Foxy Brown: A Talented Time Bomb?

For Foxy Brown, her career is truly a matter of getting noticed at the right time and right place. Where and when? It happened to be in the early 1990s, while Foxy was still a teenager. She was rapping in a contest in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, when the producers of LL Cool J's recent album at the time happened to be in the audience. They liked Foxy Brown so much that night that they invited her to rap on "I Shot Ya."

That's not to say of course that Foxy Brown didn't bring the talent that night. Of course she did, right? And what about all of her success since that fateful night in Brooklyn? Of course, she's brought the talent each and every time. It's no wonder then that after that LL work, she landed Foxy Brown lyrics on several other stars' records, many of which went platinum and gold. She did work for Toni Braxton, for instance and Jay-Z, to name but just a couple.

By the time 1996 rolled around (and Foxy Brown is only 16 at this point mind you), she had record labels literally outbidding themselves to get her on their contract. Def Jam won. And in that same year, they put out the first Foxy Brown record, called "Ill Na Na." It went to number six on the charts and sold more than one hundred thousand copies in the first week and eventually went all the way to platinum, with the help of guest stars Method Man and Jay-Z.

Aging Like Fine Wine?

Foxy Brown went from solo success right into forming what could have been one of rap's great supergroups. Its name? The Firm? Its members? Foxy Brown, AZ, Nature, and Nas. Dr. Dre and Aftermath Records were behind the project, and they released the self-titled record that went all the way to number one.

But perhaps fame caught her a little too young, a little too not ready. Because with all this success, came problems. In 1997, she got in serious hot water in North Carolina for spitting on two poor hotel maids for them not having an iron for her. She failed to show up to court, and got a suspended sentence and community service for it. Then, later that year, she made the Smokin Groves tour, but had to drop out after missing too many shows.

She tried to pull herself together in 1999 with the release of the next Foxy Brown album, called "Chyna Doll." It had tremendous success at the get go, starting at number one and selling 173,000 in the first week. But then sales died, and the Foxy Brown song "Hot Spot" didn't succeed. (After all is said and done, though, the record went platinum.)

The following year, the truth came out as to why she'd been having all these problems. Drugs, depression? You got it. She entered rehab for an addiction to prescription painkillers and for depression.

Come Back?

By 2001, the newest Foxy Brown album was back on the shelves, "Broken Silence." It featured the Foxy Brown song "Oh Yeah" and went to number five on the charts. But another album "Ill Na Na 2" was shelved by the president of Def Jam, and Foxy Brown was not happy with him nor Puffy at the time.

But trouble continued to follow her. After a fight with manicurists in 2004, she was put on probation, which she violated in 2007. She was sent to prison for a year. During that time, a Foxy Brown album came out, called "Don Diva," in 2008. Will this latest success be enough to turn this troubled rap diva around?

From Foxy Brown to Hip Hop Music