Shit Hot: Rihanna

16 November 2009

by Nathan Jolly

From: Barbados
Sounds Like: Beyonce, Ciara
Album: Rated R
Key Tracks: Russian Roulette, Hard

Did You Know?
-She is a cultural ambassador for Barbados
-Her last album spawned three number one singles
-She names Mariah Carey as her greatest influence

There’s something about crossing that line from musician to celebrity that makes it harder and harder to retain any control over the way the public perceives you. Invariably, when the focus should be on a performers output, the media and the public are focusing on anything but, relating tales of flings, celebrity hookups, private holidays and regaling over the minutia that seems to take centre stage.

Often, in the case of those who fall from grace in the public eye, most people who delight in these details know very little about the music that such artists make. Pete Doherty is a prime example of someone who is constantly in the tabloids for all the wrong reasons, to such an extent that it has overshadowed his very real contribution to the musical world.

Unfortunately for Rihanna, her most public moment came at her own expense, a moment in which she was entirely faultless, her most private moment thrust into the spotlight - under normal circumstances the victims of domestic violence are usually never divulged in the media, and certainly never in such a graphic way.

This has served to take the focus away from her successful pop career which, up until this point, consisted of a string of top ten billboard singles, her five number ones serving to make her the female artist with the most number one singles this decade, quite a remarkable feat when you take into consideration that she only begun her recording career in the latter half of the decade. Rihanna has sold 12 million records in her four-year career, and already this year has done plenty to make the public focus on her music.

A collaboration with Jay-Z and Kanye West on the hit single Run This Town served to assert her musically, however she faced a hefty challenge with her ‘comeback’ single, the dark Russian Roulette. As producer, Chuck Harmony, stated “no matter what song Rihanna released as her comeback single people would immediately think it was about Chris Brown."

Thankfully, aside from some tenuous metaphor clinging, this hasn’t been the case. 
 An interview with Diana Sawyer last week, in which Rihanna publicly addressed the controversial incident for the first time, seemed to be ill-timed, with the very real danger of overshadowing her latest album, or worse, being seen as a tasteless way to drum up publicity for the disc. However, this has only served to show that the singer is taking control of her public image and not letting this incident define her.

With the latest album set for release, and Russian Roulette currently smashing airplay charts worldwide, it seems that focus will once again be on Rihanna’s music. It also seems from all reports that the darker tone of the first single won’t necessarily be representative of the whole album, with artists such as Akon, Ne-Yo and Justin Timberlake working their magic on a number of tracks.

A promo with Nokia’s Come With Music will only further propel Rihanna’s music to the forefront, and it won’t be hard to predict that before the end of the year Rihanna will be ubiquitous, and this time, it will be for all the right reasons.