Historic! Chris Brown Surpasses Michael Jackson to Become the Best-Selling Black Male Vocalist in RIAA History

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).

[source]