby had kids with both Melika and Kim before he even met and began dating Whitney. Melika was out in L.A., and Bobby cared for her, but she eventually moved on with Carl Anthony Payne II of Martin fame. Bobby seemed to toggle back and forth with high school sweetheart Kim. She knew he was seeing other women on the road, but it wasn’t until he began dating Whitney that things really took a turn for them. Before Whitney, the film portrays a discreet courtship between Brown and Janet Jackson. I had no knowledge of this before, but according to Bobby, he was head over heels for her, but Janet was engaged to first husband, Rene. When things ended with Janet, Brown swore off celebrities … until he met Whitney.

While Whitney is held in regard as the greatest love of his life (at least at the time), their love also had elements of co-dependence and other very public highs and lows. Bobby cheats on Whitney, getting Kim pregnant for the second time, and before telling her about the affair, he proposes. Whitney becomes pregnant at the same time and miscarries likely due to the stress of finding out about the affair and pregnancy. They marry anyway, both caught up in a whirlwind of love and drugs, letting their careers seemingly fall to the wayside. Whitney finally has Bobbi Kristina, but they are still struggling to maintain sobriety, their lifestyle, and parental duties.

After seeing the Whitney documentary this summer, it’s interesting to see the differences in the accounts. Whitney (and her brothers, for that matter) always said that Whitney was a much heavier drug user than Brown and even introduced him to new things. I got the impression that this was early on in their relationship, but according to this portrayal, Bobby found out about Whitney’s cocaine habit on their wedding day. While finding out a secret this big on your wedding day might’ve put a pause on anyone else’s wedding and marriage, they went through with it anyway. Another sore spot for the couple was Whitney’s relationship with Robyn Crawford (Yvonne Senat Jones). While he doesn’t say whether or not she and Robyn were more than friends, they allude to it more subtly than the Whitney doc, which basically confirms it. Either way, Robyn is a source of contention between the couple, but they keep pushing in love and in life. Lastly, his friendship with Alicia, who is often with Teddy Riley (Moses Jones) and his crew, plays a large role in his story. She pushes Bobby to marry Whitney, and eventually, their friendship turns into more, with Etheridge becoming his wife in 2012.

The Music

Bobby wanted to change the way R&B was done and he successfully did that by working with the best producers to make sure that his sound would be legendary. Teddy Riley, L.A. Reid, and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds were some of the greatest producers that worked alongside Bobby to create infatuating sounds, songs, and lyrics. Mesh that with Bobby’s insane on-stage presence and fashion/dance moves, and the success kept rising … until it didn’t. I have never forgotten how truly gifted Bobby was and is. He was virtually in a lane of his own, but could never seem to escape the demons that followed him, in their many forms.

What’s to Come

While Part 1 had shockers (at least the Janet Jackson part for me), I am sure Part 2 will have even bigger reveals. We still have the unfolding of Bobby’s marriage, life and hardships of Bobbi Kristina, his stints in jail, sobriety, New Edition reunions, health, redemption and more. While the pacing of this biopic was much slower than The New Edition Story to me, I will reserve my overall opinions until I’ve seen Part 2, which airs on Wednesday, September 5 at 9 pm EST/8 pm CST on BET!

Kay-B is a journalist, writer and podcaster living in New York City. She enjoys all things TV & film, world travel, great food and delightful books.

Where to stream The Bobby Brown Story