[4] Brown was a star football quarterback at Mount Vernon High School in New York, who rejected an athletic scholarship to the University of Iowa to pursue a music career.

Brown's 1988 debut album In Effect Mode sold more than three million copies, topping the Billboard R&B chart for seven straight weeks.

As a writer and producer, Brown helped introduce to the music industry such multi-platinum acts as Jodeci and teen R&B performer Tevin Campbell (who was also one of Prince's and Quincy Jones' former protégés), as well as Faith Evans, Dave Hollister, Case and Usher.

In 1993, Brown provided vocals to the title track of the David Bowie album Black Tie White Noise.

In 2000, Brown's ABS Entertainment launched a television development division, and he served as co-executive producer of an HBO Comedy Special starring Jamie Foxx, filmed at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California.

[citation needed] Brown participated in Bless the Children Foundation's celebrity auction along with NFL stars Charles Woodson and Anthony Dorsett.

Brown was a DJ on the Los Angeles radio station KHHT, and played old-school hip hop and R&B.

[citation needed] In 2010, Brown appeared as one of the 12 contestants on the TV One reality television dating game show The Ultimate Merger.

[6] The series was produced by Donald Trump and starred former Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, whom Brown dated previously.

[7] In 2023, Brown and Al Sharpton founded a health equity organization called Health Equity in Transplantation following a March decision made by a private Medicare administrative contractor on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Coverage (CMS).

[12] While publicly dating Niki Haris in 1991, he had a son by Porter, Quincy Brown who was later allegedly adopted by Combs.