Chris Brown Released The Music Video for “No Guidance,” featuring Drake

Chris Brown released the music video for his newest song, “No Guidance,” featuring Drake. The two had been teasing the arrival of this collaboration for at least a whole human gestation period. Last week, Brown tweeted a photo of the two with the caption “Somethings coming.” Drake most recently posted images of the duo partying to his Instagram in January. (The caption—“2019 cookup … Aubreezy”—involved a cringeworthy portmanteau of his given name, Aubrey, and Brown’s nickname.) He’d also shared images of the pair palling around at his birthday party last October, the same month he invited Brown onstage to perform with him. Then, too, the caption was a rather arrogant reference to working together: “Best Duo or Group goes to … ”

Suffice it to say, the answer is not “Aubreezy.” The pair’s new music video is a work of staggering cynicism—seemingly tailor-made, as many Drake productions are, to produce a wealth of memes. On this algorithmic level, it has already succeeded: Remixed images of the dance battle that erupts between the two men have indeed gone viral. The video is also No. 1 on YouTube’s R&B Hotlist, and its Trending list for all music. “No Guidance” is a paint-by-numbers modern R&B track: Start with an effusive Drake compliment, end with a thirsty Brown yodel. The commercial success of a glorified You Got Served remix is hardly surprising in 2019.

The video, in particular, registers as a work produced to signal the end of a beef and the start of an era in which silly things like so-called feuds over women don’t keep mega-popular male artists from maximizing each other’s earning appeal and earning fans’ adulation. And once again, perhaps by design, women’s pain is inconsequential.