Today's Pick

The Colombian stunner Shakira is back with a brand new steamy music video for the provocative "Can't Remember To Forget You," and this time the Bajan beauty Rihanna has also come along for the ride. In spite of the song's title, the Caribbean ladies get up close and personal, and make for a sizzling combination, and, naturally, it is hot and fierce! The post-breakup duet is the first single from off of the "Voice" coach's upcoming self-titled inaugural album with Sony label RCA, her first since 2010, hits shelves March 25.
Co-written by the singers with Swedish singer-songwriter Erik Hassle, "Can't Remember To Forget You,"  is an uptempo New Wave track with Ska elements, finds the two stars lamenting on their inability to forget lovers who are bad for them. "Working with Rihanna was utopia. She's the sexiest woman on the planet," the 36-year-old Colombian singer said in Glamour magazine. "And at the end of the day, we're both just basically Caribbean girls. The chemistry was so good and so real. She taught me dance moves. She was a sweet teacher."
Shakira's relationship with Spanish soccer player Gerard Pique, was definitely not an inspiration for the track. She told Ryan Seacrest: "I'm going through a completely different experience right in relation to the song. The song is about that guy that just gets under your skin and you can't leave alone. I think every woman has been through that. This song is not exactly a reflection of my personal life right now." She also noted working with Rihanna, "You know, we're both from the Caribbean so I always thought we had that common ground, but this song is pretty Reggae. I honestly thought it would never happen... She heard the record and she loved it and she said she was onboard and I was the happiest girl alive."
Shot in a Los Angeles mansion, the Joseph Kahn-directed clip begins with Shakira romping around on a bed as she sings about the mistakes she's made in love before the 25-year-old Rihanna even makes her appearance. The duo then cozy up, smoke cigars, cuddling, make smoldering facial expressions and writhe around together on a bed in revealing outfits as they sing of a post-breakup longing and their mutual addiction to a man who is no good for them, they indulge in a dance off, with a wall separating them, showing off their coordinating choreography which gets progressively raunchier. Things heat up as they return to the cabana by the pool and caress each other with Rihanna placing her hand on Shakira's pert posterior.

After topping the charts with their 2010 hit "Love the Way You Lie," Eminem and Rihanna reunite in his career-spanning video for their latest hit "The Monster," the second official single off rapper's eighth studio album "The Marshall Mathers LP 2." Directed by filmmaker Rich Lee, the clip sees the 41-year-old rapper reflecting on his career and life, recreating scenes from iconic moments in his career including the videos for "My Name Is," "Lose Yourself," and "The Way I Am." Solid visual for a solid song.
We hear Eminem attacking his internal demons on his verses whilst Rihanna embraces her inner monster on the hook. The Folk-flavored, EDM-amplified production was supplied by New York-born DJ and producer Frequency. Eminem said that it wasn't just Rihanna's vocal gifts that persuaded him to link up with her again. "The perception of the record, what it's saying, I thought it would be a good idea to have her on it because I think people look at us like we're both a little nuts," he told MTV News' Sway. "That's one of the things that I was telling her in making the record: I think that people look at us a little crazy."

The song, a career highlight and a personal rhyme about his history, focuses on Eminem's ongoing struggles with fame, and his desire to live a normal life. "It was this thing where I want this attention for this music, but then I want to be able to go in public, and I want to be able to eat a f***ing sandwich and be left alone," Eminem admitted during an interview with BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe. "I've never been an attention seeker, and [rap] seems like a hell of a career choice [for me], but... that's not why I do it, just to get attention. I don't like to go in public and walk around and be like 'Here I am.' It's not what I want."

The promo opens with Eminem sitting in a therapist office as Rihanna - complete with cropped black hair - plays his therapist as she scribbles notes on a pad. A TV nearby plays retro Eminem clips on a loop as Marshall Mathers, the man, appears to slip into a state of hypnosis. Down the rabbit hole he goes or more accurately a free-falling elevator shaft. As he tumbles, visions of Dr. Dre, 8 Mile, Elton John and several iconic moments from his career flutter by. In the end, Eminem comes face-to-face with his formerly drug-addicted self, choosing to turn around and walk the other way.

