ANTI

When I heard Rihanna’s “Work”, I was quite excited to hear the album that went with it. It was already her eighth studio offering, and at that point in her career, Rihanna was and still is considered one of the top female artists of all time. However, I admit I was a bit disappointed with her album Anti. I checked the writing and producing credits of most of the songs here and it showed a high level of involvement from Rihanna herself. I daresay though that even with more involvement from her side, she cannot still properly articulate the direction that her record wants to take. So, although the album has some great standalone tracks, the end product is like most of her albums, a hodgepodge of different musical styles, some of them interesting, some of them, you wonder, why there got approved in the first place. Anyway, Anti was still a successful album, producing three more US top 10 hits including another #1 song for her in “Work”. Also, I did enjoy her vocals this time, as she was trying different ways of showing off the songs she chose for this album. So, although my sonic journey through her album has its peaks and valleys, I still get great satisfaction from her vocals – which I think, is still her greatest asset. If only she finds THAT producer who can help her coalesce her targeted themes and musical tastes, because I know she can do it, being successful in the business for more than a decade now. I heard her next album is veering back to reggae. That would be an interesting album to check as she goes back to her roots. For now, I will talk about the songs I enjoyed here in Anti.

Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty signed to Def Jam records at 16 by rapper Jay-Z who recognised her talent after she auditioned for himself and LA Reed. The sex and style Icon has won 9 Grammys, 13 American Music Awards and 12 Bilboard Music Awards. She has had several no 1 hits since she stepped on the music scene in 2005. Her eighth studio album, ANTI was released on the 28th of January, 2016. The album name ANTI represents everything the singer is known for, breaking the rules and taking her freedom into her own hands. The superstar boldly expresses herself and pushing the boundaries in fashion and music. She experimented with more genres on this album by deviating from the club and dance music she is primarily known for to R&B, Hip Hop, soul, dancehall and pop. She worked with producers like Timberland, DJ Mustard, Hit-Boy, Brian Kennedy, No I.D and Kuk Harrell who produced her vocals. She also featured Drake and SZA on the album. Though the album was released in 2016, the singer first announced the release of her album in 2014. During her creative block she rented a house in Malibu where she wrote and composed most of the songs on the album with a team of musicians. Fans waited in anticipation for almost three years despite the repeated delays and lack of concrete information about the release date. This is the longest break Rihanna has taken between albums in her career and the break proved to be quite beneficial to her. It was obvious she took her time to make quality music, though she did not disappear from the limelight. She released three singles that performed well on the charts in 2015 including “FourFiveSeconds” with Kanye West and Paul McCartney. The carefree island girl was not too shy to let the world how good she is in bed on the song “Sex With Me”. She sings “Sex with me, so amazing, all this all work, no vacation…….I know, I know, I make it hard to let go”. Though she loves to have fun in the bedroom she still commands respect. On “Needed Me” she sings “You was just another nigga on the hit list, tryna fix your inner issues with a bad bitch, didn't they tell you that I was a savage, fuck your white horse and a carriage”. She is not afraid to put a man who is trying to use her in his place and she shows she is not impressed by his saviour complex,claiming he needs her instead of the other way around. The song has a sexy psychedelic feel to it and the video shows Rihanna walking with a pistol in her hand, through a strip club. “Needed me” was nominated for Best R&B performance at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.She fully unleashed her inner bad girl, on the album. The arrangement of the songs on the album was so good, the songs seemed to flow seamlessly into each other.