rihanna greatest hits chris brown album cover

After an intro that immediately cops to its maker's agitation - it's called 'Mad House' - the album unfolds in quick turns, alternating acts of aggression with confessions of sorrow and confusion. 'Rated R' belongs to that lonely figure, a self-styled X-Girl taken aback by her own vulnerability. This fact might not make the album a typical example of what feminist intellectuals call 'praxis,' but it does make it a complex and fascinating portrait of a young woman's emotional process after enduring abuse. (She's said in interviews that talking about it with her collaborators helped her work through the experience and turn it into art.) Unlike Beyonce, who has an all-female band, or Christina Aguilera, who's often collaborated with the songwriter Linda Perry, or even Britney Spears, who's made a big show of being Madonna's inheritor, Rihanna still prefers working with men.Īside from two songwriters who seem less than primary (one, Ester Dean, actually had a recent hit collaborating with Brown), the tracks here come from male producers and co-songwriters.Īs much as it's a personal statement from Rihanna, 'Rated R' also reflects how several of pop's male major players - including Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake, The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, will.i.am - responded to her accounts of what happened between her and Brown, and how she's moved on from the incident. 'Rated R,' the album that will forever be viewed as Rihanna's statement on Brown's attack and her recovery, bears that burden of responsibility, but in a way that has little to do with conventional expressions of female liberation. At first she seemed unwilling (or unable) to embrace the role of advocate that's often assumed by prominent survivors of domestic violence, but apparently her sense of responsibility toward young women is what motivated her to finally leave Brown. So it's ironic that, of all young female pop stars, it was Rihanna who became the subject of a classic feminist concern after an assault at the hand of her then-boyfriend, Chris Brown.

Her image evokes a style of female empowerment that predates and still stands outside of feminism: the lone female warrior who summons strength and endures danger to make progress in a man's world. Her mentor is hip-hop father figure Jay-Z her main association with another female artist was with his longtime companion, Beyoncé, when rumors (later disproved) of a tryst between the younger singer and the mogul set the two up as rivals. Judging by the arc of her still-young career, Rihannais not what you'd call a 'girl's girl.' She began her professional ascent when, at 15, she dumped the gal pals in her vocal trio and moved to the U.S.

Rihanna greatest hits chris brown album cover