The Insane True Story of Rihanna
Rihanna is a massive anomaly. Most rules of the world seem to just not apply to her at all. I am true to my music and I just want people to realize that and appreciate me for that. Growing up on a small island in the Caribbean with less people in her whole country than the city of Miami and going on to become one of the biggest modern icons in both music and business, it’s nothing short of amazing.
There’s so many teenage girls who would love to be in my shoes and I’ve dreamed of this for so long. I’m not looking back. With 14 number one hits, a number that puts her only behind the Beatles and Mariah Carey, she’s flat out one of the most successful singers ever. But that isn’t all though. She’s got nine Grammy Awards, over 60 million albums sold and she built a commercial empire with groundbreaking moves in fashion and beauty on top of it.
All in all, she’s worth over a billion dollars, the first female musician billionaire and one of the richest women in the world. And all of that is great, but it’s still not the whole picture of why she’s just different from any of her peers. Because a lot of, if not most, pop artists eventually ruin their career momentum by oversaturating the market with their work, leading to listener fatigue and a loss of relevance.
But Rihanna is a completely different story. Rihanna has stayed on top of the industry without dropping an album in almost nine years. To be exact, it’s been around 3200 days since her last album. I have cousins that are younger than Rihanna’s last project, but she still has an insane 87 million monthly listeners Spotify, making her the seventh most listened to artist in the world.
She’s right behind Taylor Swift, who drops albums faster than I can make videos. Seeing bigger than she was at the beginning of her career, it makes no sense. Taking it back to her roots in Barbados, a country known for beautiful beaches and vibrant culture, but still struggling with issues like addiction and violence, she grew up in a humble home surrounded by the challenges of her parents’ addiction and fighting.
And it would have been easy for Rihanna to follow a completely different path, but Rihanna took the ultimate risk that most people wouldn’t dare take when they’re 15. She went to a different country to pursue music when she was still in high school. In Barbados, I was living a very normal, simple life.
You know, I moved to New York to pursue a career and to live a dream. And so millions of people have the talent to sing, but very few have the guts to actually put their future on the line and pursue a music career. It begs the question, why is Rihanna so different from all the other pop stars before her and what sets her apart as a uniquely influential long-lasting figure? Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20th, 1988 in Bridgetown, Barbados.
She was the middle child of six with two younger biological brothers and three older half siblings, a brother and two sisters from her father’s previous relationships. Her family lived in a humble two-bedroom home just outside the city center on Westbury Road, a small street which was recently renamed Rihanna Drive.
In Barbados, her mom worked as an accountant and her dad was a warehouse supervisor. But Rihanna’s childhood was marked by turmoil as she was forced to navigate her parents’ deeply unstable marriage. Her father struggled with addictions to alcohol and cocaine which strained his relationship with her mother and had a profound effect on the entire family, especially Rihanna.
The fights between her parents often turned violent with her father physically abusing her mother. As a child, Rihanna could only stand by and watch. Reflecting on those times, she shared in an interview, “I could tell when a conversation was getting too intense, when it was getting too physical.
Fridays were the scariest because he’d come home drunk. He would get paid and half of it would go towards alcohol. The moment he walked through the door, all eyes were on him.” She suffered from chronic headaches which even warranted her to have a CT scan for a possible tumor only to find out it was all coming from the stress of her parents’ conflict.
To escape the chaos at home, Rihanna found peace in music, falling in love with some of the biggest icons of the time. Mariah Carey’s Vision of Love became a pivotal song for her, sparking a deep desire to pursue music for herself. How old were you when you started singing? Do you remember? Uh Well, I always used to sing, but when I really realized I wanted to do this, I had be around 8 years old and I was really in love with Mariah Carey.
Oh, yeah. In fact, Rihanna has long spoken about her admiration for Mariah Carey, a connection that began when she performed Mariah’s song Hero at a school talent show. A simple performance that foreshadowed her own legendary career and journey in the process. Madonna was another major influence on Rihanna during this formative period, dominating the music scene in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Rihanna has often expressed her desire to be the black Madonna, citing Madonna’s ability to reinvent herself with each project as something she admired and eventually would do in her own career. Another key early influence for Rihanna was Bob Marley, a fellow Caribbean artist who achieved global success with reggae music that stayed true to his Jamaican roots.
Bob Marley’s ability to dominate the world charts without losing his own identity resonated deeply with Rihanna. And throughout her career, she followed a similar path, blending the rhythms of her Caribbean heritage with various different genres to create a sound that was uniquely her own, and one that propelled her to immense success.
By 2003 at age 14, Rihanna’s parents divorced, finally bringing some peace to her life at home. The story goes that the headaches she had suffered from as a child stopped, and she began to focus even more on music, starting a girl group with two of her classmates. And it just so happened that her big break came not long after when she caught the attention of a US music producer vacationing in Barbados, giving her a highly unlikely, yet very lucky chance to pursue a career in the music industry.
In the early 2000s, a man named Evan Rogers was one half of a powerhouse production duo alongside another producer, Carl Sturken. The pair had an impressive track record, having written and produced for some of the biggest names in the entire music industry, including ‘N Sync, Shakira, and Christina Aguilera.
But beyond their skill in creating hits, they also had a talent for spotting potential in new songs and artists. One One example of this was their discovery of Javier, who they helped hone his songwriting abilities to help him win the first season of The Voice. And in early 2005, it just so happened that the stars aligned for Evan Rogers to be on vacation in Barbados.
Of course, Rihanna had no way of getting noticed officially, but with Rogers’ wife being from Barbados, word reached them that there was a new girl group in town, and understandably, they were interested. He agreed out of curiosity, and they met him at a hotel along with his wife. Rihanna arrived late, but she made an unforgettable impression.
Evan Rogers later described the moment he first saw her like this. “The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist.” Sure enough, people don’t even know nowadays who those other two girls were. Rihanna, though, went on to become a legend. Although the group didn’t have original material, being a couple of kids, Rihanna performed a cover of Destiny’s Child’s Emotion, and Evan Rogers could immediately sense her potential, later saying she was a little rough around the edges, but she had an X factor to her
voice. At this exact moment, Rihanna’s future was written. She always knew she had talent, but now she was able to take the risk of going to a new country to turn her talent into a career that would change her life forever. Rihanna later said during interview with Entertainment Weekly, “When I left Barbados, I didn’t look back.
I wanted to do what I had to do, even if it meant moving to America.” Living on a tiny island her whole life, growing up around the same people, moving to a new country isn’t what many people around her would ever have the chance to do. Breaking the norm and taking the chance to grow so much bigger than the world she knew was scary, but she knew it had to happen.
And so, Rihanna then went to Stamford, Connecticut, a small city near New York City, known for corporate offices and suburban neighborhoods, to live with Evan Rogers and his wife, where she began the long and demanding process of artistic development. From the official SRP Music Group website, “In 2004, Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken of SRP Music Group discovered and signed Rihanna at the age of 15.
They spent a year developing her, bringing her back and forth from Barbados to their studio in Bronxville, New York. During this period, Rihanna would reside at Rogers’ home in Stamford, Connecticut with his wife, who’s also from Barbados. During this time, she recorded countless demos, all aiming to secure a record deal.
She frequently traveled back and forth between Barbados and the United States, balancing her high school education with recording sessions during holidays and breaks, with financial assistance provided by Evan Rogers and his family. Eventually, she signed with SRP Music Group, production company owned by StarGate and Rogers, a move that helped her demos get more easily into the hands of labels by attaching an established group to her name.
After a year of recording, Rihanna submitted four demo tracks to various record labels, one of which was Def Jam. And at the time, Def Jam had just gone through a major change with Kevin Liles stepping down as president and Jay-Z taking over the company. One of the tracks that was in the mixtape was Pon de Replay, a song that Jay-Z immediately knew could be a smash hit.
