Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand (born September 6, 1978),[2][5] better
known as Foxy Brown, is an American rapper known for her solo work
as well as numerous collaborations with other artists and her brief
stint as part of hip hop music group The Firm. Raised in Brooklyn,
New York, her father Keith Stahler abandoned the family at a young
age to pursue his career at ERAC records. Her albums include Ill
Na Na in 1996, followed by Chyna Doll in 1999, Broken Silence in
2001, and Brooklyn's Don Diva in 2008. She performed also in the
1997 self-titled album by the Firm, the only album to be released
by that group to date. Throughout her career, Brown has held an extensive
arrest record and served some time in jail.
After 2002, she continued recording verses for herself and other
artists but did not release any albums; she left the Def Jam label
in 2003, thus canceling the release of her Ill Na Na 2 album. However,
she returned to the label in January 2005 after Jay-Z signed her
back to begin work on her new album Black Roses. In December 2005,
she began suffering from hearing loss, which put her career on hiatus
until the next summer, a few months after surgery. A mixtape, which
originally was her fourth album, was released in May 2008 following
many delays spawned by a jail sentence that Brown served for assault.
While still a teenager, Brown won a talent contest in the Park Slope
neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Members of the production team
Trackmasters who were working on LL Cool J's Mr. Smith album were
in attendance that night and were impressed enough to let Brown rap
over "I Shot Ya." [4] She followed this debut with appearances
on several RIAA platinum and gold singles from other artists, including
remixes of songs "You're Makin' Me High" by Toni Braxton.[4]
Brown was also featured on the soundtrack to the 1996 film The Nutty
Professor, on the songs "Touch Me Tease Me" by Case and "Ain't
No Nigga" by Jay-Z.[6] The immediate success led to a label
bidding war at the beginning of 1996, and in March, Def Jam Records
won and added the then 17-year old-rapper to their roster.[4]
In 1996, Brown released her debut album Ill Na Na to mixed reviews
but strong sales. The album sold over 109,000 copies in the first
week, and debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200 album charts.[4] The
album was heavily produced by Trackmasters, and featured guest appearances
from Jay-Z, Blackstreet, Method Man, and Kid Capri.[7] The album
went on to go platinum and launched two hit singles: "Get Me
Home" (featuring Blackstreet) and "I'll Be" (featuring
Jay-Z).[8]
Following the release of Ill Na Na, Brown joined fellow New York-based
hip hop artists, Nas, AZ and Nature to form the supergroup known
as The Firm. The album was released via Aftermath Records and was
produced and recorded by the collective team of Dr. Dre, The Trackmasters,
and Steve "Comissioner" Stout of Violator Entertainment.
An early form of The Firm appeared on "Affirmative Action",
from Nas' second album, It Was Written. A remix of the song, and
several group freestyles were in the album, Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ,
and Nature Present The Firm: The Album.[9] The album entered the
Billboard 200 album chart at #1 and sold over half a million records
and is RIAA certified gold.[10]
In March 1997, she joined the spring break festivities hosted by
MTV in Panama City, Florida, among other performers including rapper
Snoop Dogg, pop group The Spice Girls, and rock band Stone Temple
Pilots.[11] Later, she joined the Smokin' Grooves tour hosted by
the House of Blues with the headlining rap group Cypress Hill, along
with other performers like Erykah Badu, The Roots, OutKast, and The
Pharcyde, the tour set to begin in Boston, Massachusetts in the summer
of 1997.[12] However, after missing several dates in the tour, she
left it.[13]
[edit] Chyna Doll
Main article: Chyna Doll (album)
Chyna Doll was released in January 1999.[14] It sold 173,000 copies
in its opening week.[15] However, its sales quickly declined in later
weeks.[16] The album's lead single, "Hot Spot", failed
to enter the top 50 of the Billboard pop charts, as did the follow-up
single, "I Can't" (featuring Total). Chyna Doll has been
certified platinum after surpassing one million copies in shipments.[17]
[edit] Broken Silence
Main article: Broken Silence
In 2001, Brown released Broken Silence. Its first single was "BK
Anthem" showcased Brown changing to a "street" image
and giving a tribute to her hometown, Brooklyn, and famous rappers
such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. The second single from the
album was "Oh Yeah", which featured her then-boyfriend,
Jamaican dancehall artist Spragga Benz.[18] The song "NA NA
Be Like on Broken Silence was produced by Kenya Fame Flames Miller
and Nokio from Dru Hill. The song "Na Na Be Like" was also
on the "Blue Streak Soundtrack'. The album debuted on the Billboard
Charts at #5, selling 130,000 units its first week. Like previous
albums, Broken Silence also sold over 500,000 records and is certified
gold by the RIAA.
