Page 7 - Pop History: Rihanna

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

We kick off our two-parter on Rihanna by exploring her childhood in Barbados, her big break into music and her rise to fame. SOS! We have more Page 7 over on our Patreon page - Patreon.com/Page7Podcast Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bawbaw gotta get it up I'm gonna get it up Try it again, give me a different one You want a different one? That's the worst right, fine, right, fine Mech me to have my money Work, work, work, work, work, Oh my God,

What a medley du jour for your ears because Rihanna is unstoppable, you must know And I'm telling you, I want to hear your trivia, I want to see you not know it. That's what I want to you not know. Oh, no. How many songs by Rihanna you do know. I just got a text from Rihanna and she said she's pulling her entire catalog down because of the renditions of those songs. Oh, but we love her so much.

We crushed it. We do it out of love. We killed that. We're just like Moulon Rouge with our medley skills. Rihanna? Or like Lady Marmalade. She is someone who I was never. You're right.

It is shocking how many songs she has made hits out of. Like a diamond. And how many songs that I had no idea were hers. I was like, oh, and how many times I walked into like a department store and unknowingly absorbed a Rihanna song is unbelievable. If you live in New York, everywhere you go, Rihanna's playing, you don't realize it. One of her many songs over her very insanely prolific career, even though she is only 32 years old. That still blows my mind a little bit.

She's currently, she's currently 32. She is 32 right now. That's so weird. And she has been in the game since she is 15 years old. This is another one of these stories that, like, how inspirational. Like a Mariah, like a prince, where she just, she got it, she knew what she wanted, and she fucking ran for it. And time and time again, you see, it's not even necessarily that she wanted to be a singer.

It wasn't even just that. It wasn't like a Mariah where she knew she was. She wanted to just be a zinger. She wanted to get out and make something of herself. And so she just spread its her goods across the sky like a fine mist. A bit of a Motha. And I know that she would be very proud to hear that. I don't think, I don't know if she would.

She's very badass. Oh, Rihanna just texted me and said that. Oh, no, what does Rihanna say? She said that do not pull words into her mouth. I'm sorry, Rihanna. Please don't hurt me out. I'm sorry, Rihanna. She isn't a bad.

mood today. She is. It's crazy. Bad mood re-re. Guy. No, that's not her social media presence, Natalie. I was also going to say that she does that amazing thing that so many great artists do, like Madonna, though she arguably is doing a little too much these days. T. Swift, Beyonce, they take what's going on in their life. They are constantly reinventing their image, constantly pushing it forward, constantly pushing more towards the art of things, but also more towards, oh, did this, you know, massive event happened in my life?

I'm going to, I'm going to use it. I'm going to turn it into my next, my next essentially almost character arc in pop music. And she's making lemonade out of the lemons and no, I'm not talking about pee pee. Piance. Oh, you're talking about Pee. I thought he said Piancé. I was like, well, that's. You said it.

That's a Chan, before Chan thing. I would never. Natalie said that Facebook group, not me. That's definitely a live journal blog post somewhere. But yeah, it is incredible. I was never a specifically Rihanna fan. This episode was one of those eye-openerers for me. I'm in love with her music.

I love her last album at most, I think. Auntie will get there. I really feel like it's truly like where pop meets art. It's really beautiful. For sure. Yeah, it's crazy. And also, now I'm in, now I'm one of those. fans that are like, where's your next album?

That came out like four years. And she's always dripping it, but it's so funny because in the only time she releases an album a year, every year since the age of what, 16 or 17. And then she stopped for a couple of years and what was she doing when she stopped? Oh, I'm sorry, building a huge, like entire line of fashion and beauty. And it's like, Fenty is huge. The Fenty Savage line. I'm obsessed with Fenty

Somebody in this room is wearing her lipstick right now I am obsessed with Fentany Also I will say Didn't know what was her actual last name I didn't either And don't I feel a little Pin a rose under my nose

I know is that a bad Is that bad thing I don't know It might be Probably just said something like horrible From the Black Plague era Pinna rose on your nose too That's what they did whenever Somebody had scabies

It makes me think of that that children's story about the bull and the roses. And paint an A on her breasts as well. A large A. For a lot of fun. Is that what the A stands for? A plus. A lot of fun.

A lot of fun. I think to me actually what I was most surprised about, because I've Yanna has been around. I guess Jackie you said she actually calls herself Rihanna. Rihanna is, which makes me. think of Rianan and I know that's not what she is named after. But she was only, she was born in 1988, so who knows? Yeah, I don't know.

I've always called her Rihanna, so I apologize, Rihanna. But I've known of her because of the dance scene because her music is so impossibly danceable. Please don't stop the music. Every thing she puts out. Also, the, that, oh my God, the music video she does with Drake for the, oh, nah, nah, what's my name? Talk about, dude,

what an awesome fucking video that you made. I forgot why I started talking about that. I was just thinking about how sexy it was. You're just thinking about Baton. Yeah. I get it. Because, you know, she is like one of the most ethereal people

in the entire planet. She's so beautiful. I could see why you'd want to be. Oh, that's what it was, because doing it makes me want to do drugs. A lot of her music makes me want to be in a small place and dancing my life away. Exactly.

in like a sweaty nightclub just with lights flashing around you. Which also in reality, I am way too old and walking into an establishment like that. I go, oh, oh no, this is why I don't do this anymore. But isn't it nice to remember it in such a fun way? I feel as though if Rihanna is on, I would love it. Yes.

But, yeah, I didn't realize that Umbrella was when I first heard of her because it was right after I got out of college and I moved to New York and the office I was working in, all the girls were singing it. and just the chorus part over and over and over again. I just go, shut up.

It's a lot. Shut up. It's definitely a lot. I was haunted by that song too. Are we all in the club that our very first experience with Rihanna was a bit wrapped in existential dread a little bit? Because that song was everywhere. Yeah. And I had no idea that was her third album.

