Antonio Brown’s football career remains in limbo. Nearly three months after last taking the field with the New England Patriots, rumors persist about his potential return to the reigning Super Bowl champions or another NFL team in need of help at receiver.
But as Brown waits for the call that most believe will never come, he’s found a way to stay in the spotlight – and not just through incendiary social media posts, either. On Monday morning, Brown announced that the world will soon be subject to a far lesser-known side of his many talents: the six-time Pro Bowler is set to release his first album early next year.
Remember Sean Kingston? The Jamaican-born singer was propelled to global stardom in 2007 by the chart-topping single “Beautiful Girls” and two years later earned another international hit with “Fire Burning.”
His burgeoning career was derailed by a nearly fatal jet ski accident in 2011 that eventually required him to undergo open-heart surgery. Kingston was released from the hospital after more than a month and has since made a full recovery, even getting back on the jet ski in Miami last year.
But Kingston has struggled to revive his career since the accident, releasing a third studio album in 2013 that barely blipped on the pop-culture radar. His fourth record has been in development for half a decade.
No specific reason has been given for the delay, but it’s safe to say Kingston’s next solo album has been put on the back burner. Why? He and Brown, believe it or not, will apparently be dropping a collaborative effort in January 2020.
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Brown, to be clear, has no verifiable experience in music that portended a full-length studio album. He was featured in Drake’s music video for “God’s Plan” last year and in August helped unveil the soundtrack for Madden 19.
But the brief clip of the single with Kingston he posted on Instagram revealed that Brown is a crooner, which comes as no surprise to those who remember his parody of The Weeknd’s “I Can’t Feel My Face” from 2017.
Not bad!
But considering the over-use of autotune above and the fact his debut as a musician comes with a fading star like Kingston, it’s safe to say that Brown isn’t headed for radio play or Grammy consideration. More likely is that his foray into music is another attempt to remain in the spotlight, like when he teased an upcoming screenplay in late October.
As the NFL regular season comes to a close later this month, almost surely with Brown watching from home, what’s increasingly clear is that he’s desperately clinging to relevance.
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What Brown really wants for Christmas? Not to play football but to keep the attention on himself.