CHRIS BROWN HAS NIGHT OUT FOLLOWING COURT: Plus, singer continues recording for new album; more celeb friends speak out.

      *Within hours of his court appearance in Los Angeles Thursday regarding charges that he beat his girlfriend Rihanna, Chris Brown was hanging out until nearly 4 a.m. at a hotel bar.

       TMZ cameras caught Brown leaving the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills around 3:45 a.m. Brown spent much of the evening at the hotel bar, a source told the Web site.

       Earlier in the day, Brown and his attorney, Mark Geragos, appeared in court to answer two felony assault charges stemming from his Feb. 8 altercation with Rihanna on a Beverly Hills street. His arraignment was pushed back to April 6.

        In the meantime, Brown has been busy recording tracks for his third album in both California and Florida. He has also been soliciting votes for the Kids Choice Awards on March 28.       

       "Vote for Chris on the Kids' Choice Awards 2009. Thank you for your support," says a message posted on his MySpace page, which includes the balloting links for his two nominated categories - Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song for his single with T Pain, "Kiss Kiss." Brown is even competing in the song category with Rihanna, who is nominated for "Don't Stop the Music."       

       "He's trying to keep his career moving forward," a source close to Brown told People.com.       

       Despite Brown's legal woes and the public outcry when he and the 21-year-old reconciled in Miami last week, Soundscan confirms that sales of Brown's platinum-selling second album, "Exclusive," have remained steady in the weeks both before and after their relationship took a violent turn, moving a steady 3,000 copies a week since late January.

      Meanwhile, Friends of Brown and Rihanna continue to speak out about the situation.      

       "It's a really touchy subject for me—a really touchy subject," David Banner, Brown's collaborator on the 2008 hit "Get Like Me (Stuntin' Is a Habit)," told E! Online. "But I think that until everybody gets all of the information, we shouldn't judge."      

       Like Mekhi Phifer told the Web site last weekend, Banner said folks should remember how young Brown and Rihanna are.      

       "It was a bad situation either way it goes, but I really, honestly believe more than anything that those are kids," he said. "People forget that. Those are still kids." He continued, "We look at them, they're millionaires, they're doing well for themselves, but they're just two kids. And I really think that instead of being as harsh about the situation, people should help. And I don't think people look at it like that."      

       J.R. Rotem, producer of Rihanna's first No. 1 hit, "S.O.S.," most recently worked with Brown. "I was in the studio a few months ago with Chris," Rotem said. "And I was surprised as anyone else."      

       Rotem declined to say too much about the situation. "I really don't know what's going on behind closed doors," he said. "I mean, I can tell you in general, in life, I don't condone any sort of violence, but I don't really know the inside of the situation."