But Jay-Z was initially pretty hesitant about signing Rihanna. He had seen a lot of artists like Vanilla Ice, Montell Jordan, and many others come out with a hit song, but not be able to follow up, fading into the forgotten pile of one-hit wonders whose career only lasted a few years.
Jay-Z was looking for consistency, a star who could deliver hit after hit and be a flagship image for Def Jam. And while he immediately knew that Pon de Replay was undeniably great and could be a hit, he understandably still wasn’t entirely sure Rihanna could maintain that momentum. After all, she was only 16 years old.
No one knew how mature or consistent she would be. And he played that song for me and I was I was scared. I was like, um, that song’s too big for, you know what I’m saying? Like, you know, a new artist when a song is that big, it’s some, you know, it’s hard to come back from. And I don’t I don’t sign songs, I sign artists. Okay.
know what I’m saying? I was I was a little reluctant when I first heard the song. You know, some people chase song, the hot song for a minute and then they sign, you know, you know, based on the song. I wanted to sign it based on an artist. By this point, Jay-Z himself was a music business legend, and that could be more than a little intimidating.
He had already launched the careers of heavyweights like Kanye, Ne-Yo, Teairra Mari. So, Rihanna knew that meeting Jay-Z was either going to be the opportunity of a lifetime or push her confidence two steps backwards. Either way, though, the chance to sign with Jay-Z was an opportunity she couldn’t afford to miss.
For Rihanna, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. Auditioning for one of the most influential figures in music wasn’t just another opportunity. It was a make-or-break moment. Flying back and forth between Barbados, trying to manage school and a career, having little to no real-life experience with business, the pressure to succeed was heavy.
It was my very first time meeting a celebrity, and I was really, really nervous. I was really scared. I remember being in the lobby before I met him, just shaking. After I met him, he’s one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. So, he made the atmosphere very comfortable for me to audition. But despite his reservations about not wanting to invest resources into an unproven young kid who could turn out to be nothing but a one-hit wonder, Jay-Z was still intrigued by Rihanna.
When they finally met for the first time at an audition, Jay-Z was impressed by more than just her voice. The same way Evan Rogers had reacted a few years earlier in Barbados, he realized that Rihanna had a captivating presence, a star power that couldn’t be denied. From the SRP Music Group website, it says this: “By early 2005, they felt she was ready and had come up with the door-opener song, Pon de Replay, and they began to help her shop for the right record deal.
After a legendary meeting where Def Jam Records president Jay-Z and Island/Def Jam CEO L.A. Reid asked what they had to do for SRP to cancel all other label meetings, the deal was signed at 3:00 a.m. And then, from The Guardian, a quote from Rihanna: “That’s when I got really nervous.
” She said, “Oh God, he’s right there. I can’t look.” I remember being extremely quiet. I was very shy. I was cold the entire time and I had butterflies. I realized I’m sitting across from Jay-Z, the Jay-Z. I was starstruck. She sang Whitney’s “For the Love of Me”, “Pon de Replay”, and another song from Stargate and Rodgers, “The Last Time”.
But, the details of how exactly Rihanna ended up signing her first major deal is a dark reminder of how the music industry often treats its talent like assets or investments instead of real people. The lengths Jay-Z and his team went to in order to get Rihanna signed to them basically ended up with them threatening and intimidating a young kid.
It blurs the line between trying to grow someone’s potential and using a human as an investment. Jay-Z believed in Rihanna so much that he didn’t let her walk away, instead making her wait while his lawyers drafted a contract on the spot. They stayed at the Roc Nation offices until 3:00 a.m. that night, trying everything they could to convince her to sign, even going as far as for Jay-Z to say that Rihanna could either leave through the door with the record deal signed or leave through the window without it.
he said something about a window and a door or something. Oh, then he said He said a whole lot of stuff on you this day. He said, um there’s two ways to leave here, either through the door with the deal signed or through this window. And we’re on the 29th floor. In February of 2005, at the age of 17, just two years after starting her music journey, Rihanna officially signed with Def Jam, securing a major label deal for six albums before she had even put together an EP. That’s how much Def Jam
and Jay-Z believed in her potential. And as predicted, her debut single “Pon de Replay” was a massive hit, initially debuting at number 97 on the Billboard Hot 100, a remarkable achievement for any brand new artist. Still though, the song continued to climb, eventually peaking at number two, just behind Mariah Carey’s comeback single “We Belong Together”.
To this day, “Pon de Replay” has amassed over 800 million streams on Spotify and it dominated the charts worldwide when it was new. With a sound that crossed Caribbean instrumentals with a pop structure, it was the song of the summer and it launched Rihanna into global superstardom immediately. Rihanna’s unique look and sound set her apart from her peers.
She stayed true to herself and embraced her Caribbean heritage, allowing her to experiment with genres that other artists weren’t exploring back then. I can’t tell you where I would see myself in 5 years, but I can tell you that I will work my best to be the most successful artist that I can be in 5 years. But beyond her cultural fusion, Rihanna’s vocal talent also played a significant role.
With a mezzo-soprano range, she could comfortably sing across three octaves, giving her the flexibility to excel in different ways. This vocal versatility was key in shaping the different diverse sound of her debut album, Music of the Sun. I always prepare this dish called Callaloo and it’s a mixture of all types of meats.
So, my music, I compare my music to the dish because my music it consists of all like three types of music, like there’s reggae, there’s hip-hop and there’s R&B. It’s not specific genre, it’s more like a fusion of several. As Rihanna began recording her first album under Def Jam early in 2005, right after she was signed, her career came face-to-face with another rising star that also recently signed to Def Jam, Teairra Mari, a teen R&B singer from Michigan.
After having been signed by Jay-Z and hailed as the princess of Roc-A-Fella, a lot of people believed that Teairra Mari was poised to become the big star, successor to artists like Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill. Jay-Z himself said this. You know, she’s young, you know what I’m saying? So, the the integrity and the truth in what she’s saying, you know what I’m saying? Mixed with how’s how, you know, she’s really a sweet innocent girl if you speak to her, you know what I’m saying? But she’s seen a lot, so her twist on it and her take on it is is unique. Mhm.
And immediately when she came into the studio, like, you know, just her energy, I was like, she’s a star. According to LA Reid, who was leading Def Jam at the time, the label had initially bet on Teairra Mari as their breakout star. Despite Rihanna already having a hit with Pon de Replay, they were still sure that Teairra Mari was going to be huge.
LA Reid later said this about Teairra Mari, “We spent more time on her, did more work for her, and paid more attention to her.” The story of how she got signed to Def Jam in the first place was extremely similar to Rihanna as well. The label later said, “Teairra was a star when she walked into the room. She captured the room when she did her audition, and we fell in love with her from day one.
” Her first album was a hit, too. It debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 and had a number of successful singles. And while prioritizing her over other artists might sound like a cutthroat way of doing business, comparing your own artists against each other is just how labels work. With a limit on how much time and resources can be put into everybody, it’s normal for a label to put more work into someone that they think has the most potential.
The side effect, of course, is that many times the artist who might take longer to grow or needs more help can be forgotten and left behind. Fortunately for Def Jam, but unfortunately for someone else, their priority was about to switch, and that decision would leave a trail of disappointment and tragedy behind it.
