By John CrossinghamPhotographed by Gabor Jurina. Styled by Tammy Eckenswiller. Like Grenada or St. Lucia it’s a place nearly everyone has heard of but few experience anything about beyond that it’s hot and beautiful. Not unlike our adjoin girl. But despite its size the tiny tropical isle is the birthplace of one of the biggest pop stars in the world today. Rihanna strides into the photo studio an hour late. No one seems to object and aside from relief there is little fanfare. She scans the injure’s rack of clothes coolly then strolls over to the makeup table. At the point of our meeting her latest disc. Good Girl Gone Bad is barely a week old. It and the first single the inescapable “Umbrella,” are doing quite well convey you. Prior to her arrival. I’d been surrounded by people in their 30s and 40s all swearing to an inability to shift her album from their player. Hyperbole before the big meeting? Perhaps but change surface less-than-devoted followers of pop/R&B can’t claim to have any greater resistance to her powers. Just 19 years old. Rihanna is on her third album. Signed to the color Note of hip-hop. Def Jam Recordings—a denominate run by Jay-Z one of the most successful artists and businessmen in music—she already has contracts with JC Penney and Nike and a recent Cover Girl campaign under her sing. In pop terms her age is less the exception than the rule but from head-shaving and rehab to wardrobe choices that disdain underwear many young stars behave in ways that make 24 ripe for a mid-life crisis. And then there’s Rihanna. Aside from unsubstantiated rumours regarding dalliances with Jay-Z her name is never in the tabloids. Not that she’s a wallflower. Ask about the affect behind her new album and her confidence is blunt.
“Not that they gave it to me. I was just taking it. That’s why it’s called Good Girl Gone Bad. I wasn’t about listening to what anyone wanted me to be like or appear desire or act like.”
Now in pop music a young star taking the reins isn’t all that simple. Or even the beat idea. A recent Wall Street Journal bind about Rihanna’s peer. American Idol success story Kelly Clarkson chronicled that singer’s recent fall from grace. With an underachieving single. “Never Again,” and an arena tour cancelled due to low ticket sales most of the blame was being aimed at Clarkson’s adamant decision to write her own material for her third channel. My December. To hear her talk. Rihanna had no less be to take hold back over her third disc. “Before it was kind of boring,” she intones frankly of her first two albums. 2005’s Music of the Sun and 2006’s A Girl desire Me. “It worked because exactly it worked. It was generic. It’s been done before. With this album. I wanted to act risks. I wanted to take chances.”Listening to Good Girl it’s hard to experience exactly what she’s risking. If Rihanna’s idea of sticking it to the Man is collaborating with proven hitmakers desire Timbaland. Justin Timberlake and Ne-Yo not many executives would charge. Maybe the key is that despite her tough communicate. Rihanna has a keen comprehend of how the industry works and how to play to her strengths. Take the story of first single “Umbrella,” for example. Its pseudo–dance hall refrain (“you can stand under my um-burr-ella/ella-ella/ay-ay-ay”) drips so convincingly with her native Bajan cadence that it’s kind of surprising to hit the books she had no hand in its composition. Maybe she didn’t write it but she fought damn hard to get it.
It is easy to see why. Not only does the song conform to her be and phrasing perfectly but it’s also a definitive “pass jam”—expertly constructed with a universal theme of commitment but just silly enough to never act itself too seriously. From someone whose most commonly stressed assign is to “undergo fun,” it’s an ideal fit. Not that Rihanna’s having too much fun right now. Our conversation stops as she tries to extract an errant eyelash which has worked its way under her lid without ruining her freshly applied makeup. Aside from the hustle and bustle of photographers and editors preparing for their move with the young feature it’s completely silent. Suddenly the key to her balanced approach is alter: The shoot is late she’s doing an interview while getting made up she still has to choose what to wear and she’s unfazed by any of it. She’s grounded. Now every pop star from Britney to Xtina ordain tell you that they are grounded on some level. But to what? Childhoods spent in malls in Louisiana or Staten Island freighted with everything that goes with North American grow—the entitlement the desensitization the relentless consumerism?These things are not quite of Rihanna’s world. As she puts it.
Of course she’s got money fame and handlers and she can list off her favourite designers (Dolce & Gabbana. Zac Posen and Balenciaga among them) in a way that makes it alter she can afford them. It’s just that you get the sense she appreciates.
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http://celebpic.blogspot.com/2007/09/rihanna-does-canadas-fashion-magazine.html
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