Don't Be Cruel (album)

Don't Be Cruel (album)

Don't Be Cruel is the second album by American R&B singer Bobby Brown, released in 1988 on MCA Records. It includes five hit singles "Don't Be Cruel", "My Prerogative", "Rock Wit'cha", "Roni" and "Every Little Step." All were #1 R&B singles except "Roni" and "Rock Wit'cha", which peaked at #2 and #3 respectively, while "My Prerogative" became Brown's highest charting single at #1 on the Hot 100.

Don't Be Cruel went to #1 on both the R&B and Pop charts as an album; it first topped the R&B Albums chart for 11 nonconsecutive weeks starting in 1988, then peaked on the Pop Album chart for six weeks the year after. It was the best-selling album in 1989 on the Billboard Year-End Pop Album Chart and eventually went seven times Platinum. The album is the 33rd best-selling album of the 1980s, with sales already at 5 million copies by September 1989. Don't Be Cruel was the best selling "New Jack Swing" album at the time until Michael Jackson's 1991 album Dangerous was released. Bobby Brown won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 1990. Brown followed the release of his album with a 120-date world tour.

"Don't Be Cruel" appeared in popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on fictional New Jack Swing radio station CSR 103.9. My Prerogative was later covered by Britney Spears in 2004 on her Greatest Hits: My Prerogative album, and released as a single.