Isn't that insane? Yeah. That's crazy. But I will, I stand behind the emotion that umbrella. is my least favorite song. Probably. I would probably go with that. I love diamonds.

I love, fell in love in a hopeless place is great. So good. When Bitch Better and my money came out. We're going to get too much later, but that was my anthem. Yeah.

Because when you're in this business, you have to fight for every penny constantly from like 17 different sources. You have to shake them down. And you have to make sure it's like, oh, no, no, you didn't write down my hour.

right, no, you actually owe me double this. Thank you. Go get my money. You got to be on a phone call and on hold with 17 different people. And it was actually something, it was a song that has been redone through the ages. And it's the first time that this iteration of bitch better have my money was done by a woman as well. So it really changes the connotation of it. She is groundbreaking in so many different ways. She has gotten over 33 Grammy nominations and nine wins. She's the founder of a luxury. fashion brand, a makeup brand, and also an insane philanthropist. Yes, we are talking about Rihanna. It's time to dig in with our little hooves, because my hooves are ready to work. And in my head, I just imagined me as a little pig with tiny hooves doing my little work, work dance in the mud. So I think for the rest of this episode, envision me as a happy pig in mud, but still doing my little hoove dance.

I'm a very saucy pig. I'm a saucy pig. And it all begins when 1988, Robin Rihanna Fenty is born in St. Michael Barbados, but grew up in a small three-bedroom house in Bridgetown, the capital and largest city of Barbados. Her mother was an accountant and her father, a warehouse supervisor.

Oh yeah, before we go further. And we do want to talk about this real quick. Yes, we are going to discuss some sensitive topics about Rihanna. Today, I know that we are all fairly aware of what she went through, but also it was something that she had to deal with from childhood, unfortunately, and we are going to get into a little bit of physical assault. There's going to be some domestic, yeah, there's going to be some domestic violence in this story, but you can't tell the story of her without it.

It wouldn't be fair to do that, but just to be aware. And I think a really big part of her is opening up to how she felt after everything that happened and how she grew from everything that happened and how she is trying to continue to be a model for people that have been in physically abusive relationships or grew up in a physically abusive household. And it is a very important part of her. So I guess let's jump in.

Let's just say her dad wasn't a great dude. Your dad battled with addictions would come home often, having spent half his paycheck on booze and crack cocaine, which would put him into a frenzy, leading him to physically abusing Rihanna's mother and sometimes Rihanna herself. Things got worse when her father lost his job. With food being difficult to find,

the food is replaced with drug paraphernalia littered around the home, and Rianna would often walk in on her father's smoking crack to the point that she just hid in her room and would just not talk to anyone. Now, it also comes to play later on, especially with Chris Brown. She often says that what she remembers most about the positive moments of her childhood

are usually with her father, which really screws her. her up in her head. Rihanna says she always thinks about learning to swim, learning how to ride my bike, and it's funny because most of these times were with my dad. But as she grew older, there was a time when she

hated him. Then one of my school friends who was very close to, she knew, and she always used to say, you can't hate your father, that you have to love him. At the end of the day, because he's your father. So I listened, as much as it took it out of me. So she's also growing up in a very poor part

of Barbados, as well as the fact that her mother was a legal immigrant from the Caribbean island of Guyana. But what Rihanna was saying explaining in an interview is that Guyanese immigrants were very unpopular in Barbados when she was growing up. She says the Guyanese are like the Mexicans of Barbados. So I identify. And that's why I really relate and empathize with Mexican people or Latino people who are discriminated against in America.

I know what it feels like to have the immigration come into your home in the middle of the night and drag people out. She says, not my mother. My mother was legal, but let's just say, I know what that fight looks like. I've witnessed it. I've been in it. I was probably, what, eight years old when I experienced that in the middle of the night. So I know how disheartening it can be for a child.

And if that was my parent that was getting dragged out of the house, I can guarantee you that my life would have been in shambles. So when I see these injustices happening, it's hard to turn a blind eye. She gives a lot of money. She, to a lot of different organizations. She's a insane philanthropist. We'll get to that later on. But this is where it all stems from. And I think we will talk about that she eventually kind of, her father got on a better

track and they developed a better relationship growing up. And that is, I think, sort of indicative of the pain of mental illness and drug addiction that he probably really loved Rihanna. And that's why she has these good memories of him. Because when he was doing okay in his head, he wanted to be there with his daughter. He loved her. but then he was struggling with his own demons so much that he wasn't really present enough for her most of the time.

Yeah. Also at school, she was constantly bullied for her light complexion due to her father's Irish descent and that she would combat physically and the difficulties at home led to a decline in her grades. The stress got so bad she would end up with these incredibly intense headaches. The headaches were so intense.

She ended up going to the hospital for it. Rihanna said the doctors even thought it was a tumor because it was that intense. That is how bad distress was during her childhood. So a lot of her escapism was found through music. And at just seven years old, she would often throw on the radio and sing Madonna, Mariah Carrie, and Janet Jackson songs into her two hairbrush. She was also inspired by Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Schneia Twain, Luther Vandross,

and Bob Marley and other reggae musicians. I do love, she says as a child, that she was a huge nerd. She says she was too nerdy. I read all the time, but this is also why eventually down the line in 2016 for the Star Trek Beyond movie, she did the song Sledgehammer, and she said, Star Trek has been a part of my life since I was a little girl. My dad is really the one who introduced me to Star Trek. It just took me one episode to fall in love with this other world that I couldn't understand, but I felt I could relate to. It never left me, so it wasn't just doing a song for any random film.

