What is Rihanna Doing?
Breaking down her underwhelming new single “BBHMM”
Rihanna is one of small group of pop artists who people legitimately care about these days. Whether it’s her music, relationships or fashion, it’s not feigned excitement. What she does invariably gets fetishized, analyzed and dissected — the internet and the pop culture machine, doing its dirty work at the highest level.
Yesterday, after rabid fans and bloggers actually went so far as to look at the source code on her website for what she was about to release, she unveiled the second single from her forthcoming album R8, “BBHMM,” which is short for “Bitch Better Have My Money.”
According to Wikipedia — which is always the best and most accurate source of information — the song was written by Rihanna herself, with other writers credited including Badrilla Bourelly and Travis Scott, who has become, unfortunately, an internet punching bag of late.
It was produced by several prominent music-makers: Deputy, a talented guy who has been bouncing around the record business for the better part of a decade and has a few good records to his credit; WondaGurl, the Canadian female beatsmith who quietly produced the best song on Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail and who likes to send beats to artists such as Drake via Instagram; and finally, 2015's dad-of-the-year Kanye West.
That information aside, the biggest issue one might have with “BBHMM” is that, well, it’s just not that good. I recognize that in these politically correct internet times, where writers have to bow at the altar of whatever celebrity can give them a retweet, this is not the thing to be saying at the moment. But, friends, family, Rihanna fans — which I consider myself — let’s keep it real here. This song is pretty mediocre.
With its shoutable chorus, skittering hi-hats and swelling synthesizer stabs, “BBHMM” is a fairly enjoyable, danceable, terrific, and yet somehow strangely-underwhelming record. After listening to it, you may even find yourself unknowingly humming the signature call to action “Bitch better have my money!” — but that doesn’t make it the song Rihanna needs it to be.
Had a B or C-level pop artist made this song, we might appreciate it in that lukewarm way we do most songs from acts like that, actively listening to it once, then passively listening to it as it potentially grows in popularity, or alternatively, disappears forever. But there’s nothing Robyn Fenty-ish about it. In fact, in a lot of ways it sounds like retread, or a second part to Kanye West’s “All Day,” which itself, while enjoyable and most certainly a good song, has been met with a collective shrug.
A source close to both artists told me, exclusively, that both Rihanna and Kanye West will announce a forthcoming summer tour together soon, at which point both of their ‘surprise’ albums will be released. Or, maybe the albums will come first, and then the tour announcement. Whatever the rollout is, both artists are inextricably linked at the moment. Each heading into their 8th albums, respectively, their fan bases must be pleased, but you also have to wonder what else can they do — musically, that is — to excite people?
That question, specifically, is one most successful artists ask at some point, provided their career affords them real longevity. And in this day and age, when there are few bona fide stars with music powering their celebrity status, not many artists even get to that point.
It would seem, to me at least, that the problem both Rihanna and Kanye are facing is that they’ve become so large and have such a wide variety of fans, that it has become practically impossible for them to please everyone. Rihanna hasn’t released a record in over two years and Kanye himself is coming up on two years since Yeezus.
That break in releases is forgivable and expected, because both acts have worked tirelessly over the years, but it’s also long enough now for the pulse of whatever is driving music culture to have passed them by. And with both “BBHMM” and “All Day,” that’s what it feels like. These are formulaic, disappointing songs.
Let’s be clear, formulas are not always a bad thing. We use formulas so we can get the desired results we want, exactly when we want them. And many progressive pop musicians source whatever it is they’re doing from just beneath the surface, this part of music that the mainstream can’t quite see and has no real access to, then merely sprinkle their bit of magic, that thing that makes them them, on top of it. This is not a new thing. It’s been the record business’ M.O. since before Phil Spector copied everything Motown was doing and called it the wall of sound.
But Rihanna, to her credit, was once really at the forefront of plumbing whatever was hip and trending for her own usage, her own formula, and cleverly-flipping it into populist anthems. In the early part of her career, “Disturbia” and “Don’t Stop the Music” crested on renewed interest in four-on-the-floor dance pop. Later, “We Found Love” and “S&M,” hardly serious dance songs per se, at least felt like they were in line with the moment, the explosion of radio-ready EDM, bringing something up from below and turning it mainstream. Her last big hit, “Pour It Up,” came out in 2012; tailor-made for the strip club, it didn’t feel like a statement record, but it was still extremely contemporary and relevant. Most of her music usually feels that way.
“BBHMM” is contemporary and relevant too, just maybe too contemporary and too relevant. Trap music has essentially defined the past ten years of hip-hop and R&B, but it’s beginning to feel as if it’s moving behind us, not merely about to break. You hate to bring everything right now back to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, but that, to many people, feels like where music is heading.
I’m not saying Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna are even remotely comparable, but my point is that music feels organic again, like it’s actually about something. Like it means something. It’s not just a placeholder for getting drunk and putting clever hashtags on Instagram (which, I might add, still has its place, too).
But you hear with ears and not with your eyes, and this record is letdown. There should be more substance, more just… more. It’s not bad, not amazing. Mostly, it’s not impressive.
Regardless, I’m sure it will get a lot of radio play and, look, it’s a single in the year 2015; if it doesn’t get embraced, she’ll just upload something else to SoundCloud and I’ll write this whole damn essay again and tell you Rihanna is the new whoever the last person was.
In a recent interview, promoting her dubious Paul McCartney and Kanye West-assisted first single, “Four Five Seconds,” which itself was also met with shrugs, Rihanna said:
“I’ve made a lot of songs that are really, really big songs. And I wanted to kind of get back to — not that they weren’t real music, but I just wanted to focus on things that felt real, that felt soulful, that felt forever.”
She continued:
“I wanted songs that I could perform in 15 years; I wanted an album that I could perform in 15 years. Not any songs that were burnt out. I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs. They don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.”
Well?
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