Chris Brown, “Back to Sleep” | Controversial Tunes 😈🎶

On the 8^th edition of Controversial Tunes (2022), we explore the controversy behind the song, “Back to Sleep” by Chris Brown.   

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ring on the controversy! Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 is a column that provides background information and insight into songs that raised eyebrows and totally stirred the pot.  The records that grace Controversial Tunes are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  On the 8^th edition of Controversial Tunes (2022), we explore the controversy behind the song, 🎵 “Back to Sleep” by 🎙 Chris Brown.

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Theme & Lyrics ✍ 

“I know you got work pretty early, I’ll be around ‘bout 3:30 / Usually you done by one, so baby, when I wake you up / Just let me rock, fuck you back to sleep girl.” Sex is a recurring theme in the music of 🎙 Chris Brown – an understatement.  Unsurprisingly, the universal three-letter word is central to 🎵 “Back to Sleep”, the opener for his 2015 album, 💿 Royalty.  The narrative is that the 🏆 Grammy winner flew in for a trip, it’s late, and he wants to ‘do it’ with his bae.  Of course, “do it” isn’t how he refers to what he’s going to do…

“Just let me rock, fuck you back to sleep girl

Don’t say a word, no, don’t you talk

Just hold on tight to me girl

Fuck you back to sleep girl, rock you back.”

Blunt as fuck there, Chris Brown.  While the f-bomb has been used to describe sex more and more frequently in the 2010s-20s, “Back to Sleep” raises some eyebrows. According to The Guardian, Best Coast singer Bethany Consentino slammed the record and those who praised it. In a tweet, she asserts, “Singing about fucking a girl back to sleep/telling her don’t say a word is singing about rape + it’s disgusting.” She has a point.  Even in the second verse, it’s disturbing to an extent when Brown sings, “I know you’re almost half asleep but you know I might just need ya / Girl I need ya, oh / Gon’ gimme that spare key, oh / But if you keep the door unlocked, be ready, oh.” Sketchy and potentially rape-y! Does Brown have bad intentions, where rape would be the modus operandi? I’d say no, but I do think “Back to Sleep” is problematic to a degree, intentional or not.

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Final Thoughts 💭 

When it comes to how critics viewed this song, there are more positive reviews than I’d expect.  If you can get past is oversexed nature, I would consider “Back to Sleep” one of the better songs on 💿 Royalty.  Still, I wasn’t a fan of the album, and “Back to Sleep” didn’t move the needle for me. Also, how about one more controversy, depending on whom you ask? Brown names the album after his daughter, Royalty, yet drops a sus, over-sexual record like “Back to Sleep.” Just saying! You be the judge, tho!

Appears in 🔽:
11 Songs That Center Around Sleep

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🎙 Chris Brown • 💿 Royalty • 🏷 RCA • 🗓 2015
Chris Brown, “Back to Sleep”: Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 No. 8 (2022) [📷: Brent Faulkner, cottonbro, Darkmoon_Art,  TheDigitalArtist, inna mikitas, Isabela Catão, Jonathan Nenemann, The Musical Hype, Pexels, Pixabay, RCA, Tazz Vaughn, Victoria Borodinova, zzzvector]

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