Because not long after Rihanna was signed to Def Jam, everything was going to change at the label and in her life forever. In the summer of 2005, Def Jam hosted an industry-centered label showcase where they had their artists do performances in a small capacity for networking purposes. 24-year-old Beyoncé, who was still leading Destiny’s Child at the time, was there as a guest, and she herself was so impressed by Rihanna’s performance that she pulled LA Reid to the side and said, “That girl, Rihanna, is a beast.” And coming from
one of the biggest stars in the world, that endorsement carried serious weight behind it. And following Beyoncé’s observation, realizing the potential she really had, the label began to shift its focus to developing Rihanna as their flagship artist. But that change in direction had a cost. You see, Teairra Mari had been on the label before Rihanna.
She had just released her debut album only 3 weeks before Rihanna’s Music of the Sun had come out and she was only 3 months older than Rihanna. Just like Rihanna, she was still in high school. Her success was admirable and she had a promising career ahead of her. And even the label themselves said many times that they were very sure she would be the next big thing, calling her the princess of the rock.
However, priority shifted so quickly that while Teairra Mari was in the middle of the production of her second album and on the same day as her high school graduation, she got a phone call informing her that she was being dropped completely. The teenage girl who was being groomed to become the star artist of Def Jam gets dropped and abandoned without so much as a warning.
Despite her efforts to revive her career and acquire a few subsequent record deals, Teairra Mari struggled to maintain a place in the industry. The sudden abandonment from Def Jam left her with unresolved struggles that stopped her from reaching her full potential. Despite signing with Interscope in 2008, a second album never came and she was unable to recapture her initial success.
She eventually pivoted to reality television, joining VH1’s Love & Hip Hop. The show was already known for featuring somewhat washed up music industry figures in a negative light and they often portrayed Teairra in confrontational situations, which only further distanced her from her musical roots.
As time passed, Teairra began to face even more personal challenges, including battles with alcoholism that later led to a stint in rehab. Even as recently as just a few years ago, she struggled publicly with legal issues, leaving her in a vulnerable position with all eyes on her and very little public support. It’s a dark and shocking contrast next to Rihanna, whose career quickly soared to unprecedented heights thanks to the support and management of her label.
And it only creates more questions than it answers. With an alternative timeline in the history of pop music where Rihanna could have possibly never become the billionaire mogul she is now and someone entirely different would be in her place. The other question is, why was Teairra dropped? Did her getting dropped affect the path of her life and cause those struggles she later experienced? Or was she destined to have those troubles anyway? It’s strange to watch the influence that a company or business can have on the path of someone’s life.
We’ll never know if Tiara was a star shot down on her way to fame or if her story would have ended the same way anyway. But regardless, Tiara’s story serves as a poignant reminder of the dark side of the industry and the way it can and in many ways needs to chew people up and spit them out to keep things moving.
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store to get the Black Friday discount on all Spirit World pieces. Meanwhile though, Rihanna only kept growing and growing. Her debut album Music of the Sun made a strong entrance in August of 2005 at number 10 on the Billboard 200. Not quite as strong as Tiara Taylor debut, but still great for a brand new artist. Today, Music of the Sun is almost forgotten with only a few million Spotify streams on most of its tracks to this day.
It didn’t get the greatest reviews when it first came out, either. Some critics at the time said it was generic with weak rhythm, and even other people called it a bad record that didn’t merit much further thought. One person wrote in Entertainment Weekly that Music of the Sun was full of chintzy production. Still though, it was pretty successful.
Music of the Sun showcased a vibrant blend of dancehall and pop music, drawing heavily from Rihanna’s Caribbean roots. The album offered a unique sound at the time, infusing mainstream pop with the rhythmic and melodic elements of island music, creating a refreshing and distinct sound that honestly, I think really holds up.
Especially on songs like The Last Time and Music of the Sun, which somehow both only have 2 million plays on Spotify. Literally less than 0.01% of the amount of plays as her later hits. It’s honestly almost strange that this is such a small unknown album by an artist that would later go on to become one of the biggest stars in the world with an incredibly long career.
It’s just a whole collection of songs that most of her modern fans have never heard. While it didn’t reach the critical acclaim of some of its contemporaries, Music of the Sun set Rihanna apart by highlighting her heritage and laying the groundwork for her evolution as an artist with a distinct genre-blending sound.
You can especially hear it on the more dancehall-inspired tracks like Rush or If It’s Loving That You Want. Either way though, Music of the Sun was good enough that Def Jam pushed her to record another album that would be released just 8 months later while the busy promotional cycle from her debut was still going on.
Of course, just a debut wasn’t enough. You need to follow it up. So, Rihanna and the label quickly began working on her sophomore album, A Girl Like Me. It came out less than a year after Music of the Sun, but it was a significant step forward for Rihanna’s pop appeal. The R&B Caribbean pop fusion sound was similar to the last album, but it was much more commercially successful.
And the reviews from critics were better as well. One person wrote that Rihanna had a much bigger musical palette than the one of Beyoncés who were her peers at the time. Other people calling it ambitious and bold. Overall, the album is again quite good and holds up really well in my opinion. Although outside of singles, most of these songs are still pretty underappreciated on modern streaming platforms with only three or four million plays on many of them.
A Girl Like Me also sold well all around the world reaching the top 10 in countries from Japan to Ireland to Mexico, New Zealand, and even Taiwan. Most importantly though, Rihanna showed she wasn’t a one-hit wonder like the label had at first been afraid of. The singles on this album were huge. Most importantly, the lead single SOS became the first number one of Rihanna’s career being certified triple platinum quickly after it came out.
And that song in particular still sounds good to this day. The next couple of years only saw Rihanna keep up with that rapid frequency of releasing music. She was busy with the journey of going from a young unproven artist on a major label to a top star in music. After the second big single SOS, it was only one more year until she got another number one, Umbrella, which quickly became one of the defining songs of her career.
Umbrella brought in a new era for Rihanna, where she was no longer a minor kind of tied to a youthful innocent image, but instead embraced a more mature dance-oriented sound with edgier looks. Starting her career at 17, she was pretty obligated to keep up the image of a teenager.
But by the time this came around, she could do a lot more. The accompanying album Good Girl Gone Bad also embraced this more mature dance-oriented sound. Another single, Don’t Stop the Music, also reached number one in early 2008, and these two major hits propelled the album to peak at number two on the charts, Rihanna’s best performance yet.
This era was key for Rihanna’s career. She started out in 2005 as a teen pop R&B artist making music definitely aimed at that demographic. And her debut album was moderately successful, but within just two years, she was poised to completely reinvent her image and become one of the top names in pop.
Not only did she successfully reinvent that image, but she showcased her ability to evolve with her audience. Often being compared to her idol Madonna, she was mastering the art of reinvention, a skill that would ensure her continued success and chart dominance for many years to come. That is, if she could endure the scrutiny and trauma that would soon take a toll on her creativity, public image, and personal life.
In just a few short years, Rihanna had achieved an incredible amount of success. At the time her third album was released, she had reinvented her image, received seven Grammy nominations, gone triple platinum, and had four number one singles. And she was only 19 years old. Just two years into her career and already dominating the charts with a career rivaling many people who had been at it for 10 or more.
It’s safe to say that Jay-Z and Def Jam’s bet had paid off. They’d taken her from a teen pop singer to a global star in the span of three albums in under three years, an incredibly productive period of time. But after Good Girl Gone Bad, there would be a nearly 2 and 1/2 year break from any Rihanna music at all. Going from a constant presence on the charts, a rising star, to a person plagued by controversy, the spotlight shining on every corner of her life, including some of her darkest moments.
Early in her career, Rihanna crossed paths with another young R&B singer who was becoming a star, Chris Brown, and they quickly became close friends with rumors of a relationship forming around them before long. Their connection was unique. With both of them being singers that blew up and had the spotlight on them as teenagers, they had a one-of-a-kind shared perspective to bring them together.
