Modern world a strange, nasty place for everyone apart from Chris Brown

Weirdly un-disgraced rapper Chris Brown, two years after savagely beating up his then-girlfriend Rihanna, is to guest on a RiRi song.

Chris Brown’s rehabilitation, from fantastically semi-talented entertainer to savage wifebeater to unbelievably famous rapper, has been one of the stranger, sadder tales of recent pop memory. Now it seems that his comeback is complete, with reports from hip hop megastation Hot97, as reported by Vibe that Chris Brown is to guest on a remix of Rihanna’s Birthday Cake.

The news comes less than a week after Chris Brown’s Grammy performance. In the aftermath of the US music awards show, Buzz Feed published a sickening list of Tweets by Chris Brown admirers essentially saying they wouldn’t mind being beaten up by him. If you would permit a little editorialising, these Tweets are evidence of something that it seems stunning to report in 2012: that we should not allow a man to punch his girlfriend in the face and continue his career unabated, because if we do, we sanction behaviour that is beyond the pale. Chris Brown has – apparently – been forgiven, at least by the hip hop machine and countless women the same age as the woman he beat to a pulp. That that is so is a bad, sad, strange thing, for everyone who is not Chris Brown.