Oh, that's cute. She's a nerd girl. I'm just a dirt. Dorky dork. She also said she wanted to be the black Madonna, saying I think Madonna was a great inspiration for me, especially on my earlier work. If I had to examine her evolution through time,

I think she reinvented her clothing style and music with success every single time. And at the same time remained a real force entertainment in the whole world. I think it's Madonna. I feel like now she would have changed her opinion. I imagine she feels differently. She's having a rough in.

of career and you know but at the end of the day she was so prolific and I do look forward to an episode on Madonna at some point and I will say you know no we got to I got for sure and and I mean really did communicate to Rihanna like you can you can change your hair you can change your look you can evolve and and continue to evolve and be a different person in all these different ways not just with your sound but with your look with with what you're putting out there with your attitude it all exudes one specific force that she really took on and I think you cannot be a legendary pop star

like an absolute legend like a Beyonce or someone like that unless you are always looking to that and never staying in the same place. Unfortunately Madonna just did it to a, is doing it a bit to a fault and it's like no now you can probably lay it down. We can raided back in. It's all

good. Be the Dolly Parton, not the Madan, you know what I mean? Dolly's nailing it. Right? She's totally. She's still created content. She's still doing a great job. I will say that I I am 100% in full support of women in their 50, 60s, being as sexy as they fucking want to be. I am all the way down for that part of it. I think it's more...

She's trying to be like relevant in a way that is not working, I think. It's not like... She's being kind of relevant. Okay. He's being kind of a day. Yeah. Not Rihanna, though, baby. Not Rihanna.

Also, Rihanna said that Mariah Carey's Vision of Love was the song that made me want to do music. If you want to know more about Vision of Love, check out our pop history episodes on Mariah Carey. Also, that is the song. She sang the song Mariah Carey's hero for her high school beauty pageant at the age of 15. She was named Miss Combear-Mare. I don't know how to say it. I know I didn't say it properly. Yeah, he's a Colbert and Combear-Mare-Mah.

Combearing-Mare-Mare! I kind of laughed at these stupid pageants, she said. But my friends at school dared me to do it. My military training came in handy for learning to balance books on my head for the catwalk. Because yes, she is a cadet at this point in time, is doing all the drills. doing all the gun drills. Probably a good inspiration for her role in Battleship. Battleship, oh, we will talk.

We will talk about the movie Battleship. I've got some things to say about it. But this is actually also the first time that she ever wore makeup. Rihanna has brought up in a very Christian household, and her mother is a very devout woman who discouraged her daughter from wearing makeup. Lipstick in Barbados,

not unless I was a bridesmaid and a friend's, wedding, recalls Rihanna with a laugh. My mom wasn't flexible. I wore no makeup. The first time I remember having my makeup done was for this beauty pageant that I did in school. I was 15, maybe 16 just before I got signed. And ever since then, ever since I saw foundation on my skin, I could never look at my skin without foundation again. Makeup, it spoiled me. And I hear you. It's a weird double standard. And it's not like pointed at anybody specifically just like culture in the world, but... Natalie, why are you throwing your barbs at me?

It's... No, not at you, Jackie. Never you. It's so weird that we put girls in this place where she's not supposed to wear makeup because of Christianity, but then the first time she does is when she's literally being rated for how beautiful she is on stage. Yes, well, maybe she should look better. You know, she's got to look her best.

That's what she's got to put makeup on because no one wants to see a pure. Yuck. Yeah. Society. It's hard for girls. No, you're right. I like my makeup. But I think it is fun that this is like, it was a forbidden fruit that she ends up becoming an amazing entrepreneur of and knowing exactly what she wants. By the way, her parents divorced when she was 14, which is what ends up getting her away from her father. Wouldn't you know the headaches now? Her mother had to work full time and Rihanna got work too as a cashier as well as a street clothing vendor. She also took care of her youngest brother, Rajad, when her mother wasn't home, and the two were very close.

Apparently, Rajad also assumed that he kept thinking that Rihanna was his mother because essentially she was a single mother at this point. She says, she worked so much. She was never really home. She said, I mean she was home, but it would be after work late at night, so I would take care of him. He was my best friend. He thought I was his mom. Oh, that's nice. So she's singing at the beach, at parties, at her high school, the talent show, all that.

stuff we mentioned. Also though at 15 she starts singing with two other girls. They would perform wherever possible covering mostly Destiny's child songs. One of the girls had a family friend named Evan Rogers who happened to be both a U.S. songwriter and producer as well as in town on vacation. Rihanna said I'm saying Rihanna this time to mix it up. Whoa. Yes. You're scary with your confidence. Yes. Quit stare. I have a quote. I have a quote. I have a quote. Rihanna said, that's right, Rihanna said it, not Rihanna. We sang as a group and then we sang individually and Evan expressed an interest in helping me get a solo deal.

It was a really difficult place to be because obviously I didn't want to hurt my friend's feelings. I didn't want to portray her, but it was a reality. We had audition together individual and individually, and that was it. I love how she immediately has to deal with the kind of horseshit that goes with having an entertainment career. Of that she got chosen out of the three. She was the one that was chosen. I read somewhere that that guy had a, he had a question. saying something like as soon as

Rihanna started to say the other two girls didn't exist anymore. He said something really horrible about the other girls. She was like... Yes. Once Rihanna was in the middle, they looked like trash to me. I had to look him up because I got scared. I was like, what was that, like, so Evan Rogers, his wife

was Barbadoin. So when he, so that's why he was there and he would go there often. So it was like at first, like, oh, it just sounds like he's trolling for little children on the street. But he's not. But he does openly say, I think that he thought that Rihanna was the most beautiful of the three of them. Yeah.

And he did say, he was quoted as saying, throw the other two girls in the ocean. Into the trash can. Is there a trash can big enough for this trash? To be fair, when they sing individually, they both sing the same song and it went like this. I'm a good shit while we pop. And he was like, stop, stop, stop. I've heard enough. And that's not what a sex symbol should say.