They met when they were 15 and 16, literally at the start of their careers as kids, and they appeared together quite often over the next few years, with Chris even remixing her smash hit “Umbrella” to great success. At the time though, with all eyes on them all the time, paparazzi and fans watching their every move, Rihanna and Chris Brown both denied any romantic involvement between them.
Chris himself went on record saying, “We’re best friends, like brother and sister.” And similarly, Rihanna also said, “He’s an amazing person, but we aren’t dating.” As time went on though, they were seen getting closer, and by 2008, they were publicly in a relationship. Onlookers were obsessed. This was the dream celebrity couple, two young stars on the brink of massive success, and that only strengthened both of their brands even more.
Chris Brown was quickly becoming the next big thing in R&B, and Rihanna was even faster becoming a global sensation in pop. Everything seemed perfect. They were happy, successful, fashionable, and the whole world loved them. But things were about to take a dark turn and change both of their lives and careers forever.
On the day before the 2009 Grammy Awards ceremony, Rihanna and Chris Brown’s photos together became the center of attention at various pre-Grammy parties and events, only further affirming that they were the it couple at the time. Rihanna herself was set to perform at the awards ceremony, a huge honor for someone coming up in the industry.
Basically, anticipation was high, but then, very suddenly, her highly anticipated performance was canceled with no explanation, leaving many people wondering what just happened. It was quickly revealed in a matter of hours that on the night before the award show, shortly after their appearances at the pre-Grammys parties, a fight had broken out between Rihanna and Chris Brown that resulted in serious injuries to Rihanna and Chris Brown turning himself into the police.
The story was that Chris had lied to Rihanna about his involvement with a former partner he saw at the party, and the resulting argument escalated into physical violence from Chris Brown that left Rihanna badly injured. Chris was arrested and put on probation for 5 years, and his response was transparently performative and pathetic and selfish at best.
Just a few months later, he went on the Larry King show to give an interview and his first public appearance since the incident to discuss his side of the story, bringing his mother to the interview and discussing his experience growing up in a household where his mother was assaulted by his stepfather. About his own assault on Rihanna, he said this, “I’m in shock because, first of all, that’s not who I am as a person, and that’s not who I want to be.
” The damage was done, though. Even after pleading guilty to felony assault and accepting a plea deal of 5 years probation, domestic violence counseling, and a court order to not go within 50 yards of Rihanna at any time, Chris Brown’s career never fully recovered. At the time being hailed as by far the next big thing, he’s remained in the music industry and has a large fan base, but he’s been somewhat off to the side ever since then, not really reaching the full potential he could have had without such a dark mark on his history. And that’s
not even to mention a long list of beefs that Chris Brown has had with other artists, including Frank Ocean, Drake, and others, with an even longer list of women who have accused him of abusing or assaulting them in similar ways as Rihanna over the years. The full details of what exactly happened on the night before the Grammys in 2009 are truly disturbing and have been publicly dissected thousands of times over the years.
Mainly because TMZ was able to obtain law enforcement evidence photos and publish them for the world to see, including graphic images of the injuries to Rihanna’s face that left her practically unrecognizable. But public support of Rihanna was strong. After the dust settled from the media frenzy, the aftermath of the incident even resulted in the introduction of a new law called Rihanna’s Law, intended to make it illegal for tabloids to leak sensitive private photos obtained from law enforcement due to the harassment and trauma it brings on victims. But
scrutiny and obsession of the incident was so strong that it changed Rihanna’s career forever, for better or worse. If she wasn’t under the limelight before, she certainly was now. Somehow though, this wasn’t the only dark moment Rihanna was going through at the time. In 2009, she started the year with $10 million in cash from concert earnings, royalties, and more.
Really good for a 21-year-old singer. But she almost lost it all and got dangerously close to bankruptcy the same year when her team of accountants ended up managing her money incorrectly, not properly filing taxes, and even keeping an unfair share of profits. She ended up suing them and coming out with a $10 million settlement, but regardless, that moment was a dark one in her early career.
Following the stress of these events, she took a year off from music and didn’t return with new material until she had once again completely reinvented her sound. After the stress and trauma of her relationship with Chris Brown, Rihanna underwent another transformation both personally and artistically.
Her next album, Rated R, reflected the darkness of the last few years. The album art was grimy, the sound was edgy, and it all reflected the emotional toll she had just gone through. Brilliant, resilient, bad from 27 million, and I want it all. It’s going to take more than that. Oh, but I know you got it.
I need it all. In a change for Rihanna’s typical process, she herself was personally involved with writing many of the songs, and she specifically requested dark somber production for most of the tracks. Justin Timberlake and Ne-Yo were two other main writers on the project and they later said that she went through a ton of musical growth and didn’t even seem like the same person they had worked with before.
Whereas until now she had often let expert songwriters handle it, knowing that they could better write chart-topping hits than she could, she now wanted to be directly involved in the self-expression. Overall, the darker, edgier sound most likely contributed to this particular album not selling as amazingly well as the albums before it, but it was one of the best-reviewed albums Rihanna had put out yet.
And despite the turmoil that could easily destroy most people’s lives and leave them permanently scarred, Rihanna only continued to deliver more and more hits. From Rated R, songs like “Russian Roulette” and “Rude Boy” were massively successful. Almost even more talked about than the hit singles though was the elephant in the room and the path that she took to address the controversy with Chris Brown was subtle, not exactly coming out with a literal statement, but instead talking around it in a way that was quiet but
hardly left any questions at the same time. The lyrical content of the album features generally bleak views on love and boastful lyrics concerning perseverance and overcoming adversity. Its lyrics are characterized by grim and angry tones and songs that contain boastful persevering themes characterized by images of violence and brutality.
Journalists like Ann Powers of the LA Times, Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine, and Rob Harvilla of the Village Voice perceived Rated R’s lyrics as allusions to Rihanna’s assault by Chris Brown. One person wrote, “The album doesn’t specifically address those events, but it doesn’t ignore them either.” According to one journalist, “Regret is a significant theme on Rated R.
The songs on this album never have their singer apologize for the man who wronged her, but they do acknowledge the other emotions that come with separation, even from a partner who’s also a perpetrator. Those feelings include sadness and regret and deep tenderness. Again, Rated R ultimately didn’t sell as well as her previous few, despite the fact that many people loved it.
But with the single Rude Boy reaching number one on the Hot 100, as most of her lead singles do, Rihanna’s legacy was practically cemented already. She was only 21 years old when this album came out. She had already become one of the most prolific and successful artists alive with 10 number one singles, four incredibly successful albums, countless awards, non-stop tours around the world, hits like SOS, Umbrella, Take a Bow, Disturbia, and so many more had brought her from a young kid sitting in Jay-Z’s office just a few years ago to one of the best-selling
artists of the 2000s. The crazy thing though was that she was just getting started and the peak of her career was still yet to come. Not long after Rated R, Rihanna began working on her fifth studio album Loud, which dropped in 2010, again less than a year after her last one. This album was again a huge commercial success featuring three massive hits: What’s My Name with Drake, Only Girl in the World, and S&M.
These iconic songs only further propelled Rihanna into global stardom. Not that she wasn’t there already, but this was still a whole other level. Her tours sold out, her albums climbed the charts, and her hit-making streak showed no signs of slowing down. Not only that, but again she went through yet another artistic renaissance, this time going back in the direction of her earlier music with Loud having a bright, up-tempo, dancey sound, a huge departure from the darkness of Rated R.
Loud’s success demonstrated Rihanna’s versatility as an artist and it really showed her ability to reinvent herself while still maintaining her core appeal. A skill that would continue to serve her well throughout her career. And of course, again, I can’t mention enough the singles from this album were absolutely iconic for years after they came out.
