Barbadian vixen Rihanna has grown from sun-kissed Bajan sweetie to heaving disco queen to bright-eyed balladeer. Now “Rated R”, Rihanna’s first album since that Chris Brown thing, recasts her as a searing woman scorned. It’s 13 tracks of sleek female empowerment, a pose so loud and obvious that you want to believe it. Rihanna’s new songs don’t show emotional growth as much as they promote turning the tables or, as on “Rude Boy”, cynically fetishising the submissiveness she now repudiates.

by Mark Emge

In addition to participating in the “Hope For Haiti Now” benefit with Jay-Z and U2 on the exclusive track “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)”, Caribbean native Rihanna also sang a cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” on US talkie “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and dedicated the performance to all those suffering as a result of the devastating Haiti earthquake. The cover was made available for download immediately on RihannaNow.com and Oprah.com, with all proceeds going to Haitian relief efforts. The track is also available through iTunes.

by Mark Emge and Marijke van Niekerk

Barbadian vixen Rihanna is one of our most malleable pop stars. In the last five years she’s grown from sun-kissed Bajan sweetie to heaving disco queen to, most crucially, bright-eyed and hopeful balladeer. “Rated R”, Rihanna’s first album since her brutal confrontation with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, recasts her as a searing woman scorned. It’s 13 tracks of sleek female empowerment, a pose so loud and obvious that you want to believe it. But just as Brown claimed he didn’t believe domestic violence is learned in the home–Chris watched his father regularly abuse his mother–Rihanna’s new songs don’t show emotional growth as much as they promote turning the tables or, as on “Rude Boy”, cynically fetishising the submissiveness she now repudiates.

by Mark Emge

After the amount of publicity generated by Chris Brown’s beating of former girlfriend Rihanna prior to this year’s Grammys, the Barbadian chanteuse has chosen to embrace the controversy rather than ignore it. Her first single since the altercation, “Russian Roulette”, is a dark ballad that finds Rihanna enduring a tumultuous relationship with a dangerous boyfriend: “I’m terrified, but I’m not leaving / Know that I must pass this test,” she sings on the chorus, “So just pull the trigger.” Ending with a gunshot, the song echoes Rihanna’s recent interest in firearms; in March she had a tiny gun tattooed on her side.

by Mark Emge

After the enormous amount of publicity generated by Chris Brown’s beating of former girlfriend Rihanna prior to this year’s Grammys, the Barbadian chanteuse has chosen to embrace the controversy rather than pretend it never happened. Her first single since the altercation, “Russian Roulette”, is a dark ballad that finds Rihanna enduring a tumultuous relationship with a dangerous boyfriend: “You can see my heart beating, you can see it through my chest / I’m terrified, but I’m not leaving / Know that I must pass this test,” she sings on the chorus, “So just pull the trigger.” Ending with a gunshot, the song’s title and lyrics echo Rihanna’s recent interest in firearms; in March she had a tiny gun tattooed on her side.

by Mark Emge