A friend recently showed me some footage of Rihanna at this year's BET Awards, but it wasn't the usual 'woman on the red carpet' or 'accepting an award' clips that we're all accustomed to seeing. Instead the footage shows Rihanna dismiss the BET exec Stephen Hill and throw a big wad of cash straight at his face.
Let me tell you, I was as dumbstruck as poor ol' Stephen looked after watching it.
I truly couldn't believe how rude and vulgar such a show was!
As the press put it:
"While preparing to step out on stage to intro a teaser for her “B*tch Better Have My Money” music video, the pop star got into a brief yet intense spat with BET’s President of Programming, Stephen G. Hill.
Much of their discussion is inaudible, but apparently Rihanna wanted to take a couple stacks of money on stage with her to promo the video — either to toss into the crowd or just flash around a little bit — but the network wasn’t having it.
Obviously deciding to shoot the messenger, Rih tossed the two bands of bills she had in her hands square at his forehead, and Stephen ended up catching the fade from some cash…all while cameras rolled"
When I saw this I couldn't believe how far Rihanna has come from her early days. It seems there is a real disconnect from other people and a false sense of superiority. The sheer audacity of throwing a stack of cash at someone's face and in a public and televised setting...she isn't even a good singer!!!!!
Perhaps its the copious amount of weed that she smokes that have altered her personality, but I can guarantee she won't drop her 'I don't give a f**k' demeanour and apologise at any point.
I haven't ever been a particular fan of Rihanna, that's not to say I don't mind some of her songs...most likely because she doesn't write them. But having been invited to several of her shows and watched her half-heartedly sing parts of her songs and more importantly slap her vagina, I had never left in awe or feeling as though I had seen something truly special.
I suppose that's what upsets me about a lot of music these days, the labels play it incredibly safe and formulaic, sexualising young girls and simplifying music to a formulaic blur. Spend a few hours listening to the radio and you'll find that everyone sounds the same, even the music labels find it hard to distinguish who is singing a lot of the time. 2015 truly was the year of husky, faux-soulful tracks with a drop in them and people lapped it up for a time. Fortunately trends end!
With the recent passing of legend David Bowie I'm finding it hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel for now. What we need is a truly talented artist who is musically bold, not manufactured and has absolutely no ties whatsoever to the Kardashians! Unfortunately I don't think American artists are capable of this at this moment in time and neither are the Brits.