In 2011, again after just one year, Rihanna released Talk That Talk which continued to focus on a dance-pop sound. The album’s standout song, We Found Love, produced by dance heavyweight Calvin Harris, shot to number one and dominated airwaves for years. Once again, Rihanna was on top of the music industry and the craziest part is she was just 22 years old.
Already having achieved vastly more than other people in the industry, becoming one of the most successful artists alive when she was still too young to rent a car. By this point, she had sold a total of 120 million records. With that alone being enough to count her as one of the best-selling artist ever.
Of course though, she was barely halfway through her discography. In fact, she was just getting started. Talk That Talk was the final album under her original Def Jam deal. In the span of just six years, she had delivered six hit albums, each with at least two major hits, sometimes three.
It’s an accomplishment that’s overwhelmingly rare in the industry. Proof of Rihanna’s own personal talent and work ethic, the creativity and the management and the wisdom of the people around her, and the quality of her music. Rihanna dropped one final album with Def Jam, Unapologetic, in 2012 before transitioning completely over to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation management company.
Unapologetic was another massive success with a chart-topping hit Diamonds, a song that cemented Rihanna as a household name and eventually went eight times platinum. The album also featured Love Song, a collaboration with Future that became another cult classic. And while Rihanna’s success speaks for itself with countless sold-out tours around the world and every other accolade you could possibly have as an artist, she still couldn’t escape even more intense continued scrutiny.
This time, of her very ability to sing. The Monster is a song by Eminem featuring Rihanna that came out in 2013 that I think we all know. It was yet another massive hit for Rihanna at the time and in a lot of ways was a full circle moment for her. This song was her 13th number one single making her tie Michael Jackson for the fourth most number one songs of all time.
It was also her 45th song to chart on the Hot 100 overall helping her tie Mariah Carey, one of her lifelong idols since the beginning of her career for the eighth most charted songs by any woman ever. And Monster was just one of those inescapable songs back when I was a kid. It was the ultimate COD montage pop rap billion views on YouTube completely repetitive overplayed tracks.
Honestly, nowadays I feel nostalgic for it, but back then it was a meme. But there’s this one little piece of the song that gives a whole other look into Rihanna’s musical history, her talent, and the ever-present question of Rihanna’s ability to sing at all. Because with Rihanna singing the iconic chorus of this song, most people hearing it on the radio or seeing it on YouTube where she kind of mimes singing during the background vocals as well, might assume it was her singing the entire thing, but it wasn’t. Because the hook
and the chorus for The Monster was originally written by and intended to be released by Bebe Rexha, a singer from New York who was going through a rough patch in her career at the time having recently been dropped by Def Jam at 20 years old and those lyrics were reflective of what she was going through.
Ooh, the second they asked me for my vocals, my background vocals, I was like, “No, no, no, no, please don’t.” I was begging my manager at the time, “Please don’t give me my background vocals cuz I know that whoever’s singing this is not going to be able to do So, people were like, “Wow, you sound like Rihanna.” Oh, wow.
But you know what? Was it awesome though when you heard your voice on the radio or was it every time? I was really sad at the Chanel J wants to know if you ever heard from Rihanna after you sang her part in the song The Monster at Coachella with Eminem while she was in the crowd watching. Nope. But the song quickly ended up in the hands of Eminem and Rihanna who turned it into a massive hit.
Speaking about it later over the years though, Bebe has talked about the song by saying she was sad to have her vocals taken because she felt like no one but her could do the background vocals properly. And sure enough, Bebe Rexha’s background vocals stayed in the song all the way into the final version that was heard around the world, despite her not being a credited performer on the track.
The issue here isn’t that Bebe didn’t get the spotlight. Passing around hooks or vocals is nothing new in the music industry. Everyone writes for everyone, and the biggest stars almost never write all their material, if even half of it. It isn’t a secret at all that Rihanna herself on almost all of her work is assisted by a team of writers.
If you look at the track list from her sixth album, Talk That Talk, the list of writers is long, and Rihanna herself is only listed as a co-writer on a few songs. Most often, the people behind her lyrics might be some combination of figures like Ester Dean, John Hill, Circuit, sometimes just Ne-Yo, other label mates, professional songwriters who know exactly how to strategize and create hits like it’s their full-time job, because it is.
Performer and writer are two very different things in the pop industry. The issue, though, with The Monster, specifically in a lot of people’s eyes, was that Bebe’s part was left in because Rihanna couldn’t perform or record it. And that only scratches the surface of the controversy that surrounds Rihanna’s singing career.
On paper, though, Rihanna can sing quite well. She’s a mezzo-soprano with an impressive three-octave range, comparable to a lot of her peers. And she was even recently ranked at number 68 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 200 greatest singers of all time. But again, she has uniquely faced criticism throughout her career over whether or not she could sing very well at all.
One factor is that Rihanna wasn’t a trained musician of any kind as a kid. Her career that went so far started with her as a little kid in a girl group living on a tiny island in the ocean with no access to professional singing lessons or formal training at all with music. Rihanna herself has told this story in the past, talking about working on her third album in 2007 at the age of 19.
It was her labelmate Ne-Yo that gave her vocal lessons for the first time. Telling that story, she said this, “I’ve never had vocal training. So, I was in the studio and he was telling me how to breathe and then he was calling out fancy words like staccato and I’m like, I don’t even know what that is.” That’s a pretty big difference versus Mariah Carey, whose mother was a classically trained opera singer and gave her vocal lessons from as young as middle school, or Lady Gaga, who received piano lessons from age four onward. But, despite Rihanna’s lack of
training and support from the age of 15 or 16 when she was first meeting Jay-Z and other people who made her career possible, everyone who she came across knew she had a big future ahead of her and was capable of making great music. That’s how she got to be where she is now. The star power, the presence, the attitude, it was obvious from the start.
You can even see from the video of her first audition with Def Jam. There’s raw talent in the vocals, the potential for star power. Understandably, there were mistakes, but everyone who saw it knew she was going to go far. She’s also recorded many tracks over the years that saw rave reviews for her vocal performance.
Songs like California King Bed, Love the Way You Lie Part 2, Diamonds and more have been notably recognized for impressive singing. And of course, she’s been a favorite to provide featured verses or background vocals for many rappers and singers over the years, collaborating with people like Kendrick Lamar, Kanye, Future, and more, again to critical acclaim.
Yes, you can also find a number of clips of Rihanna making mistakes during live shows, even years into her career. There are certain notes she struggles with. And there are people who claim that her singing has gotten worse over the years due to heavy smoking or poor technique, and that she might not be able to perform in the way she used to, and that’s why she hasn’t released new music in a very, very long time.
Many people say that Rihanna’s singing is just flawed in general with possibly lazy techniques or an over-reliance on image to sell records with a lack of interesting melodies in her songs. Other people say though that she has an excellent texture in her voice, and they can’t get enough of her music. Either way, it’s something that’s very easy to have an opinion about, but truly difficult to understand.
Anybody can point to a video of Rihanna making a mistake and say, “She’s a bad singer.” But far less people can explain why, despite that shortcoming, she sold out tours all over the world and is one of the best-selling artists of all time in any genre. This question has followed Rihanna throughout her career, and it only goes to show that when it comes to finding success in the entertainment industry, talent is obviously important.
But being the right person to channel that talent and build up a persona and a brand around you is just as important. And Rihanna is clearly skilled at both, even though her technical skill as a singer might be the most contentious and questioned of any modern pop star. But with so many insanely successful singles of her own and a career with more longevity than most people could imagine, there’s a certain point where the ability to sing just may or may not matter very much at all. One big mark on Rihanna’s career in
the early 2010s was her connection with Drake, which somehow reached almost the same level of public interest as her relationship with Chris Brown years earlier, although for vastly different reasons. Drake and Rihanna first met all the way back at the start of Rihanna’s career when Rihanna was filming the music video for Pon de Replay at a Toronto restaurant in 2005, and Drake happened to stop by to stand in as an extra.
