“Little Ms Sunshine” burst on the scenes a few years ago and us Caribbean girls loved her! At last, a local girl, with a rags-to-riches story, a Bajan accent and the catchy “Pon de Replay” to boot. In Rude Boy, Ri-Ri returns bogling and pepper-seeding to the Caribbean with the raunchy, dancehall queen, beautifully overdone in the way only –Jamaicans-know- how-to quite do it “Rude Boy”.
With the saucy taunt “ Come on Rude Boy can you get it up... is you big enough”, she raises eyebrows from the get-go, fiercely asserting with every wink, gyration and dip, that she is no longer saccharine Sweet n Low sweet (if you didn’t quite get that from the whole Rated R rebrand). The video itself is retro inspired with just that touch of Caribbean overflow and ostentatiousness. The costuming is superb – my favourite is actually the gold jumpsuit and long weave (love that weave) although it does not feature very much in the video (Why? Did they see Marcia in Dancehall Queen?). The thigh high boots and tasselled ice green and yellow skirt is also very flattering and very on trend.
Rihanna takes charge of the song and the moment. And to make things even better, she does not do her trademark bleat on the track. Slam Dunk! The song itself is very well written. There are a few very cheeky lines “Tonight ama let you be a rider, giddyap giddyap” and my all time favourite “ If I ain’t feel it, I ain’t faking no no”. I am not usually a fan of ebonics feeding its way into the mainstream -what’s wrong with saying “are you big enough”? but it works here.
I must admit that I have a very soft spot for Rihanna (long before the Chris Brown debacle) as one of our home grown exports (Yup I claim ALL Caribbean people same how I claimed Bolt over the Olympics) who constantly “kilt it” but I am not sure whether this “sex sells” move was the right one to be making so soon after all the media attention and hype and speculation about her as aggressor. She comes off in the video as mega assertive, super confident, and sex on wheels and a part of me wonders whether it is too much too soon for Joe Public. Note that the Queen Bey has chosen to stick to “Ave Maria”, casting herself as the victim in “If I were a Boy” and even her little foray inviting a man to her place “Check up on it” was very bland and ambiguous. Even Britney rebutted her personal disaster moments with the baby-voiced “Everytime”. Peeking into a man’s trousers and saying “Give it to me baby like boom boom boom” is probably playing straight into the hands of the anti feminist brigade out there who took pleasure in painting her as a crazy, wild, over assertive aggressor. However, I hope that most people see it the way I do and realise that performances are just that- a poem, a video, a song is not necessarily a personification of the individual (something I realise even educated people just don’t get!!!) and even if they are... this chick should be applauded for taking a risk!
Great analysis.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shonta :)
ReplyDeleteNicely written but I beg to differ. Being a little too aware of many things in pop culture I cannot share the same sentiments about the video. The song itself is as catchy as pop tunes go and the video like the song is of a patchwork of images of overused cliches, trendy items (come on you did see the Keith Haring and Warhol inspired pop art visuals) , subtle sex and her trying to give the video a Caribbean edge by some sparing dancehall moves (you DID see the weak attempt of boggling). I get it pop music is all about branding (thanks to elvis) and Rihanna is a brand though being a Caribbean native am I wrong to ask her for a little more authenticity. Whats wrong with using those same themes in the video (retro dress, dancehall moves) and shooting it in B-dos or Jamaica and instead of dressing up the video with Warhol infusions she could use cultural images.....no? am I too harsh on this pop princess.....
ReplyDeleteI actually think that the genius was using the Warhol pop art visuals- I did not want to go into that too much. How many times have we seen a cliched Caribbean styled video with a few palm trees, some women wearing carnival costumes and wining or on some random beach. I think that is the cliche. She can be Caribbean and cosmopolitan and modern because that is what we are.
ReplyDeleteI take your point on the authenticity but I got the feeling that she was trying to represent a certain sector of Caribbean culture (the dancehall scene) instead of the Caribbean as a personality per se. But you are also right- she could have stretched herself and shot it in a rumshop in Bdos! With all the rumbos watching her. It would have been fun.
Oh, and I am still waiting on her to do a soca.
Its all pre packaged marketing. Do not be fooled into thinking this represents in any way who she actually is.
ReplyDeleteIt is called: "Puhing the Brand"-She is a brand and her videos and music must continue to sell the brand. Good song aside I see the business for what it is..a Marketing Juggernaut.
Continued success to 'Ri'(my lil' pet name for her) though.
I meant: *Pushing
ReplyDelete**I am 'Anonymous btw**
The problem for me with warhol / "pop art" aesthetic is I've lived in New York long enough to see it become trite. There is much that has evolved in art in many places around the world that is more modern and pop art than a campbells soup tin and a single repeated multicolored image. ...that is more in line with innovation than RiRi sitting atop a zebra (adorned with ballons) wearing a faux-Haring jumpsuit and booty bumping every few secs to the hook of her song. Caribbean videos are only cliched because we are not a culture really to push boundaries (let me know when soca fuses with a genre other than hiphop). We're comfortable with what works and whats expected. Don't get me wrong I love how RiRI shows that she doesn't have to stick to a certain defined cultural image yet it feels like she is a long way away from the girl that first appeared at the MTV music video awards prancing around with a carnival costume (boy was I proud) singing with a distinct pronounced ring of Bajan in her voice....You must a agree she no longer is viewed as a Caribbean national, her birthplace is only an exotic detail in her bio - a one liner that makes her as authentically Caribbean as Grace Jones ...or Harry Belafonte (Dayyyyy o)
ReplyDeleteI think if she wanted to sell records she HAD to be seen as more than a Caribbean national. Nothing wrong with being a Grace or a Harry- they are icons who traversed nationalistic or regionalistic barriers. I would like her to be more Caribbean but she does not owe us that. I feel more that she owes us success- its nice to see a Caribbean girl in all the magazines and her Caribbeanness being an afterthought, it makes me feel that she does not have a shelflife as a bit of exotica- a la sean paul. Maybe she will add more nutmeg/coocoo/ when she is fully comfortable with her success.
ReplyDeleteI take your point on pop art becoming rather trite these days- everyone wants to be a muse- I found her style really postmodern and I like it however.