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Rihanna: How We Found Love
You forget she’s a mere 23 years old. Six years on from ‘Pon De Replay’ the Caribbean Vixen has released six studio albums, crafting innumerable chart smashes and dominated dance floors. In light of last week’s release of LP number six ‘Talk That Talk’, Inquire looks back on her astounding surge to global eminence.
She has always prided herself on her individuality rather than her perfection, and who can blame her? Raised in a humble bungalow in Bridgetown, she dealt with her father’s addiction to crack cocaine, marijuana and alcohol admirably.
Rihanna’s upbringing was far from conventional as she was feared to have contracted a brain tumour in her youth after suffering from migraines through her parent’s rocky divorce. Her dedication remarkable, the self confessed lover of both reggae and pop, took her chances in talent shows and beauty pageants while her mother prepared her 4-track demo, spear-headed by the striking ‘Pon De Replay’.
It raised the eyebrows of non other than Jay-Z, then president of Def Jam Recordings. Jigga though had reservations over the track; “When a song is that big, it's hard [for a new artist] to come back from. I don't sign songs, I sign artists.” But Rihanna had passed the test, her career was about to ignite.
Her reggae beats were soon fused with dance-hall pop, and two years on from her 2005 debut ‘Music Through The Sun’, the world was exposed to the phenomenon that was, and still is Umbrella. The track spent 10 consecutive weeks at number 1 in the UK singles chart, with the hook “ella, ella” spending the same time buzzing inside the nation’s head.
In 2009, Pitchfork ranked the song as the #25 song on list of The Top 500 Tracks of the decade, by which time Rihanna had fallen for fellow RnB star Chris Brown, foreshadowing a true career low point.
Allegations of domestic abuse gained momentum in February later that year when the up and coming queen of pop was photographed with visible injuries. Brown himself was photographed seemingly fuming with his lover at a prestigious party, and just days later handed himself in to L.A.P.D, who charged him with assault and for making criminal threats.
It would shake the foundations of both careers, but signal new era in Rihanna’s, proving that whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Comeback record “Rated R” not only spawned a new array of hits, but a new image altogether. Single ‘Rude Boy’ highlighted a new energy.
She was raunchy, alluring and empowered, but most importantly not embittered. She returned with fearless live performances finding blazing reviews at her disposal, emerging as a figurehead for both men and women with this platinum record. She wasn’t short of blockbuster collaborations either; mixing with the likes of David Guetta and Kanye West.
Rihanna was turning heads, and in some cases cricking them. Her own overt sexual prowess was further demonstrated when she rocked the X-Factor final in 2010, gallivanting semi nude in front of 17.71 million people. In the midst of “Loud,” album number five, she fired out hits so rapidly she barely paused for breath. “Only Girl in The World” was followed by “What’s My Name” and “S&M,” by “We Found Love”, each representing a UK number one.
She now has eleven of them in six years, and as “Talk That Talk” hits the shelves, you can barely imagine a music channel or nightclub without her Barbadian boldness, as she continues to simultaneously re-invent the pop-wheel and keep the nation’s lips moving.