“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!
