Chris Brown holds high-end yard sale at his Los Angeles home
LOS ANGELES >> Chris Brown held a high-end yard sale Wednesday at his Los Angeles home, with hundreds of fans, gawkers and bargain-seekers waiting for hours to try to get a piece of the singer’s stuff.
Brown posted a flyer on his Instagram and Twitter accounts Tuesday night that included the address of his suburban mansion in the Tarzana neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley.
“Featuring significantly marked-down high-end items,” the flyer said.
Brown captioned the posts “DA CRIB … 2 day event” and included a heart emoji.
Brown, often called by his nickname Breezy, burst onto the music scene as a teen in 2005, won a Grammy Award in 2011 for best R&B album and remains a major hitmaker. His newest album “Indigo” went to No. 1 when it was released in June, he has a current top 10 hit, “No Guidance” featuring Drake and he’s nominated for a pair of American Music Awards.
But he’s also in the past decade been nearly as well known for a stream of highly publicized run-ins with law enforcement, starting with a felony assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 to which he pleaded guilty.
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The crowd of hundreds began gathering late Tuesday for the yard sale, who were joined Wednesday by news trucks documenting the scene and news helicopters hovering overhead.
A long line that stretched down the sidewalk for several blocks ended at a driveway filled with large canvas canopies shading rows of clothes.
Some said they had driven from as far away as Arizona and didn’t care what they walked away with as long as it belonged to Brown.
Symone Maddox of San Bernardino, California, said she took the day off work to check out the yard sale, hoping to get hats and hoodies. “I already told my boss. She told me to bring something back,” Maddox said.
The 23-year-old, a hip-hop artist who goes by the name Young Maddox, said she’s been a Brown fan since the beginning of his career and was hoping that she could pass some of her music on to him and get him to sign some merchandise. She said despite owning much of the singer’s apparel already, it’d be nice to get something directly from singer.
“I think this is a dope opportunity to be personal with his fans,” she said.
The crowd appeared orderly, remaining mostly on a sidewalk. Police said they had received no complaints.
A news release said the singer plans to donate some of the proceeds to unspecified charities. It was not clear whether he would make an appearance.
The same home attracted reporters and helicopters to a very different scene in 2016, when Brown and police had an hourslong standoff that ended in his arrest on suspicion of assault. Brown’s attorney denied any wrongdoing, and police did not file any charges.
Brown was most recently arrested early this year in France along with two other people on suspicion of aggravated rape and drug infractions — allegations that Brown and his lawyer have denounced as false and defamatory. Brown was released and allowed to leave the country without charges being filed as Paris prosecutors continued their investigation.