I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. “I wanted songs that I could perform in 15 years I wanted an album that I could perform in 15 years,” she continued. “Bot that they weren’t real music, but I just wanted to focus on things that felt real, that felt soulful, that felt forever.” From the jump, they just blow up,” she told MTV of her new, Kanye West-produced album. “I’ve made a lot of songs that are just really, really big songs. When “FourFiveSeconds” came out in late January, the label listed for the song on iTunes was, “Westbury Road Entertainment distributed by Roc Nation Records.” Since then, there has been talk of who or what exactly Westbury Road is, but the notion is that it’s Rihanna’s Roc Nation imprint.Īll signs point to Rihanna being in the creative driver’s seat, more than ever before. Along the way, word came that she had left her longtime label home, Def Jam, to reunite with mentor (and onetime Def Jam president) Jay Z, at his Roc Nation management and label. Rihanna was too busy flexing on Instagram, becoming her most fully realized badass. But Rihanna has also never released a song like “Bitch Better Have My Money,” particularly after taking her sweet time to give us new music.įor four straight years starting in 2009, Rihanna albums arrived every November, as reliably as your family’s corny jokes at the Thanksgiving table. 10 Number One singles, I realize this may not seem like that big of a deal. I imagine we’ll see a big Hot 100 debut for the track later this week. Without appearing on Spotify or even officially on YouTube, “Bitch Better Have My Money” went to the top of the iTunes songs chart, where it remains. Rihanna and her squad of Matrix dancers win the night, even if that night was just a tame self-congratulation ceremony for the major-label system.
As much as I’m heartened by the unlikeliness of pop’s new Laverne and Shirley, a damn helicopter will always trump an acoustic guitar. Madonna and Taylor Swift dueting on “Ghosttown,” a ballad off Madge’s Rebel Heart, are really Rihanna’s only competition. Exclusive radio premieres generally involve required airplay on all relevant formats, oftentimes with a specified frequency for a certain amount of time.īy Sunday, people had already been turning up to “Bitch Better Have My Money” all weekend, which left Rihanna perfectly primed to steal the show. Then “Bitch Better Have My Money” made its premiere on iHeartRadio/Clear Channel stations that same day, which - while obviously not a big money-making move - is a huge coup even for someone as major as Rihanna, given Clear Channel’s industry-leading listener base (840 stations and about 245 million listeners per month, according to the Washington Post). You just know she got a pile of start-up money for that. On Thursday, Rihanna premiered “Bitch Better Have My Money” via an app called Dubsmash, where users record and share lip-sync videos. The all-around rollout of “Bitch Better Have My Money” has been one of the most provocative career moves she’s made amidst an ongoing transformation from a reliable pop hitmaker à la Katy Perry to an artiste and a tastemaker - one who doesn’t sacrifice creativity for cash or control. With her live debut of “Bitch Better Have My Money,” Rihanna came to fire shots at the corporate music machine - and still got paid. Rihanna is there: looking grown-ass-woman sexy, making fake gunshot sounds like she’s C-Czar from Kroll Show, wearing Spencer Gifts novelty sunglasses, putting her hand up your wife’s YSL sheath in the backseat of her Bugatti, demanding the money - with the patriarchy in the front row. Particularly in lower-tier music awards shows - your American Music Awards, your Billboard Music Awards - the accolades have become an afterthought to elaborate performances.
Exuding wealth in a campy yet powerful way via kelly green fur and pleather, Rihanna reaches the end of the platform, where the stage meets banquet tables. There’s a moment towards the end of Rihanna’s game-changing performance of “Bitch Better Have My Money” at last night’s iHeartRadio Music Awards where Bad Girl Ri Ri struts towards the end of the stage, past the shrieking fans set in place for the show’s broadcast.