In the same year, Brown has recorded a song for the action-comedy
film Rush Hour 2, Blow My Whistle, which is a collaboration with
Japanese-American singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, and was written
by Utada herself, alongside Pharrel Williams and Chad Hugo. The song
is included on Def Jam's Rush Hour 2 Soundtrack, which peaked the
11th spot on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
and also the 1st on the Top Soundtracks. Blow My Whistle was produced
by The Neptunes.[19]
[edit] Ill Na Na 2: The Fever
Main article: Ill Na Na 2: The Fever
In 2002, Brown returned to the music scene briefly with her single "Stylin'",
whose remix featured rappers Birdman, her brother Gavin, Loon, and
N.O.R.E.Malkam Dior was to be the first single off of her upcoming
album Ill Na Na 2: The Fever.[20] The next year, she was featured
on DJ Kayslay's single "Too Much for Me" from his Street
Sweeper's Volume One Mixtape.[21] She also appeared on Luther Vandross'
final studio album Dance with My Father.[22] That April, Brown appeared
on popular New York radio DJ Wendy Williams' radio show, and revealed
the details of her relationships with Lyor Cohen, president of Def
Jam Recordings at the time, and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
Brown accused both of illegally trading her recording masters. She
also announced that Cohen shelved her long awaited fourth album Ill
Na Na 2: The Fever over personal disagreements.[23] Therefore, "Stylin'" was
released on the compilation album The Source Presents: Hip Hop Hits
Vol. 6 in December 2002.[24]
[edit] Black Roses
Main article: Black Roses (Foxy Brown album)
In 2004, Brown reunited with her old friend and mentor Jay-Z, when
he became the president of Def Jam and signed her to its subsidiary,
Roc-A-Fella Records. Later that year, Brown joined Jay-Z and several
other hip-hop acts on his Jay-Z and Friends tour. Brown began recording
her fourth solo album, Black Roses.[25] After numerous delays and
sampling problems with the album, it was revealed in early 2010 that
the album was shelved. Its first single was "Come Fly With Me" featuring
Sizzla.[26]
Foxy is currently working on a new version of the album in 2010.
[edit] Brooklyn's Don Diva
Main article: Brooklyn's Don Diva
Brown signed to Koch Records in August 2007.[27] Brooklyn's Don
Diva, Brown's fourth album, was released on May 13, 2008 after many
delays triggered by her prison sentence. The album peaked at #83
on the Billboard 200 chart, #8 on the Independent Albums chart, and
#5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[28]
[edit] Lawsuit
On July 24, 2008, publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. sued Brown
in state court in New York claiming that it paid her $75,000 under
a 2006 contract for an autobiography, tentatively titled Broken Silence,
but that Brown never delivered on the contract. Brown's case is Simon & Schuster
v. Inga Marchand, 110125/2008, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan).[29]
[edit] Personal life
She is of mixed Afro-Trinidadian and Asian descent.[30] Around 2001,
she was engaged to Spragga Benz.[18] Brown suffered hearing loss
from May 2005 to June 2006. During that time, she opted not to wear
a hearing aid, and she had someone tap beats on her shoulder while
she recorded music.[31][32] In June 2008, rumors that Brown was engaged
to rapper Rick Ross began to circulate after Brown and Ross were
together on a cover photo of Hip Hop Weekly magazine. After the publication
of that issue, Ross stated that he was not engaged to anyone.[33]
[edit] Legal troubles
On January 25, 1997, Brown spat on two hotel workers in Raleigh,
North Carolina when they told her they did not have an iron available.