What? That's so hot, though. I can't believe he didn't want that. Emmett Rogers said about her, she had such a presence. Her makeup was perfect, and she had these capri pants and matching sneakers with her green eyes and her long supermodel neck. Rogers immediately thought, however, she probably can't sing, because usually it's the pretty one who can't. I don't like any of that. It's not good.

But I do like making sure you wear capri pants to all your auditions because that's what they're looking for. Spice Girls apparently, this is what we all learned, capri pants with the little strings on the side. Show your ankles. Rihanna didn't have any training in singing or in dancing, and even her mother, Monica, really didn't understand that her daughter had anything special. Apparently Monica Fenty told Rogers, she was like, well, if you see something, I just want her schoolwork to be done. Education is very important.

Sure. She just like immediately. What a Rachel. But she did it. No, man, your daughter's got to be a stop. So she's 15, she's 16, and she's now going back and forth from Barbados to the U.S. during school holidays to record a demo. So this young, and she's already not taking vacation and just work, work, working.

At the age of 15. I'm so scared for 15-year-old, Rihanna. I hope nobody did anything weird to her. No, and I like this phrase about her drive at this point. According to the book Song Machine by John Seabrook, like Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears, it was much, it was more likely a much more urgent need to escape from the anxieties of a violent home life into the illusion of security and boundless love that a life on stage seemed to offer. That desire, more than any inborn talent, is what fans will connect to.

And this is what record men look for in a new artist. It's the one thing they can't manufacture. It's that drive. It's that need to get away and change their life is what Rihanna came out bursting through, which is why she didn't need vacations anymore. Her vacation, she would go, and for the first three albums, she crashed with Evan Rogers and his wife in the U.S. And she would just come into town and record and then go home so she can go back to school. And then go into that, like flying back and forth, starting at the age of 15.

It's crazy. And at the age of 60, another person who had to pull themselves out from the clutches of poverty and despair, JZ, who is newly appointed as CEO of Def Jam recordings, here's the demo from Reef Jam. and has her come to NYC to audition where she meets music mogul Antonio L.A. Reed. Turning point alert. Turning point alert. We've got a turning point point. Oh, no. The turning point man's here. Hey, guys, it's me the turning point man. Where are you going to turn us to? Is it going to be north? Better be into positive territory. We're going southwest.

No. Although I like Southwest. Let's get, I mean, let's get outside. Let's get that dry. No, I'm talking about the airline. Yeah, you gotta pay for every bag. I want to choose my seat. Apparently, when Antonio L.A. Reed met her for the first time. He could feel a quiver of a beautiful success. He says, she opened her audition with a Beyonce song,

singing, but the whole time piercing me with these laser eyes. I saw her determination, her commitment. I saw someone who was going to be a big star someday. My head was spinning. She sang another song, Ponderee, play. that would become her first hit. After she was done, I looked at Jay-Z. Don't let her leave the building, I said.

I left it to Jay-Z's guys to close the deal, and she signed her contract that day. Now, I will throw this out there. It is fun because he says this as if he's like, we saw her, I knew she was going to be a star, and then she was a star. Nay. They had also signed someone in that same week

that was supposed to be the star that they were looking for, but she wasn't as moldable as Rihanna was at this. point in time. Did they throw her in the ocean? I think they must have put her into the trash can. Where those other girls went. I will say to Professor Xavier shortly after this time hits her up to be a member of the X-Men

due to her laser eyes. So this whole time, while she's recording and touring and all this stuff, she's also fighting Magisga's Got a Ler. That's how she got into battleship. Apocalypse and all this stuff when Cyclops wasn't able to join the crew because he was too busy

getting those penis alarm Is that why I'm so intimidated by her? Yes, that's what it is. It's not her beauty, it's not her grace, it's not her success. It is her laser eyes. I mean, I'd be scared. Oh my God, but how sick would her fenty glasses be if she had to wear the Cyclops kind of glasses?

They would be fucking a whole line of no laser eye glasses, which I would buy even though it's like, well, I don't have laser eyes, but what if I did someday? She just did put out a bunch of sunglasses. That's true. We knew it. I knew it. For the laser eyes.

She is now fully moved to the U.S. to live with Evan Rogers and his wife, as you mentioned before, Jackie, and work with Jay-Z and his team for the next three months to complete her debut album. However, rumors spreading in Barbados made this an oddly difficult time for her. Rihanna said it was like, of course she had to give Jay-Z a blowjob to get that deal. That rumor was everywhere in Barbados, and it was so disgusting. It made me feel really weird. I would even be weird around Jay-Z.

I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye. One day he called and he was like, yo, you can't buy into these rumors. You can't let people move you with anything they say. The rumors started getting very funny to me after that. I hope that they're just jealous. They are. They are. But it's so ridiculous too.

It's like, I think JZ could probably get a blow job from, I don't know. Anyone that's of age. That's A of age, B, that's just a very hot pert. Like, there's ridiculous. It's so absurd. Like, why does it have to be that way? It is like fucking, it's the traditional, like, haters got to hate bullshit.

It's like sometimes it's hard for people to imagine a girl just like got somewhere on her talent. How dare you say that? No, she must be putting the slippery eel into one of her coral Reeves. I know what happens. Little picky hooves. Little picky hooves. Work, work, work, work, work.

Oh, she's dancing. I think that, um, it, you see this time and time again in Rihanna's career that almost every single person she works with I keep seeing it and they're like well she did that song with JT does Jessica Beal know that JT's probably cheating on her

with Rianna's like why you're why just because she works with someone doesn't mean she's fucking them yes she has great sexual chemistry you see her on screen but also that's acting that's getting into a character

I also feel like that could be an intimidation and insecurity thing because she does have like such a presence and she's so sexy and such a, she does not really trying kind of way. No, she's ever mostly sexy. It's like a calm sexy that's very attractive. She's like an ocean breeze. I mean it's just so sexy. She's like a fibrose spray. She's like an oceans eight. Oh my God, that's another movie she was in Holden. Very good job.

