Basic Brown

Bobby Brown has no regrets about leaving New Edition, the bubble-gum soul singers from the Roxbury section of Boston.

Solo freedom couldn’t be better for the 19-year-old Brown, whose title track to his MCA album, “Don’t Be Cruel,” has been bouncing around the Top-10 on Billboard magazine’s black singles chart for weeks, consistently topping New Edition’s new single “If It Isn’t Love.” “Don’t Be Cruel” held the coveted No. 1 spot for two weeks.

But Brown would never boast about it. He says he hates the thought of competing with his childhood buddies.

“If I go to No. 1, it’s like New Edition going to No. 1. I’m still a part of New Edition . . . in the heart,” Brown says. “I didn’t feel right being in a group. I had my own ideas.”

The members of New Edition got their big break in the early ‘80s singing a medley of Jackson 5 hits in a local talent contest. The prize was a chance to record with Maurice Starr, and because the winners--a rap group--weren’t suited to sing Starr’s song “Candy Girl,” New Edition won by default and got the recording date.

Consequently, “Candy Girl” was a big hit, climbing to No. 1 on the black charts. Brown, co-lead vocalist, was just 11 years old, the group’s youngest member.

He stayed with New Edition until 1985, until the group’s second album, “All for Love,” hit the platinum mark.

“It was always a dream of mine to be a solo artist. I wanted to make music that was more me, more of my feeling,” Brown says.

His 1987 debut album “King of Stage” produced the hit single “Girl Friend” that went on to become a No. 1 record on the R & B charts. Brown showed that he could stand alone.

But Brown has bigger expectations for “Don’t Be Cruel”: “I want it all this year and nothing’s going to stop me. A No. 1 album, double platinum . . . Grammies and music awards.

“Nineteen eighty-eight is going to be my year.”