They quickly became friends, and not long after her breakup with Chris Brown had a short relationship. They were famously on and off for years, and And being photographed making out at a bowling alley in 2009, they suddenly had all eyes on them. But Rihanna quickly told a journalist that they were just friends, which Drake said made him feel like a pawn in a song released the next year.
Over the years, they were seen together more than a few times, often collaborating on songs together with hits like What’s My Name and Work reigniting rumors every time they dropped together. Drake even called Rihanna his ultimate fantasy in 2014, around the same time that Rihanna went on record and said that Chris Brown was her last real boyfriend, shutting Drake out for good.
Publicly, it all came to at the 2016 Awards when he delivered an overly affectionate speech to her while presenting the MTV Video Vanguard Award, saying he was in love with her since he was 22 and even trying to go in for a kiss that she dodged with the whole world noticing the awkwardness of that moment. She’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old.
A year later, Rihanna told an interviewer that they no longer even had a friendship, and not long after that, she covered up a matching tattoo they had gotten together years earlier. Following his breakup with Rihanna, Drake has never been seen in a public relationship again. And this chapter of Rihanna’s life shows just how hard it is to balance public life, relationships, and evolving as an artist and person under constant scrutiny.
There are many different ways that the world’s biggest pop stars have reacted to the inhuman level of stress that comes as an unavoidable side effect of having so many eyes on you. Understandably, a lot of people end up lashing out under the pressure, and Rihanna knows that pressure better than anybody. Even by the mid-2010s, only in her mid-20s, she had already become one of the best-selling artists ever.
And that isn’t a position you get to if you aren’t willing to give up a lot of your own life to make it happen. For Rihanna and everyone else who has their every move watched, every decision questioned, it’s the dark yet seemingly unavoidable cycle you can’t get away from if you want to reach that level of success.
The idea that nothing worth having comes easy rings true here more than ever with the consequences on Rihanna’s personal life, the loss of privacy, the constant spotlight, the observation from the outside world, just being the unfortunate but necessary cost of her crazy success. Rihanna’s sixth album, Talk That Talk, finally marked the completion of the record deal she signed with Def Jam what seemed like many, many years earlier.
Making Talk That Talk was an intense process. Rihanna was on tour while they were making the album and the story goes that she would often record all night after her shows until noon the next day before getting in the tour bus and riding to the next city. She later called it the best ever and the craziest schedule she’d ever been on in her life, but it also came to a peak when she woke up one morning and started crying uncontrollably and needed an IV drip to calm down.
What happened next though was still going to take her to a whole new level of fame and success beyond what she had achieved before. Because Rihanna’s first six albums were incredibly successful, but somehow none of them ever reached number one on the Billboard charts. Many of them landed in the top five, but still none had reached the peak.
Unapologetic though changed that pattern and it was her first number one album. And that made sense. Two of the singles, Diamonds and Stay, as always were incredibly successful. One of the more controversial tracks off this album though was Nobody’s Business featuring none other than Chris Brown himself at a time when the court-ordered restraining order between them was still in place.
The lyrics of the song are pretty strange, almost making it seem like Rihanna and Chris Brown missed each other and were mourning the end of their relationship. At the end of the day though, with a song like Nobody’s Business, it’s a reminder that despite what people may think they know from the outside looking in, the reality of someone’s personal life and relationships can often be quite different from people’s outside judgment.
After Unapologetic, Rihanna left Def Jam for good and launched her own label imprint, Westbury Road Studios, named after the street she lived on as a kid in Barbados. Partnering with Roc Nation, she signed a massive $25 million endorsement deal with Samsung to pave the way for her gigantic eighth album, Anti. And by financing and controlling her own album herself, Rihanna demonstrated not only her artistic independence, but also her ability to do business.
In a way, the rollout of Anti feels like a prophecy that showed she was meant to go further than music itself. Now, with 14 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, the third most ever, with over 100 million sales certifications making her the best-selling singles artist ever, Anti was just the icing on the cake.
And it took a much longer time to make, with there being 4 years between the release of this album and the last. Because even bigger than those insane sales numbers was that Anti was instantly recognized as by far the best album she ever made. One pop albums of the decade, in later years being recognized by different outlets as one of the best ever.
Because Rihanna didn’t just control the album’s rollout and finances, she also got more involved with the creative side than ever before. During an interview with MTV, she said that she wanted this album to be soulful and timeless, saying that a lot of her biggest hits over the years might still be popular, but she didn’t like them much anymore, and she wanted to focus on making something she could enjoy performing 15 years into the future.
She enlisted Kanye West to help executive produce the project, and her vocal producer Kirk Harrell later said that Rihanna stepped up her skills and got heavily involved with the technical details of recording, making sure it was a masterpiece she could call her own. The results were undeniable. Anti couldn’t possibly have been a better album to become an iconic piece of music, with many critics later comparing it to music by Stevie Wonder or Janet Jackson.
In 2016, Rihanna was still on top of the world after more than 10 years in the industry, selling an unbelievable amount of albums and receiving critical acclaim at the same time. Anti was the first album ever by a black woman to spend 300 weeks on the Billboard 200, and it’s still charting to this day, 8 years later, the fourth longest charting female album in history.
And then, out of nowhere, she disappeared, or at least her musical output did. But to understand where she went, we need to take a look at what was always there, in plain sight. It’s easy to see someone like Rihanna as, you know, let’s say flawless. She’s not just a person, she’s a brand. She’s a huge brand.
So, it’s pretty easy to forget where she started. Because Rihanna started from nothing. The best way to describe what her journey means is to show her relationship with her home country. Because in 2021, she was declared a national hero of Barbados at a ceremony where the Prime Minister said, “Rihanna commanded the imagination of the world through the pursuit of excellence with her creativity, her discipline, and above all else, her extraordinary commitment to the land of her birth.
On behalf of a grateful nation, but an even prouder people, we therefore present you the designation national hero of Barbados.” It’s one thing to go on an incredibly unlikely journey of becoming one of the most successful music artist ever, but it’s a whole other thing to start from a much more unlikely position than any of her peers.
Rihanna comes from a country with no entertainment industry, no infrastructure for entrepreneurship, no resources to become an internationally known singer. On paper, she’s the last person you’d ever think would reach those heights. If you look at the people she stands next to or even surpass as music artist, she’s by far the one with the least training, the least pedigree.
Yet, she’s still just as, if not, more relevant so many years later with a resume you can’t replicate. So, in a way, it makes perfect sense that the challenge she was faced with on her journey to become a singer would be the same recipe for her to change the world in not just one field, but two. As Rihanna began to expand into business, it became obvious she wasn’t just cashing in on her image, but instead was someone who could push the entire beauty industry forward and set new records there, as well. Again, though, the path
she would have to take to get there would be defined by how uniquely unlikely it was for her to be on that path to begin with. One of the biggest factors powering Rihanna’s brand was always her image and style. From the moment she came on the scene, she embodied glamour and fashion. That made her a natural fit for brand partnerships in fashion, cosmetics, and beyond.
And the list of campaigns and ads and partnerships she was involved with is practically endless. Even as early as 2011, she worked with Jay-Z to secure a perfume launch that generated $80 million dollars revenue in a year. Interestingly, though, the perfume’s commercial didn’t even showcase the bottle of perfume itself. That demonstrated that Rihanna was the product.
