As if commemorating the 20th anniversary of Chris Brown‘s self-titled debut album on November 29 wasn’t enough for his fans to celebrate, the dedicated stan group – affectionately called #TeamBreezy – were given even more great news to toast to from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Monday (December 1).
Taking to press on December 1, the RIAA announced the bestowment of eight new plaques to Brown’s discography (mostly for hits found aboard his 2005 inaugural LP).
See the total list below.
5x platinum
- ‘Run It’ (Single)
4x platinum
- ‘Yo (Excuse Me Miss)’ (Single)
- ‘Chris Brown’ (Album)
3x platinum
- ‘Say Goodbye’ (Single)
2x platinum
- ‘Gimme That’ (Single)
1x platinum (for sales of 1 million in the U.S.)
- ‘Poppin’ (Single)
Gold (for sales of 500,000 in the U.S.)
- ‘Ain’t No Way’ (Single)
- ‘Ya Man Ain’t Me’ (Single)
Thanks to the upgrades above, Brown’s cumulative sales in the United States now sit at a whopping 163 million records (singles + albums) – a sum that is just enough for him to break the longstanding record of his idol Michael Jackson.
The King of Pop, whose 158.5 million sold (albums + singles) in the same territory once saw him crowned the highest-selling Black male vocalist in the 73-year history of the RIAA, has now moonwalked to the #2 spot behind Chris on that list.
Speaking globally, however, Brown has quite a way to go to catch up to Jackson who – at the time of this report – is said to have sold over 1 billion records worldwide (making him the overall best-selling artist in music history).
In America, however, Chris is now #3 on the all-time best-seller list among all male vocalists and trails only King of Rock N’ Roll Elvis Presley (189.5 million) and Country superstar Luke Combs (163.5 million).
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I don’t understand why y’all still comparing the current artists with the dead. It is not fair for the artists who had passed.
Chris Brown is smoke and mirrors. He could never compare to MJ. Thriller outside his whole pitiful career.
If you believe Luke Combs and Chris Brown has actually and literally sold more of anything than Michael Jackson in pure and actual sales when none of them even have one diamond album or at least five huge hot 100 number one songs then you are crazy. Again and again it’s nothing but FREE STREAMING NUMBERS.
Chris brown is one artist that is so mediocre and boring when it comes to his music. Everything sounds the same and he literally has no groundbreaking albums. If he weren’t a cute, tall and light-skinned boy that can dance, no one would be checking for him. Let’s just be honest…
Delete or change title to:Historic! Chris Brown Surpasses Michael Jackson to Become the highest certified Black Male Vocalist in RIAA History
Because Chris Brown didn’t sell 25% of what Michael Jackson sold in the US. RIAA certifications are based on streams: 1.5B YouTube streams = 11M certifications (10M song + 1M album).
Elvis is the top selling male artist worldwide not michael Jackson.