Chris Brown and Rihanna's questionable timing

Let's start with Chris.

First, no shade: I like this look. Chris has been defending himself lately against small-minded, likely uninventively dressed people who ridiculed him for this outfit on the cover of his new album "Graffiti," but (surprise) I think it's dope. Granted, the cartoon characters and metal limb are a bit confusing, but give me a fitted pant and a combat boot and I'm on board. (In fact I'm wearing a pair of similar wool trousers by my fave UK brand All Saints as I type this.) This look has been done for many seasons now by trendsetting designers including Raf Simons and Rick Owens; it's rock star; it's high fashion; if they don't get it Chris, they're late. Oh well.

Nope. My problem with Chris is beyond the look and beyond that "accident." It is, frankly, his music. Dude, "I Can Transform Ya" is bad. Well, it's not awful, it's just OK, but in my book OK might as well be bad. I'd much rather be offended than bored; at least the first gives me something to think about.

I think Chris is in too much of a hurry to put his major screw up behind him and move on--and who wouldn't be in his position?--but his haste comes at the detriment of the music. "I Can Transform Ya" is the kind of mediocre Swizz Beatz meets AutoTune pop-R&B drivel anyone else could do. Actually, everybody is doing it. Up until his crime, Chris was a leader of the pack; this song puts him in the same league as Mario, Trey Songz, Omarion and scores of other shirtless crooners whose music is largely indistinguishable from one other.

What Chris SHOULD have done (since you asked) was wait. Wait a year. Wait a year and a half. Wait until public outcry died down, wait until he'd done some community outreach, some quiet soul searching (that we could see reflected in appropriately timed paparazzi pictures) and wait until he could come back with a cutting edge sound that would make his music stand out and speak for itself. "I Can Transform Ya" and this bi-polar album cover--part high fashion, part street,  part anime--feel rushed, and confused.

I really want to give this guy a hug. Let it out bro. Lean on me.

As for Rihanna, I'm REALLY not feeling her timing. Granted, she was a victim of an awful, public crime and she's entitled to heal however she needs to. But if you've yet to ask yourself this, take a moment to do so: 'Why's she talking about this beat down now?' For months she's been trotting around, literally being photographed every time she changes shoes, but she chooses to go on Diane Sawyer to talk about domestic violence (and then play her new video!) now? Why?

Might it have something to do with her album out, Nov. 23?

Her phoenix from the flame parade seems awfully transparent, like she's pimping her victimization for profit. Yes, what happened to her was awful. Yes, she should speak out to help other women and girls in the same situation. But linking the tragedy and the tears to the promotion of her new project seems like a cheap attempt at manipulating us emotionally to reach for our wallets, and I don't like that at all.

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