"HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That's the ultimate F**K OFF!," Brown tweeted on Tuesday in a widely-reported screed that has since been deleted, but was preserved by the Mashable site. The site reported that a trending topic during the Grammy show was "wife beater" in reference to Brown.
"Strange how we pick and choose who to hate!," Brown reportedly wrote. "Let me ask u this. Our society is full of rappers (which I listen to) who have sold drugs (poisoning). But yet we glorify them and imitate everything they do. Then right before the worlds eyes a man shows how he can make a Big mistake and learn from it, but still has to deal with day to day hatred! You guys love to hate!!! But guess what???"
An unnamed source said to be close to Brown denied that the singer posted the comments himself, telling Radar Online that "someone does his postings on Twitter and when he saw that he ordered it taken down immediately." A spokesperson for Brown could not be reached for comment at press time.
Brown's angry response came after a number of celebrities expressed disappointment that the singer performed twice on the Grammy broadcast. Among them were country star Miranda Lambert, who wrote, "I don't get it. He beat on a girl ... not cool that we act like that didn't happen." She suggested that Brown needed to listen to her track "Gunpowder and Lead" (about a woman getting ready to kill her abusive husband) and "be put back in his place. Not at the Grammys."
Jack Osbourne was not impressed either, Tweeting, "Chris Brown ... people don't forget! #chrisbrownbeatswomen," while singer Michelle Branch wrote, "Trying not to go off on a rant but ... Chris Brown ... *bites tongue* have we forgiven him?"
Brown has struggled to express himself in public before, often doing more harm than good in interviews and on Twitter, where he has been
In another Tweet that has since been deleted, Brown wrote after his win for Best R&B album, "people who make mistakes and learn from them are ROLE MODELS too. I'm just happy to inspire growth and positivity."
After a number of music critics and op-ed writers questioned the logic of having Brown return to the Grammy stage, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow defended the decision on Monday, saying the Academy's voting helps dictate the content of the show. "If we're going to get in trying to personally evaluate artists in terms of their personal lives, that's a slippery slope that we wouldn't want to get into," he said.