Yeah! I said the movie. Why he's so proud of him? This is so she was asked about moving to America. We are hungover today. I'm hung here. It's a really episode from three fucking idiots. Listen to them, talk and sing and scream. Little tiny hooves work about moving to America when she was asked if she could ever do what

her mother did to allow her children to be taken away from her to go back and forth to America at such a young age. She says that's something I don't think I could ever do. Send my only girl to another random country to live with people. people she'd just met. It had to be God that paralyzed my mother, Monica Fentis, emotions, so that she'd say, yes, go. To this day, I don't know how that happened, but thank God it did. But she will say, Rianna also noted that when she stands up for herself, that's when her mother is the most proud. She's always impressed when she sees me being a little sassy or sharp. When she sees me defending myself,

it makes her feel safe, like she doesn't have to worry about me. Because that's got to be very scary, your beautiful daughter that you are sending to America. You're just like, well, I know that you are determined and I know that you will take care of yourself. 99% of the time, that scenario does not work out very well. Usually that's somebody being trafficked. Yes. Hey, Mrs. Jackie, put the record on in May of 2005.

Wow. Pondy replay was released as her lead single under the name Rihanna, which peaked in the top five in 15 countries, including the U.S. as it became a club hit. And actually, Mary, can you... Yeah, play it. Play it. Mary, would you mind playing a clip of Fondre replay?

Because reading about Pondreeply, it was like, I think I remember that song. And I heard that, again, first three seconds of it, I was like, Bonrie, I love this song. I forgot about this song. So if you wouldn't mind just playing a piece of it for us. Music of the Sun was released in August of 2005

and goes gold. However, the second single, if it's loving that you want was not as successful. I enjoyed the album, but it is a little conservative, I guess. She's a child. She's young, she's a little tight, you know. That's what in Ponda Replay, I always thought that was later on in her career because it has a maturity to it and a sensuality to it

that makes it seem like it came from an adult woman. Now in watching and realizing how young she was and watching the video for it, makes me very uncomfortable. Good. She's very... I think it's good. She's also just, she's very much playing by the rules. She's very much, you know, doing that sort of thing at this point in her career, being young as she is and everything.

A month after the first album, she gets to work on her follow-up, a girl like me. She wanted to experiment with some rock on this one, which will be a big part of her style later on, and wants to get more personal with her lyrics and expression to connect with other 18-year-olds. Another big addition to this album is their collaborations with songwriter, Neo, which is going to be a long-running. relationship they have. It is, so going from album to album is something that not only she wanted to do, but what Jay Z and what Def Jam wanted her to do as well. Jay Brown, who was the former Def Jam and Rock Nation co-founder,

he said, we didn't want her to be seen as a novelty. So as we put the first record out, we started on the second one. It was Jay Z's idea originally. I think we should just start making the first album and we shouldn't stop. We wanted people to know she's here to stay. she's not going anywhere. And Evan Rogers was blown away by her drive because just going to America,

he said, she would just learn in the studio and she would have you do it again and again. You'd say, Rihanna, you want to take a break? She just wanted to keep going until we thought it was right. She always had that work ethic. When she puts her mind to something, she's a perfectionist and so focused. From day one, she never complained about being homesick.

She was on a mission. I was such a fuck. up at the age of 15. I mean, yeah, we talk about this all the time. I don't always bring it up, but no. Wow. I don't. It still boggles the mind to me that you could be that age and have such, even though I knew I wanted things in my life at that point, my brain still felt like oatmeal. Like, I don't know how you have that level of the like focus at that point. No, it was like, I hope my, my vagina gets touched someday. Like, it was more a lot of that. And all it's all I thought I was mostly looking for people

would sell me weed and beer. That too. That was a big one, cigarettes for sure. And that's why she put out the song. I hope that someone sees my vagina someday, which was a clunker. No one likes it. It is interesting for a 16-year-old to sing that.

Yes, it is scary, but it's like fun scary, you know? A month after, yeah, her first album is already said. She did SOS instead, which again, I had no idea that came from when she was a teenager. No, she's so young. That's February of 2006, and that is her first number one hit on the U.S. Billboard, Hot 100. So we all feel like the Rihanna we know starts at umbrella, but it's so not true, which is crazy. And actually, Mary, could you play a snippet of SOS for us so we can remind everyone that you definitely know this song?

She lives in my brain. I'm sorry. A girl like me is released just eight months after her debut album and goes on to be certified two times platinum. Here we have Rihanna, though, hitting another Turning Point Alert, Turning Point Alert! Hey, everybody, it's Mr. Turning Point, man. We're traveling east. Ooh, okay.

I guess that's... I'm unsure whether or not that's good. At least there'll be four seasons, presumably. Weather jokes. Isn't that why you came here? Rihanna said, in the beginning, it was almost like I was just going along with the script that was written for me,

and I didn't feel like an artist. I felt like a tool. I just felt, hey, here I am, this money-making vehicle for this big record label, and I'm not even having fun. I'm not enjoying it, because I'm not able to be who I am. So it's time for a breakthrough, y'all.

Oh, yeah, it's the time for a good girl to go bad. I don't know why I made that noise, but it felt good in a bad way. This is around the time that she even says, the other stuff I did was easy, breezy. A lot of it, I felt like any artist, could have done it. This one only a certain artist can do. And this is

where she said, I want to be the black Madonna. Because this is when she started taking her influence and where she, her projections were set. And started sent to the, she was setting them to Rihanna. She said that. She was setting them to, or Rihanna. Yeah.

Fuck me, I keep saying it wrong. She, that's big. You're so beautiful. No, look, quote, quote, fuck. I'm a little Dutch pig now. With little, um, wooden hooves. Like little wooden shoes? Yes. She said she had that statement in 2007, so it was quite a while ago when she said she wanted to be Black Madonna.

