Chris Brown's contrived redemption tour continues — in an interview with Matt Lauer that aired earlier this morning on Today to promote his underwhelming new single "Fine China," the singer repeatedly emphasized how good and positive his current state of mind is. He did this with words. ("For my album and what I'm promoting as far as the single or whatever it is, it's just about me being positive..." "Everything's good. We're fine." "I'm not really focused on the negative. Everything is positive for me." "Movin' forward. Positive.") He also did this with his shirt, which sported a print of interlocking hearts, peace signs and laurel wreaths. Behold, love's champion.

Lauer called gentle bullshit on the new, positive Chris, noting how just a few months ago he was acting like a maniac on Twitter and to his peers Frank Ocean and Drake, to which Brown said, "Blah blah blah positive." He didn't melt down and throw things when his 2009 beating of Rihanna was mentioned, saying, "I've been humbled by the whole experience, from me losing everything to me having to regain, you know, public opinion or whatever it is." Whatever it is, indeed. He also talked about counseling teaching him "that it was absolutely wrong" to beat Rihanna, so apparently there was some ambiguity in his head at some point.

Lauer asked him about making a comeback, which is such bullshit (as is the martyred "losing everything" bit above), as Chris Brown has barely been invisible in the four years since beating Rihanna. In that time, he's had nine Top 40 hits on the Billboard 100, three of which have gone Top 10. Chris Brown is doing fine, and he always has been, his career has gone virtually unscathed (dissent regarding him is just amplified now, oh well, deal with it), and when he acknowledges that, then I'll really believe that this is a changed dude.

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