Giving her fans a little weekend treat, Rihanna just released the gray-scale themed dark, artsy visual for her emotional stand-out song "What Now," the sixth single from Barbadian singer's seventh studio album "Unapologetic." As promised, Rihanna is both creepy and pretty melancholy in her new video. The simple visual focuses on the singer as she mopes in a sparse warehouse space, possessed by her loneliness, but it's definitely visually engaging. Love has pushed Rihanna off the deep end and has her screaming out and banging on walls.
The Nathan Cassells and Kuk Harrell co-produced piano-led mid-tempo pop ballad is definitely a darker and more introspective track that seems like Rihanna just might be pulling from past love gone wrong experiences, and it doesn't resort to being overtly sexual or defiantly callous, which gave us the feeling that she stripped away her armor for a moment and actually allowed herself to be 'real,' as she physically throws herself on the ground and convulses like someone gone crazy. Rihanna's in trouble. That's the overall connection between the lyrics and visual interpretation we're supposed to take away from her video for "What Now."
The 25-year-old songstress spoke to MTV News before the release of the clip, explaining, "It's gonna be kind of eerie, very creepy because 'What Now' is one of those songs that you can get really boring with the visual. You can get really almost expected." The singer made it clear she wanted to take a different direction than the expected. "Everybody's probably expecting narrative type of video, a love story of some sorts or something really soft and pretty," she told MTV. "It is pretty and kind of soft, but it's really a little demented."
Filmed in Thailand, the Jeff Nicholas, Jonathan Craven, and Darren Craig-directed clip features a dark, isolated and emotionally drained Rihanna who's all alone in a dirty, empty room slowly losing it as she sings her way through the angst-filled ballad, that might give off a sense of dementia but the song's lyrics and the overflow of emotion and raw thoughts suggested by the song gives a different perspective of what's going on within. Rihanna rocks a mullet and goth-inspired attires in this one with the overall eerie, tortured vibe, and much of that is exhibited in her actions and movements, which at times look a little bit like an exorcism.

Rihanna throws up dollar bills and swings around scantily clad in her most provocative video yet for her stripper club anthem, "Pour It Up," the second US single and third overall single from 25-year-old Barbadian recording artist's latest seventh studio album, "Unapologetic," hit shelves last November. And now it's clear to see why as Rihanna was so unimpressed as she has seriously raised the bar when it comes to being raunchy in her new video for "Pour It Up."
"Pour It Up," is a bass rumping club song with a minimal hip hop beat. It is a characteristically chilly and an irresistible, Mike WiLL-produced standout banger for the ladies. As Rihanna sings about "Strip clubs and dollar bills" on this feminine spin of the cash-and-strippers lyrical content that is so popular with male rappers. Lyrically, Rihanna brags about her wealth on the song, which finds Rihanna turning a strip-club anthem into a declaration of independence, pulling out her dollar bills at the strip club, getting drunk, and bragging loudly.
We're usually used to hearing Rihanna use those powerful vocals of hers belting out some of the biggest dance hits. But with "Pour It Up," we're given another mirror of Rihanna's talents. Rhyming with some swag, the song is a bass rumping club song that'll more than have the rumping shaking at the club. Starting off slowly, the track goes into full grind on twenty seconds into the jam. Rihanna goes through mere scornful contempt and terrifies with her blank, relentless focus. she's at her best when she's flaunting.
In characteristically provocative fashion, Rihanna appears to be going for a glamorous strip club vibe under water in her new raunchy video, co-directed by the singer herself. The "Unapologetic" star is seen wearing a jeweled bra and denim thong "shorts" with a blond wig and diamond-studded bra, twerking aggressively and tossing around wads of cash while seated on her throne, a gold-adorned chair, surrounded by water and vapors, singing about "strip clubs and dollar bills." Later in the video, Rihanna gets up and makes a splash by having her pole dancers slap their butts to water on beat. While not necessarily high art, the video certainly matches the lavish strip-club exploits referenced in the song.

Just a day after Rihanna performed her emotional new single, "Stay," at Sunday's Grammy Awards, the singing siren has debuted her appropriately minimalist clip for the song, features guest vocals by Nashville-based singer Mikky Ekko, as the second single off her 2012 album, "Unapologetic," and its accompanying video have to be one huge love letter to the 24-year-old Bajan balladeer's now-reunited ex-boyfriend Chris Brown!
Rihanna is stripping it all off for "Stay." By stripping down, we mean both emotionally and literally. "The video was really, really simple. I pretty much stayed put in a bathtub, and we shot it really tight, really clos," she told Ryan Seacrest on the Grammys red carpet. And she wasn't lying. The moody clip features the bathing pop star completely naked while dueting with Ekko. Rihanna promised us a very emotional, personal, "powerful and authentic video and we certainly think she delivered.
This emotive ballad about a relationship is a contemporary pop and R&B ballad that consists of piano and guitar instrumentation. The lyrical content regards the temptation and failure of resisting a true love. Rihanna performs it within an inch of its life and her vocals glow over the simple yet effective piano riffs, and punctuates the emotions of the track and makes a plea to her lover. The song puts a vulnerable spin on the Brown situation, repeating another theme of the album, a reference to her relationship with Chris Brown.
Directed by Sophie Muller, the bleak allure video itself goes unapologetically quite simple. The solemn, simple visual with organic vibe perfectly matching the poignant ballad, showing the Grammy winner strip down and soaks in a bathtub in a barely lighted room, where she spends the entire gloomy clip. The stripping is not only literal but figurative as well, as tight shots show an emotional Rihanna with lips quivering and eyes welling up with tears, sings: "I want you to stay."