Yes. But this is her. She's doing a U-E. And I guess if you're going east, that means she's going west now. Because the night before the album's cover shoot, the singer defiantly chopped off her hair and later debuted her new rebellious look in the music video for her umbrella. Iconic. Iconic, Iconic, Ariana.

She was inspired by Charlize Theron's Bobcutt in the 2000 film, Aon, flux. I get it. I get it. Who doesn't want to be Charlie Theron in every way including in my loins. Hell yeah. Oh, yes. Melons. Rihanna said, I really got rebellious and just did everything the way I wanted to do it.

I didn't want to listen to anybody. I didn't consult with anybody. I just want to have a little more fun with my music and be a little more experimental in terms of my image and my sound. I just reinvented myself. Yes, she did. She did. They just put me in the studio and I started

recording and recording, and it showed the direction of who I became as an artist. We figured Good Girl Gone Bad was the perfect title because it showed people, I'm my own person now, not doing what anyone else wants me to do. I'm not the innocent Rihanna anymore. I'm taking a lot more risks and chances. No, no.

I felt when I cut my hair, it shows people I'm not trying to look or be anybody else. The album is very edgy. We have some urban records, some really pop records, and she also cites both Michael Jackson's Thrillard, and Brandy's aphrodisiac as inspirations for her new direction. Do you remember Brady's aphrodisiac? Because that album is sick.

No. I love Brandy. Neo worked with her a lot on this album as well and even gave her a bunch of vocal lessons to improve her singing. Together they wrote and co-sang the song, Hate That I Love You. Neo said the best way to express an emotion

like love is through storytelling. It makes it more I can relate to this character in this song because I've been through something similar. But it was actually Christopher Tricky Stewart and Tarius the Dream Nash who wrote the song Umbrella, which came together in a matter of hours. They actually wanted

Britney Spears to perform it, but her label rejected it without even letting her listen to it. So that's cool. That makes sense to me because it seems like a sort of generic pop song. Again, Rihanna still

kills it. And there's a really good version of Umbrella with Travis Barker on drums that I really like. But it seems like a song that most, you could envision most pop singers singing. Or definitely a Britney singing. And it's a very, very catchy.

And if she had never had another number one, we probably wouldn't be talking about her today. But umbrella showed she could do it again and then she did it again and again and again and again and again. But this album earns her seven Grammy Award nominations.

A number two album and six times platinum certification. So it's also not even just umbrella on there. This is when she also starts collaborating with Justin Timberlake. And Justin Timberlake said about her, the stuff we've come up within the studio, it's the next step for her. It's a little more grown up. It's got some edge to it. But of course, him coming out and saying that is why everyone thought that she was having sex with him behind Jessica Biel's back. Whatever. And she came out and said, no, that rumor about Justin is incorrect. We worked together on my album. It's not like we have the closest friendship. We just work together one time.

There are, of course, a lot of videos. There's a lot of pictures and stuff of them out partying and stuff like that. It does seem that Rihanna, Rihanna just likes to have a good time. Yeah. I think she's fucking everybody. Do lots of drugs and smoke a lot of weed. I think she just likes that fun. Yeah.

The other big hit here is Don't Stop the Music, which is actually the fourth single to be released and went on to be a big robot hit. That is a good one. That is the music. Bleed-da-da-da-d-d-d-d-mud. It is a 24-hour-long song because she never lets the music stop, and people have died from dancing of that song in this entirety. I did play, don't stop the music as I was hitting this part,

and I wasn't paying attention, didn't realize it in my headphones. It probably played three or four times, and I did think it was like, I could listen to it forever, but also, when will I just die? Please stop the music. Please stop it. At some point, you have to stop the music. So in 2008 she joins the glow in the dark tour and performs alongside Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Nerd.

I bet that was an amazing time. All right, guys, it's time to get into it. The sad turning point, hey, it's me guys, we're going south. It's south. We're going south. We're going south. With Chris Brown. How, we'll say this is just the one time.

How is he still working? I don't get it. I just don't understand it. stand it. And there was actually this really good video that was put out on YouTube by this guy who bullet pointed all of the shit that he's been arrested for and implicated in since this incident with Rihanna, clearly showing that he has in no way grown as a human being. And yet... Still making music.

And yet somehow he gets a pass with people. I don't... It's not even... It's like it's almost... It's like a syndrome almost. It's like we need to reeducate people in this country because I remember when this came out, there was all kinds of you know, screenshots of girls going, oh, I wish Chris Brown would hit me. I would love it. Brutal. That kind of should. Yeah, it's awful.

So anyways, yeah, I hate this guy. I'm just going to go ahead and preface all of this with that. And let's get into it right now, right here. In 2007, Rihanna and Chris Brown got together over a remix of Umbrella with Brown creating an answer song called Cinderella. And the two did it live for a few tour dates in Asia. All through 2008, they came out as in a relationship. She was just 20 years old and on top of the world.

Like touring all over the place, crushing it, Chris Brown's careers popping off like crazy. Do we know how old Chris Brown is at this point? I didn't look. I could have found that out. This is 2008 and you just have to find his birthday. The night before Rihanna's performance at the Grammys is in 2009, she found some suspicious texts. He's 19 at this time. Okay, so he's a kid too.

But still, again. It doesn't. No, it doesn't matter. Look at all this stuff he's done since. It's so obnoxious. It's like he's in no way learned anything. So anyways, yeah, the night before Rihanna's performance of the Grammys in 2009, she found some suspicious text on Brown's phone and confronted him while they drove home, and it turned out he cheated on her with a former employee. So Brown throws the first punch, which turns... It was then claimed... Yeah, why don't you take it away, Jaggis? I think you might have some more details than me. I mean, I'm just going to do this fast. It was then claimed that he shoved her head. against the car window, punched her repeatedly in the face, bit her left ear, bit her fingers, and placed her in a headlock until she began to lose consciousness.