Her image alone was potent enough to sell almost anything. Following that strong opening, she did deals with MAC Cosmetics, a shoe with Puma that was hugely successful, and even some really iconic campaigns with European fashion houses like Dior. But none of that would compare to the Fenty empire she was about to create, making her a true trailblazer not just in music, but in fashion, beauty, and business itself.
In the fall of 2017, just a year after the release of Anti, with the launch of Fenty Beauty. The brand’s initial drop was just one product, makeup foundation. It wasn’t just any old makeup foundation, though. It was a line that featured a groundbreaking 40 shades from light to deep, and it was available at Sephora, the multinational retailer with almost 3,000 stores worldwide.
That might not sound like a particularly groundbreaking product to some people, but even just seven or eight years ago, it was essentially a first in the world of cosmetics. And like I mentioned, Rihanna’s own identity was central to the concept. She herself, like many people from Caribbean countries, has some African ancestry, as well as some from Ireland, Scotland, and more.
She of all people would understand the need for products that suit many different individuals’ needs. Even from the moment it launched, Fenty Beauty wasn’t just a celebrity-endorsed fast fashion label with products cheaply repurposed and repackaged from someone else’s factory. Just like my brand’s Bureau World, which is completely original and custom-made.
Rihanna had been working on Fenty for years as part of a development deal with LVMH, the French conglomerate that owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany, Loro Piana, and countless others. And Rihanna wasn’t just a nicely compensated brand ambassador, either. She was the CEO and owned 50% of the brand.
With a global launch in more than 15 countries worldwide, Fenty Beauty was an immediate success, raking in 72 million dollars in sales in just a month, and earning a spot on Time Magazine’s 25 Best Inventions of 2017 list, next to the Tesla Model 3 and the iPhone 10. A writer for British Vogue said this, “To say that Fenty Beauty completely changed the beauty industry is no exaggeration.
Undoubtedly, there are many who will attribute the success of Fenty to the fact that its founder is Rihanna, already a hugely influential superstar with a phenomenal fan base, and of course combined with the backing of LVMH. While it would be remiss to deny the key role those elements played, to attribute the impact of the brand to Rihanna’s celebrity is an inaccurate oversimplification.
This is far from a celebrity beauty brand, and diminishing it as such is to ignore the state of the beauty industry pre-Fenty. From unrealistic beauty ideals to the blatant lack of representation reflected in campaigns and product offerings, the beauty industry’s relationship with diversity was problematic at best. The messaging essentially being, ‘If you don’t fit in an age-old Eurocentric ideal of beauty, you aren’t welcome,’ was the white elephant in the room of a tone-deaf business.
Fenty Beauty didn’t just address this, it blew the conversation wide open.” The writer said this as well, “Before Fenty, the words ‘inclusive beauty’ weren’t part of our vernacular. Now, the concept is omnipresent. There are, of course, still brands who dip their toes in the water, yet to fully commit, persisting with a thoroughly inconsistent approach to their inclusivity strategy.
But, the point is, they are thinking about it, which was not the case before Fenty. But, interestingly enough, the word ‘inclusive’ was not actually used in Fenty’s initial marketing strategy. But, the all-embracing beauty for all mantra and campaign continues to be incredibly effective because essentially it is redefining the idea and the ideals of beauty.
Basically, Fenty was about real inclusivity. They had the vision to design and manufacture products that were just for everyone, not extracting value from the customer to appear woke, progressive, but instead creating value for them by offering something people needed. The writer for Vogue also said this about how influential it was, again commenting on how brands seeking to copy the Fenty model were largely unsuccessful and insincere.
They said, “Many brands have sought to emulate this. Social media images featuring a row of arms in different skin tones showing off swatches of color, it’s become ubiquitous. But the debate around authenticity or tokenism rages. On one hand, I will argue that businesses are exactly that, businesses. They’re not social enterprises, and so yes, now that they have recognized the spending power of black women, they’re keen to make money from it.
On the other hand, I know of brands that claim inclusivity, but will refuse to carry a line targeting darker skin tones because it’s not really our customer. There are others that sell themselves as champions of diversity, but the second the image of a darker skin model on their Instagram feed doesn’t rack up likes, they delete it and go back to a homogeneous sea of white.
Over the next couple of years, they released a number of new products, highlighters, bronzers, lip gloss, blotting sheets, lipstick, luminizers, while only continuing to expand to different parts of the world with availability in Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, even China, and many more.
Rihanna was not only the face of the brand this entire time, but also its CEO. Within 1 year, Fenty sold over 560 million dollars of product. By 2021, the brand was valued at 2.8 billion dollars. Again, 50% of which belonged to Rihanna herself. Fenty Beauty is a deceptively simple idea. Makeup for every skin tone doesn’t sound like a particularly complex thing to make, but until Rihanna had put it together and brought it to life, it essentially just hadn’t been done.
And even after no one else could do it quite as well or without coming off like the focus of diversity was just a bit forced. With Fenty being founded, owned, and led by someone who understood and had the vision, its success and the aura around Fenty was just different. Of course, there was makeup for different skin tones before, but not one brand that represented everyone.
That was the key to the success. Rihanna also launched Fenty fashion house, LVMH’s first new fashion house since 1987, which also made her the first woman to lead a luxury brand for the LVMH group. The company’s CEO, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in in world at the time, said this, “Through our partnership at Fenty Beauty, I discovered a true entrepreneur, a real CEO, and a terrific leader.
” A full collection of high-end ready-to-wear clothing came not long after with a pop-up store in Paris. Fenty only continued to expand. In 2020, Fenty Skin with gender-neutral marketing and packaging was another big hit. Cleansers, toners, moisturizers, all available around the world. In 2024, Fenty Hair came out with shampoo, conditioners, creams, and more.
Again, committed to inclusivity for all hair textures. Not long after that, Rihanna announced the Fenty Beauty Caribbean expansion, bringing her products to stores in nine Caribbean countries, including, of course, Barbados. The Fenty brands not only changed the game, but they showed that Rihanna was always more than just a performer or entertainer.
Instead, it became clear that she had skills that allowed her to be an entertainer and a performer, but also crossed over into so many different areas. Not only could she orchestrate a record-breaking music career, but she could also lead companies that would break records in business as well. Which in 2021, Forbes reported that Rihanna had officially become the wealthiest female musician in the world and was now second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest black woman in the world.
The crazy thing though is that at the same time as she was achieving all of this, she was starting a family. On May 19th, 2022, Rihanna gave birth to her first son, RZA Mayers, with her boyfriend ASAP Rocky, a very successful rapper and a fashion icon in his own way. Her family life and relationship with ASAP Rocky has been highly publicized, much like every other relationship in her life, but this time the tone was different.
Rocky and Rihanna had been friends for almost a decade, first having worked on videos and concerts together in 2013. When they finally got together though, the atmosphere around Rihanna’s personal life changed in a big way. The outside world had been obsessed with Rihanna’s life for more than 10 years. The national obsession with her relationship with Chris Brown and the strange unexplained relationship with Drake, it finally seemed like she was truly happy.
During an interview with W Magazine, Rocky said this, “I knew from when we were younger it was only right when we got older. We just reconnected.” Later during a photo shoot for Vogue, he talked about their family, “I’m a one-woman man, a family man. It completes my life now. Being present as a partner and a parent, I’m embodying and embracing fatherhood, parenthood, companionship, and family while working on my career at the same time.
” Talking about motherhood, Rihanna said this to The Cut magazine, “It’s legendary. It’s everything. You don’t remember life before. You just try to remember it. You can see photos, videos, but the feelings, the desires, the things you enjoy, everything. You just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself to mentally get that far.