When she missed a court appearance, an arrest warrant was issued
and she finally turned herself in on April 30, 1997. She eventually
received a 30-day suspended sentence and was ordered to perform 80
hours of community service.[34]
On July 3, 1999, Brown was escorted off the stage by police at a
concert in Trinidad and Tobago for using obscene language, but was
neither charged nor arrested.[35] In 2000, she announced she was
suffering from depression and entered rehab at Cornell University
Medical College for an addiction to prescription painkillers, in
particular, morphine, at one point stating that she could not perform
or make records unless she was on the drug.[36] On March 6, 2000,
Brown crashed her Range Rover in Flatbush, Brooklyn and thus was
arrested for driving without a license.[37]
Threat of arrest faced her following an altercation at the Norman
Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica from July 26, 2002;
she would be arrested if she ever would return to the country. Nicola
White, clerk of the Kingston Criminal Court, told the New York Post
that Brown illegally evaded a body search at the airport and punched
a policewoman in the stomach. Brown's publicist, Marvette Britto,
argued that Brown felt that she was being "detained" at
the airport. Originally, a hearing for Brown was scheduled for July
28, 2002, but Brown failed to show up. Thus, on late December 2002,
an arrest warrant was set up for Brown skipping the hearing.[38]
On August 29, 2004, Brown attacked two manicurists in Chelsea, Manhattan
during a dispute over a $20 bill that she refused to pay, and she
in April 2005 pleaded not guilty to assault charges[39] and entered
three years of probation effective October 2006.[40] For that incident,
she would also take anger management classes.[41] Female rapper Jacki-O,
in April 2005, alleged that she and Brown got into a physical altercation
at a recording studio in Miami, Florida, saying that Brown came into
the studio during her session and expected her to "bow down" to
her.[42] The next month, Brown denied any such altercation in an
interview with the Miami, Florida hip-hop radio station WEDR.[43]
Joseph Tacopina, Brown's attorney, stated on December 6, 2005 that
he could no longer communicate with Foxy Brown verbally due to her
sudden hearing loss. Judge Melissa Jackson suspended Brown's assault
case for two weeks.[44]
As a result of her legal troubles, Brown entered a confrontation
with radio host Egypt on New York City radio station WWPR-FM ("Power
105.1").[45] Brown pleaded not guilty in March 2007 to assaulting
a beauty supply store employee.[46] Her other arrests during 2007
included leaving New York state without permission during probation,[47]
hitting a neighbor with a BlackBerry,[48] and almost running over
a stroller with a baby inside.[49] The New York Times reported that
Brown moved from Brooklyn to Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey without
informing officials, but Brown's lawyer Alan Stutman stated that
Brown's mother owned the Englewood Cliffs residence in question.[3][nb
2]
On September 7, 2007, New York Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson
sentenced Foxy Brown to one year in jail for violating her probation
that stemmed from the 2004 fight with two manicurists in a New York
City nail salon.[50] No mention was made during the trial by anyone
about Brown expecting a baby. On September 12, 2007, her representatives
stated the rapper was not pregnant in response to claims by her lawyer
that she was.[51] On October 23, 2007, Brown was given 76 days in
solitary confinement due to a physical altercation that took place
on October 3, 2007 with another prisoner. According to the prison
authorities, Brown, the next day after the incident, was also verbally
abusive toward correction officers and refused to take a random drug
test.[52] Prison authorities reported on November 27 that she was
released "from solitary confinement...for good behavior",[53]
and Brown was finally released from prison on April 18, 2008.[54]
On July 22, 2010, Brown was charged with violating an order of protection[55]
during an incident in which police claimed that she swore at and
then mooned her neighbour and rival Arlene Raymond. She was released
on $5,000 bail following her arrest.[56]
[edit] Discography
Main article: Foxy Brown discography
* Ill Na Na (1996)
* Chyna Doll (1999)
* Broken Silence (2001)
* Brooklyn's Don Diva (2008)
[edit] Filmography
Year Title Role
1998 Woo Fiancée
2004 Fade to Black Herself