Brown was charged with felony assault and making criminal threats. He reached a plea bargain by pleading guilty to the first charge and was sentenced in June to six months community labor and five years probation. And so we've all seen the picture of Rihanna after the fact. She has to cancel her- Heroie.

Grammy's performance that was supposed to happen the next night with J.T. And J.T. ended up bringing in Al Green to do the performance with him because they had to just figure out the day of. And she is now, of course, I don't think, I think that she should have had a choice of whether or not that photo was released of what she looked like. She was very upset that that photo got released. That was leaked by TMZ. She didn't want to be seen as the victim. It should have been her choice for sure. She says that it's not that she wants to do. dismiss what happened or that she doesn't take it seriously.

She just doesn't want to talk about it. She says, for me and anyone who's been a victim of domestic abuse, nobody wants to even remember it. No one even wants to admit it. So to talk about it and say it once, much less 200 times, is like, I have to be punished for it. It didn't sit well with me. Yeah.

And it also then opens up the world for criticism, which I think in this way is good of when she would get back together with him a couple of different times. And of course, she never gives a fuck about when anyone has to say to her, and I understand that. But I think that it was very important for her, which she ended up, I know we'll talk about this point

a little bit more, but that she will talk about it more. But she does talk about it more and talk about the cycle of abuse. And she wants to be an inspiration to people and not people looking at her just. It's also, man, when you're that age, when you're young, at least maybe I'm projecting because that, I was also in really abusive relationship.

You just, you're learning so much about yourself and the world at the same time. And to be doing that on like the international stage, it's got to be a whole other level of just like trauma. Like you're just reliving trauma over and over and over again and people are just constantly berating you about it. She said the night before the biggest performance of my career as well as 10 days before I became 21. It was a turning point.

It was the end of an incredible year, an incredible album, the beginning of a new era. and it just felt like it was a wake-up call for me, and it had to happen. As bad as and as terrible as it was, there's so much great that came out of that situation. Now young girls, they learned from it, and I really hope young men can learn from it, even more than the girls. The men really need to learn from it, because everyone's focusing on the women, but the problem isn't the women. And Rihanna, it goes on to collaborate with artist Kanye West and M&M on songs about domestic violence.

They do end up getting back together in the weeks after the assault, but she decides she needed to call it off to set a good example. Rihanna said, I realized that my selfish decision for love could result in some girl getting killed. I could not be easy with that part. I couldn't be held responsible for telling them, go back. Even if Chris never hit me again, who's to say that their abusers won't kill these girls? I mean, that's a beautiful sentiment. It's beautiful of her, but it's also, you know, kind of again, having the victim have to put all the fault on themselves.

Right, right. She had to make the decision not, you know, yeah, that is so true. It's such bullshit. And I think it's important. and that she had said again that, you know, growing up in Barbados that talking about mental illness and going to therapy is not something that is open and or condoned.

And, but she's still dealing with all these feelings about getting back together with him. She had said, I was very protective of him. I felt that people didn't understand him even after, but you know, you realize after a while that in a situation you're the enemy. You want the best for them, but if you remind them of their failure, of their failure,

or if you remind them of bad moments in their life, or even if you say, I'm willing to put up with something, they think less of you, because they know you don't deserve what they're going to give you. And if you put up with it, maybe you're agreeing that you deserve this. And that's when I finally had to say, uh-oh, I was stupid thinking I was built for this.

Sometimes you just have to walk away. It's not built. It's not, yeah. No, but she's still blaming herself. Absolutely. I don't hate him. I will care about him until the day I die. We're not friends, but it's not like we're enemies.

we don't have much of a relationship now because I wish that she was able hopefully maybe now that she's able to talk more because even this was what 11 years ago this was a good amount of time ago and I hope that she's able to talk to someone because this is still she's still putting the blame on herself like oh I realize I couldn't be the person to take this on

and it is a lot of times people in that situation they think they're trying to help this person and they care for this person. The person's supposed to love them. And the way that they're showing love is through all these cycles of abuse. So you get stuck into this loop. And then you put the blame on yourself the whole time. And it's not your fault.

You will not be able to fix them. They need to fix themselves. And really, you deserve better. I'm just saying that generally to you in the world, everyone. Hell yeah. All right. We're not going to end on a downer note, though. We're going to see Rihanna push back.

revitalized her career and moved past this awful, awful point in her life, when that is all going to go down with the album Rated R. I love it. They likened the album Rated R. They called it Rihanna's Control, which is the Janet Jackson album, where she finally got out from her horrible father slash abuser slash managers' thumb. And they likened it to that album because this is her declaration of independence from Brown

and her taking charge of a narrative that had turned her into a victim. she didn't want to be seen as that. She described the album as liberated and she wanted to incorporate a lot of gothic imagery into the vibe of it. She didn't want to like specifically address the relationship and the incident in the music but it just bleeds through in this sound

like there's no way to avoid it. Most of the lyrics were written by Rihanna for this album, nine of the 13 songs to be exact, along with the help of Justin Timberlake and Neo who acted largely as translators for Rihanna at this point. Now she's really coming into her own as a musician in all these new ways, which is awesome to see her grow like that. Of course, I have to mention this because Natalie is my co-host. Slash contributed guitar to the song Rockstar 101.

We have to remember slash is always involved somewhere. In any success, there is a slash moment. That's right. And this is Rianna's Slash moment. I love that. It's a great song too. And I would have worked with Slash so bad. He seems so cool.

But I'll never have. Also in conjunction with taking her narrative back, this is around the time where her social media life begins. And I'd love to shine a little spotlight of some of my favorite parts of Rihanna's social media. Shined right like a day. If you don't follow bad girl Rieie, I do suggest that you do

because she is a fun bitch on the social medias. Rated R.Serves as the most accurate description of her tendency to speak in the most unfiltered, manner. Whether it's through her brow raising tweets, Instagram posts, or tell all magazine interviews, Rianna's quotes are often golden and bound to have everyone waiting for what she'll say next. I included some for instances here. When a fan tweeted at her and asked, why her hair's so nappy, and her response was, because I'm black, bitch. When Celibus said, you've gone a little too far with this quote-unquote outfit, maybe time to class it up. Her response,

was, your pussy is way too dry to be riding my dick like this. She is taking the narrative back, but then also there is in positive ways. She supports her fellow artists. When Lizzo ripped up her 2019 MTV Awards performance, she DM'd her. And Lizzo said she DM me to tell me that I performed good. She said, I fucked the stage like it was my side bitch. She's just so, I love how extreme and very, you know, she is. It shows how she feels.

She doesn't keep it hidden. It's so funny though because she still does it in this very somehow classy way. Yes. Like she's so reserved in her, like she's so posturing and so like, not in a negative way. Like she's so graceful. Yes. She holds herself so gracefully and royally. But then she says like these fucking horrible things.

Just ratchet as shit, which is so fun. When a fan asks if there was ever a possibility to do a song with Chris Brown again, she posted a meme that says, bitch, you will die, be born again, die again, and be born again before I do a song with you, bitch. Doesn't mince words, but this is what she is starting to become known for

at this point in her career, that she continues to grow and we will see this hugely in the launch of Fenty and she always keeps her voice because she doesn't, she knows that no one will speak the way she wants

to speak. And from here on out, she does control her narrative. You will notice in the rest of her career, there will be speculations of who she's having sex with and things like that. But it's nobody's fucking business. And she makes that very clear that her business is her own and she doesn't give a fuck about what you have to say about it. Her mantra for the, for the album rated R is, I'm such a a fucking lady. And that would be repeated by her over and over again. She said, everybody wanted me to see a to just talk about it and I refused in Barbados. We don't do that, which is not a good idea, by the way. She should definitely get therapy.

We keep it in our family and figure it out and move on. I just put my game face on and went on with my life. But deep down inside, I had some things to get past and it came out in the music. And so, yeah, she's really, with this album onward, she's got a fierceness in her that is just like ridiculous, like scary, which of course is where you get to bitch better have my money and stuff like that later on. I will also do my, um, uh, do my, my, mental health step in here

and I will just put in, if somebody is telling you to keep the problems in the family that often comes from a place of abuse. Yes. You are coming from somebody who's probably doing something that's wrong. 100%. And if you want to keep it in the family, it's because you're trying to hide secrets. Yeah. And that's not okay. And it's good that she's at least

working through things with her music, but yeah. She's doing great. Probably get therapy too. Either way though, here we have Rihanna with a double platinum album again in the U.S. and UK. And, as well as platinum and five other countries in gold and six more. Her album rated ours huge. We're going to go on tour with her after that.

We're going to have all these amazing collaborations coming up. We're going to have her best work yet, in my opinion, coming up. And this is also when, which, thank good for her. This is when Gillette ensures Rihanna's legs for $1 million. She says, they named me this year's celebrity legs of a goddess. So along with the title comes an insurance for your legs of a million. she told the Guardian. But I think I'm just normal, I think.

I think, do people really insure their legs for a million dollars? If it was my million dollars, I'd probably walk about in pants all day long. Also, sames. But I guess, you know, if it's somebody else's money, I don't give a fuck. Flop them around a little bit. We've got the, yeah, we'll have the rest of Rihanna's huge as man. what an impressive life. This is only half of it.

And she's still only 32 years old. Yeah. It's so crazy. Yeah, we're going to go all through her 20s, the unbelievable work ethic we haven't even really gotten into, which will be next episode. We've got all these songs that are going to come out. So many more hits.

Again, I think her best work in part two. But this has been, of course, the end of part one. Thank you so much for joining us. Check us out. Patreon.com forward slash page seven podcast. for just $5. You get a ton of bonus content every single month, guaranteed episodes every week,

all this extra stuff that Jackie's doing as well. Please check us out. Also, you can check Jackie and I out on Twitch.tv forward slash Holdenators Ho for my Twitch stream on Friday night. It is such a party, guys, and it's just growing bigger and bigger every single week. Please, you're missing out if you're not coming and hanging out with us on a Friday night.

We have so much fun and we always get drank. We're just like Brianna. Quack, whack, whack, quack. Yes, I'm doing my pinky boots.

Shoops. Shoves. Good God. It is unhinged, Jacqueline Zabrowski. Natalie, where can we find, I don't know,

so many things. The page seven. Oh, thank you. Thank you, bad boy. Ha-ha, ho-ho. Ooh.

I'm ho-ha. Your bad boy ho-ho. Okay. Bad boy ho-ho says, Natalie, give us them handles. I am nice lady Nana

and you can find me at the Natty Jean. Yikes. And page 7 LPN. Is that song about you? Oh yeah. It's about me. Oh, Nana. She lives with Henry. Oh, Nana. She does an aerialist Lana. Yeah. All that stuff. That's how I learned everything I know about you is actually through

that Rihanna song. I didn't mention you guys. I know Rihanna and she wrote a song about me. You should get all. We should be talking about it. I should have mentioned it. I know. I'm sorry. I know that she's been texting you throughout all of this. She's not happy with what we're saying. Can she be our friend, please?

We are so not fucking to ever, ever, ever hang out with you. Ever, ever. And love you guys so much. My name is Jackie Zabrowski. Follow me on Instagram at Jack That Worm. We love you very much. Stay safe out there and we will talk to you soon. We love you.

Good bitch, Jaja. Good bitch, Jaja. Bye. This show is made possible by listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors. You can support our shows by supporting them. For more shows like the one you just listened to, go to lastpodcastnetwork.com.