The results of the sessions have morphed into her fourth album, Rated R. On the cover, she poses like a 21st century version of danceclub maverick (and obvious fashion icon influence) Grace Jones; she's not to be messed with even as it seems she's nursing a wound to her right eye.
Beginning with the monologue, "The Mad House", intoned by a sinister-sounding voice a la Michael Jackson's "Thriller", the listener is asked to come in, come in if they're not easily frightened. It sounds a little ridiculous, almost camp; an introduction to a haunted house ride. The subject matter that follows though, is no joke.
"Wait Your Turn" sets the dark, violent tone of the album with its opening line "I pitch with a grenade/Swing away if you're feeling brave." Produced by London dub step duo Chase and Status, the song is all tough talk with Rihanna's eyes set firmly on those dying for their 15 minutes of fame - "It's just the way the game is played, it's best that you just wait your turn" she nastily taunts repeatedly.
"G4L" has Rihanna again being defensive with lines like "Guns in the air, guns in the air/Can't hurt us again when you come around here," but it's the opening salvo that should have eyebrows arched- "I lick the gun when i'm done cuz I know that revenge is sweet." It's not a threat so much as a tough-girl stance, a role Rihanna has employed to tell a story. Produced also by Chase and Status, the song is stark and eerie, and at turns heart-breaking not in Rihanna's transparency as gangster, but in her need to protect herself from future attacks.
Rihanna's voice is a delicate instrument, (in most live performances, it's obvious she hasn't learned to master it just yet) leading some to the conclusion that she isn't a remarkable singer. And while this may be true, current single "Russian Roulette", co-written by go-to-man Ne-Yo, proves that with concentration on pitch and control, her voice is at least capable of conveying emotion. As the first single from the disc, it was a gutsy move on the part of Rihanna's team; comparing a relationship to a potentially fatal game of chance, the song is haunting and epic, with the singer placed squarely in the middle of some sparse guitar, some hesitant gasps, what sounds like her heartbeat and the spinning cylinder of a gun. Her reading of the story is dramatic and expertly controlled, and when the song ends with an audible shiver and a gunshot, the listener feels like something irrevocable has happened.
The narrator of these songs refuses to to play the victim. Rihanna is wary of men even when she openly flirts with them. In "Rude Boy" co-written by Ester Dean, one of the only female collaborators on the album, (who ironically features Chris Brown on her recent single "Drop It Low") Rihanna taunts "Come here rude boy, can you give it up? Come here rude boy, is you big enough?" The song hearkens back to her Good Girl Gone Bad days in its danceability, and admittedly, it's one of the lighter moments on the disc, filler if you must, on an album with such powerful emotional heft. There are a few of these detached moments on Rated R that seek to add diversity to the album's sound.
In the same way the music has lost much of its ingratiating, if innocuous airiness, she has added more pronounced and spiky rock guitars referencing both goth rock and new wave at turns. "Rockstar 101" featuring guitar hero Slash of Guns N' Roses has Rihanna posing touch again, this time more convincingly, daring all to gape and gawk as she holds her "middle finger up." Smartly written by The-Dream, the song has the singer reveling, rather brashly, in her status as a "six-inch walker, big sh*t talker." It's deliciously catty, and who can blame her; she has some of the most exclusive designers and fashion houses the world over at her every beck and call.
The bragging continues on second single "Hard" featuring rapper Young Jeezy, "I live where the sky ends... my runway never looked so clear" she sings in her most deadpan delivery. She offhandedly lists her accomplishments "...brilliant, resilient, fan mail from 27 million" calling herself the "hottest bitch in heels right here." Over The-Dream and Tricky Stewart's clanking, surging beat, she sounds bigger and more ferocious than ever before warning whoever that she's not willing to just throw away all she's worked hard for.
It's rarely discussed that the Bajan native is perhaps the biggest thing this region has produced in recent years surpassing Ricky Martin, Shaggy and even Sean Paul. With 12 top ten hits so far, (the second highest amount by any artiste this decade) Rihanna has been openly welcomed in any field she's ventured into. For a female artiste to represent a Caribbean aesthetic on a worldwide level is curious, especially when Caribbean music has always been so male-dominated. It's even more curious when said artiste has never been the purveyor of salsa, meringue, dancehall or any of the music we are used to here. "Te Amo", the only song that comes closest to an island-flavour, recounts, quite smartly, a tryst on the dancefloor with another woman. In her thickest accent, Rihanna sings, "Then she said 'te amo' then she put her hand around me waist." It's a desire she understands but never reciprocates. Both recalling "La Isla Bonita"-era Madonna and European techno, Stargate's production makes the song absolutely enchanting.
The album is most haunting when vulnerability on the part of Rihanna is allowed to peak through the tougher exterior, like on Ne-Yo's second contribution to the album, the devastating "Stupid in Love", a rueful R&B number with an undulating piano line where the narrator berates herself for being duped by a suitor with blood on his hands. Produced by Brian Kennedy who also helmed her "Disturbia", "Fire Bomb" is violent in its metaphors- "Can't wait to see your face when your front windows break and I come crashing through," but seems apt in the telling of a relationship going down the drain; "The lovers need to clear the road, cuz this thing is ready to blow/I just wanna set you on fire so I won't have to burn alone..." Likewise on the penultimate track, the elegiac "Cold Case Love", produced and written by Justin Timberlake, the song may be the only one that out rightly addresses the events that dissolved the relationship with Brown- "What you did to me was a crime, cold case love/And I let you reach me one more time, but that's enough." It's the most emotional moment of the opus with Rihanna contemplating "prints, pictures and white outlines" all "left on the scene of the crime." Timberlake has the good sense to keep his vocal print off the record, it's Rihanna's story to tell after all, but provides everything else- haunting strings, Timbaland-esque beatbox, pounding drums... At over 6 minutes, the song is slow-boiling, but what a glorious release.
Rihanna has largely been touted as a singles artiste, which seems to be fine in today's ringtone generation. But there comes a time when an artiste needs to grow up. Having worked with the same slew of hitmakers as she did for Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna could have easily thwacked out another album full of chart-toppers, but one gets the sense that that wasn't the route Ms. Fenty was willing to take. At turns tough, brash, violent, vulnerable and brave, Rihanna's Rated R not only stands as her personal best album, but also one of mainstream music's best records this year; a look into the soul of a girl having had to evaluate her life after being battered, when all she wanted was to be loved. The world wanted hits, but we got so much more- a look at the living, breathing person behind the grand machine.
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