In the Season 3 episode "Richard Youngsta," the triple-threat singer, dancer, and perpetual domestic abuser plays a famous rapper whom lead character Dre uses in an ad campaign. Dre's co-workers push the ad to be more stereotypical, including a shot where Brown pours Uvo on an annoying black woman and turns her into a smiling white woman. This causes a debate about the role of race in advertising, and the added burdens people of color have when it comes to creating art.
It's a unique and poignant discussion for a highly visible network TV comedy, but it got largely overshadowed by the decision to cast Brown as a "troubled" fictional rapper. Barris claimed that he was unaware of some of Brown's more recent domestic abuse issues (including a restraining order being placed against him only months before), and regretted that the controversy swallowed the point of the episode.
Barris has since abandoned ABC for Netflix, in part because of the network's refusal to air the aforementioned anti-Trump episode. Which means Disney executives didn't want to go too hard on Donald Trump, but had no issues cutting a paycheck to one of the country's most famous abusers. Who also dressed up as an Arab terrorist for Halloween, for good measure:
