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February 21, 2012

Comments

Loz

It's posts like this that cause me to think that you have very limited understanding of people, that you have a limited understanding of pop culture, and that should be limited to posting about your cats.

Alexa

I was really looking forward to an extended version of "Birthday Cake." Too bad now I won't be able to listen to it without wanting to gag, ick.

That said, I would never want to put the responsibility on Rihanna to have to accomodate the situation. Its a shame that because of someone else's actions, she can't conduct her career as she pleases. But its not like she needs this, she's doing pretty ok without CB (and the kid from the "We Found Love" video that she was supposedly dating was gorgeous). I'm not sure if this career decision comes from too much pride or too little.

KT

I still wonder if this wasn't the intended result from the beginning. It's not like there haven't been whispers about their re-connecting for quite a while, now. And I always thought it odd that the songs ends so abrubtly. Just a theory, but I think Brown was always meant to be on the track, and the album version was just truncated so the label could hedge their bets. That said, yeah, Brown is a passable singer, at best, an ok dancer, and an asshole, in general, so I still don't understand why anyone roots for him. His most memorable song was a freakin' gum commercial. Sigh.

sarahspy

well articulated. the whole thing baffles me.

Alexis

Mmmm Hmm. And Taylor Swift really is surprised. Keep fucking that chicken Rich.

Singh_michael

I agree about the 'Cake'song. Truly awful.

I think the paring up is not really musical but sexual.

& after listening to them together I really do despair for young people.

Lily Allen once said of the 'Pussycat Dolls' that they are pushing soft porn on children. Rhianna does this, but this is a new low.

Lauren

"A one-two punch of releases" -- pun intended?

claire

It's interesting to see all the controversy swirling around this at the same time as the Yeardley Love murder trial at UVA is going on (I'm in Virginia so it is allll over the news), which is a case of a woman who by all accounts had a very strong support system but still kept going back to her abusive boyfriend. It seems like, culturally, we still don't really know what to do about abusive relationships other than be all "They're bad!" but not move beyond that.

Norma

Rihanna, in my opinion, seems very mentally/emotionally unstable. Oh and Chris Brown is a douche.

Quinn Fairchild

Though I agree that a celebrity, by virtue of their notoriety, should be conscious of, and not deny, their power and influence over others, I do think it's shaming and ridiculous to expect a victim, ANY victim (famous ones included) to be a "role model" for other victims. Every abuse situation is terrifying, complicated, and unique; what she's going through is not like what any other victim has gone through. In fact, being in the public lens, she has probably been much more isolated from resources, and much more ridiculed and abused by others, than most victims have. So I really can't speak to how she is acting now, how she acted then, and what she said in 2009. I don't doubt that she was genuine in her feelings then, just as she is now. If she feels willing to make these public steps with her former abuser, knowing the ramifications, I will allow her that right, as a victim, without passing judgement, because I am privileged enough to have never known an abusive partner.

Kristina

I CONCUR.
I would add something else, but there's nothing more to say. We're watching something intense, slightly disturbing, (and sonically terrible)play out. I cringe to see/ and hear where this goes.

Mara

This entire situation saddens me immensely and just breaks my heart. I've always said Rihanna needed therapy; not just from her dating an abusive asshole but also from her abusive childhood experiences. I have no clue what's going on in her head or why no one tried to stop this from happening, but it's obvious that Fist Brown is taking advantage of her mental instability to promote his new album, which is beyond vile and disgusting. Not to mention he completely fucking ruined "Cake"...he truly is Douche Overlord.

I can only hope that when the public backlash comes, it doesn't send her the way of Britney, or Whitney, or worse.

Michael

I've always thought they were both pretty awful. Chris Brown - clearly the definition of a douche bag, and Rihanna has just always seemed like a puppet. Has she ever given an interview where she seemed to have even an ounce of a personality? I watched her on Graham Norton sometime ago, and she just put me to sleep.

Jason LeRoy

It wasn't until I read the chorus spelled out in your post ("Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake!") that I realized, according to the "Who Wants Cake?" episode of "Strangers With Candy," the remix of "Birthday Cake" is basically an "Other Sister"-style retard sex anthem. Which is totally and completely appropriate.

Singh_michael

I love this comment by Roseanne Barr that I had to share:

Rhianna sticks it to the judge. Destroying yourself 2 help ur boyfriend is a bad idea

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Not a good one.

Michelle

Thank you for articulating what I couldn't about this really confusing development. I don't think I've seen a celebrity regress in such a confident, sure way. I mean, she devoted an entire era/album to her recovery process and, as you said, seemed to understand the situation in her Diane Sawyer interview. She even said his apology sounded like he was just reading from a teleprompter. So what gives??

I get that a lot can change in 4 years but I can't imagine her memories of that night fading in any way. If they are together again, what happens when their next argument breaks out? Will he control himself? His actions over the last 4 years say nope, which is pretty terrifying when you think about it.

I couldn't figure out why the Talk That Talk era wasn't quite gelling with me - something felt off. I kept thinking "These just sound like Rated R demos". I think she really has regressed, now. I think We Found Love was a "message" to him that she still had feelings for him, which is why she put a lookalike of him in the video and based the plot around their relationship.

Over the last few months, she'd been posting all sorts of angsty relationship "quotes" or lyrics like a lovestruck teenager. After LOUD, I thought she'd moved on but TTT made me think something was still bothering her. I was right.

Now, the romantic in me wants Drake to come whisk her away from that beast and take good care of her

B

People will just do absolutely anything for money and publicity. They are proof. That is all.

emma

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jbean

super, super well-said, as always. love your blog and love your music (as well as pop culture/human nature) reviews; impressive.

The2GirlsTeachSex

One awesome song folks, one awesome.

A

Totally agree with you about the song, it's dull and uninspired. Discussing Rihanna kind of reminds me of rap music's theoretical sea full of haters - how much music and identity now is played to imaginary haters. Rihanna getting back together with Chris Brown is so inconsequential, and they're both totally uninteresting, that we really have to imagine scarred teenage girls - who probably don't exist - in order to find the issue particularly poignant. Compare Rihanna's one-time beatdown to lives like Tina Turner's (or simply the private pecadilloes of everyone from Courtney Love to Whitney Houston) and you really have something of closer resemblance to a party girl getting too drunk and falling down than a real public tragedy. As for Chris Brown, the fact that his whole smug-asshole rendition is a panty-dropper has been black culture's problem from Day 1. He should have read as an insincere date rapist back when he was singing smooth R&B, and that's a larger cultural problem that hints at the real subconscious of sex-, fame- and money-obsession.

A

Also: Rihanna has the best songwriters working in the least tediously caucasian, least boring template, and that's simply why she's the best one in the biz right now. Beyonce went lily-white ever since Irreplaceable simply because the sales were there and has been a nearly full-on bore ever since, Nicki Minaj gave up on good, edgy music after Massive Attack flopped and Your Love was a hit, and artists like Jessie J or Katy Perry (who is also a good songwriter) really don't allow their personas to go outside of the Disney Channel. Rihanna has the good fortune of getting the best tunes written by the best people with the least restrictions. She also has the good fortune of having the kind of voice machines were born to drip with reverb. But nobody else will really accept or place edgy pop hits on the radio. Everyone else is too worried about sounding Black Eyed Peas-ish.

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