It doesn’t matter anymore.” The only thing Rihanna hasn’t done in the last couple of years from founding and being CEO of a groundbreaking company to starting a family to becoming one of the richest women in the world is make any music at all. From 2016 to 2024, an over eight-year period, despite countless rumors and begging from fans, Rihanna has only released one song for the Black Panther soundtrack, and she’s been featured on just one other from PartyNextDoor’s third album.
In the first half of her career, she released seven albums in that same time period. Rihanna’s disappearance from the music industry is confusing to say the least, and understandably, it’s been a subject of theories, conspiracies, and fascination ever since. Of course, there are obvious, likely explanations for why Rihanna stepped away from music.
One big factor why she might not be singing anymore is that music isn’t the most lucrative field. That probably sounds silly considering how many rich musicians there are, but flat-out, if you want a billion dollars, music probably isn’t the way you’re going to get it. There definitely are billionaire musicians, but like Rihanna, almost every single one of them made their fortunes outside of entertainment.
Kanye became a billionaire through Yeezy, Jay-Z made his billions real estate, streaming services, liquor, and startups. And knowing that Rihanna had already done so much in the music industry, becoming one of the best-selling artists ever with the most number one singles and every other possible accomplishment, it makes sense that if she wanted to get to the next level, she would look outside of music.
That’s another thing. She might have just already made all the music she wanted to make. Rihanna has eight albums of material out there. And more than that, it was all a hit. She dominated the industry for a long time. So much so that she’s still the seventh most listened to artist worldwide on Spotify. That’s unprecedented.
Someone who hasn’t released anything in eight years can still be one listen to artist today? In a time when most people have to put out a constant stream of content to stay relevant, Rihanna has ultimately won the game without having to do any of that. With 32 top 10 songs, she still holds the record for the artist with the most weeks in the top 10.
And being the female artist with the most diamond songs of all time, where else is there for her to even go? Anti, her last album, was a generation-defining piece of music on top of all of that. What more is there for her to do? Arguably, she’s still number one. And that might just be good enough for her. And then recently, she said this at an event in Barbados, maybe even confirming the theories that Rihanna might just be done forever.
She said, “I would say music was the thing that got the attention for me, but God had other plans, and I was able to create in ways that were very sincere and genuine or organic or authentic to the things that I love.” Of course, referring to her makeup line, it certainly sounds like she might not have even loved music to begin with, which in that case only makes her accomplishments even crazier.
But that relates to my other Rihanna, even though she’s only 35 years old, is an old pop star. What I mean is that music has changed a lot since she’s been gone. Platforms like TikTok basically run the industry, and the ways that you get a hit song or get your song noticed, or what a hit song even sounds like, is totally different from eight years ago.
Songs now are shorter. They rely more on hooks that can blow up on social media to achieve short-lived success. It’s made the entire landscape more shallow and less sustainable than ever before. Having a career as a pop singer is a lot more difficult than it used to be. Some people nowadays even say that the idea of a pop star itself is dying thanks to the new era of social media music promotion.
With very few new stars coming up in the industry in the last few years, because while it’s easier than ever to blow up, it’s also easier than ever to fall off and be forgotten after just one or two songs. Even more so, there’s an immense amount of pressure to be more present than ever before.
Just making music is no longer enough. One journalist said this, “The artists complaining about TikToks aren’t exactly condemning the platform, but they are showing that being on all the time like an influencer takes effort and talent that’s different than the kind of talent needed to make great songs. Do we really want our entertainers demystified and desperate?” So, it makes sense that someone like Rihanna who did so well in the old industry might just not want to play the game as it is now.
If she does come back, it makes sense that it might be more to make music that she wants to make for her own fun or enjoyment, because there’s no award or achievement she doesn’t already have. Plus, it’s not like people aren’t still interested in her. Her 2023 Super Bowl halftime show was the most viewed halftime show ever.
Of course though, there are people that believe Rihanna’s disappearance from music could have an entirely different explanation. Seeing the allegations around Diddy in the last year, seeing that spread even further to rumors about Jay-Z and other executives, there’s a lot of talk about why or why not Rihanna might have just been tired of the inner workings of the industry.
Looking back at how she got her start in the first place, hearing the stories about Def Jam essentially locking her in a room and telling her she was either going to sign the contract or go out the window, of course that contract did change her life forever, but it also set the tone for the scrutiny and the loss of privacy she faced throughout her career.
The situation she’s in now, she makes more money, she stays mostly out of the spotlight, and her musical legacy is preserved as one of the greatest forever. For many people watching from the outside, Rihanna’s success seems like it could be attributed to a variety of factors. The right connections, the skill of her management team, or even her appearance.
And all of that may have played a part, but ultimately Rihanna herself is a very unique figure. One thing that truly sets her apart is a defining moment in her journey that was entirely her decision. At 15 years old, she decided to fly to a new country with Evan Rogers and his family to record music, leaving behind everything she knew for a totally uncertain future.
That journey from a humble upbringing in Barbados to becoming a global icon is nothing short of insane. She didn’t just take over pop music history with 14 number one hits and nine Grammys. She expanded her influence into the world of fashion and beauty, becoming a billionaire entrepreneur along the way. Her Fenty brands completely revolutionizing the beauty industry itself.
At the beginning of her career, Evan Rogers said that Rihanna’s success was attributed to a much more urgent need to escape the anxieties of a violent home life into the illusion of security and boundless love that a life on stage could offer. That desire, more than any talent, is what fans connect to. That’s what record executives are looking for in new artists.
It’s the one thing that can’t be manufactured. Rihanna’s journey is proof that sometimes you have to bet on yourself and give your talents a real shot. In a world that often pressures us to stick to safe career paths, Rihanna defied that norm and pursued a dream that wasn’t exactly practical or predictable. And today, she stands as a testament to what can happen when you take risks, no matter how uncertain the future might look.
She left Barbados as a teenager, stepping into the unknown with nothing but her voice, ambition, and a belief that she might have something unique to offer. The world conditions us to put aside our talents, especially if they don’t promise stability, labeling things that you have passion for as unrealistic or just a hobby.
But Rihanna’s success flips that mindset on its head. She shows us that passion, when nurtured and pursued, can become something really powerful. That’s what I’m doing with Spirit World, my own brand that produces jewelry with actual meaning. Each piece tells a story and is designed to not just be a super high-quality solid silver pendant with hand-painted details, gemstones, and more, but most importantly, it carries a reminder of the journey of life and the the of continuing no matter what.
The darkest night and brightest day is a gorgeous sunrise over a night full of silver stars. And the spirit of creativity is a beautiful figure flying through a dark night with gemstone eyes and sleek silver wings. And it tells the story of every artist, reminding us that in order to reach big goals, you have to be truly persistent.
Because I want to motivate all of you to pursue your own dreams and never give up, just like the artists we all follow on this channel. The key to reaching where you want to go, if you’re an artist, student, photographer, whatever your goal is, you just have to keep going.
These necklaces are a way to keep that message with you and to hold yourself accountable to it always. Plus, they’re beautifully well-made pieces of physical art on top of that. All of our pieces, which are again designed, shipped, fulfilled, and created by me, are on a huge sale right now for Black Friday and with free shipping in the US forever, it’s a great time to buy one.
So, if you want to get these for as cheap as I can possibly sell them for, go grab one right now or you can even pre-order the brand new Chaos and Harmony pendants, which are shipping next month. The most insane pieces I’ve made yet. Either way, the first 10 people who order after this video goes out get a gift for doing so.
At spiritworld.store to grab a new piece from my brand of beautiful silver necklaces for the cheapest price ever. Thank you again for all the support and I can’t wait to see what you guys do with these. Again, at spiritworld.store to get the Black Friday discount on all spirit world pieces.