Rihanna gets super-duper dramatic and left the whips and chains behind with mostly raw, black-and-white visuals for No.1 hit, "Diamonds," the Sia-penned first single from the Barbadian singer's upcoming seventh album "Unapologetic," due to come out November 19. The half black-and-white, half 'in the wild' visual is a departure from the 24-year-old Sultry songstress' more story-driven videos and instead focuses on visually stunning shots of Rihanna amidst chaos.
"Diamonds" is a mid-tempo ballad with influences of electronic and soul music. It features drums, heavy synthesizers, a 1980s backbeat, orchestral sounds and electronic rhythms which makes a lyrical departure from Rihanna's recurring theme of an unhealthy relationship, and towards a softer and more prolific edge with a prominent concept of a bright love. Rihanna described the track as "happy and hippy rather than dancey... The lyrics are very hopeful and positive, but it's about love."
While the song seems to hint at Rihanna's ongoing maturation and happiness in a new relationship, the video works overtime at creating a mood, one that amplifies the song's laid-back, luxurious sonics. The result is both incredibly intimate and wide-screen public, which come to think of it, is sort of like the song itself. Speaking to MTV News, Rihanna explained the concept behind the video explaining that with different abstract scenes she wanted to give the audience the right emotion across throughout the song.
The Anthony Mandler-helmed gray washed clip, is full of dreamy and surreal shoots and plays more like a visual poem, opens with Rihanna rolling up a joint made of diamonds much like the single's cover art and ends with her adrift at sea. As she smokes them, a more dramatic seen takes place with Rihanna running from a car. The beauty looks afraid in the chase leads the singer to stunning view of aurora borealis in the sky. She later finds herself in more chaotic situations, including a crumbling room and an intense riot scene. Despite all going wrong around her, Rihanna continues to hold her lover's hand and shines brights.

British alternative rock band Coldplay has finally released the music video for their new single with Rihanna, "Princess of China," and it does not disappoint. The track is the fourth single off Coldplay's fifth studio album, "Mylo Xyloto," which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200. We expect rock bands to work with rappers, but cross-pollination between rockers and R&B. Singers is a little less common. The song is a hard-to-categorize pop confection that has left listeners wondering what the video would look like. Wonder no longer.
"Princess Of China" features a moody and heavy synth throughout the duration of the song with a string loop and an epic, Asia-influenced. It exemplifies the adventurous vibe that comes from an alternative-hip-hop combination that making it one of the band's less Coldplayesque tunes. Lyrically this song finds frontman Chris Martin writing from a female point of view. He told NME: "I found that with 'Viva La Vida,' I enjoyed writing from someone else's perspective to actually get out what I was feeling. That song is from a girl's perspective. I wonder what that says about me?"
The song features Rihanna duetting with Martin. The Coldplay frontman admitted to The Sun that it took him a while to finally muster up the nerve to ask the Bajan superstar to contribute some vocals on "Mylo Xyloto," and Rihanna's vocals surprised Martin. "When the song came out, it sort of asked for her to be on it. And I think at this point, we have nothing to lose, and so we've been trying some new things and trying to break down the perceived boundaries between different types of music." Much like the characters in the song, the onscreen characters are torn up about their dying love.
Filmed at the Taiko Center in Los Angeles, the trippy clip was directed by Adria Petty & Alan Bibby, which is full of eye-burning surreal images that play on the song's references to Asia, with Martin and Rihanna donning all sorts of ninja and ninja-goddess couture. A desert, the sky and some ancient-looking Chinese palaces all serve as backgrounds. Martin dressed as a stealthy ninja, goes head to head against Rihanna's own "gangsta goth geisha." as she appears a fierce warrior princess. But then things get serious as the two star-crossed lovers kneel in the desert, forehead to forehead, and mourn the loss of their love.

Giving her fans a week-beginning treat, Rihanna gets wet, dances in the desert and goes downright tribal in her dark and flashy new video for "Where Have You Been," off the singer's latest LP "Talk That Talk." The "We Found Love" songstress' new clip serves as a kind of photo shoot for a tribal-print-themed spread in a fashion magazine with chock full of cool choreography, jungle-style clothing, and plenty of Rihanna writhing around in a rock-filled desert landscape with male tribal dancers in front of a fire.
This clubby tune combines the talents of Ester Dean along with hitmaker Dr. Luke and Calvin Harris, the Scottish DJ behind "We Found Love." The song finds Rihanna asking the question that's on her mind - how to "find someone to love [her] all night long." The song borrows elements from Australian songwriter Geoff Mack's 1959 composition "I've Been Everywhere," which three years later became a Country hit for Hank Snow with revised Americanised lyrics.
"Where Have You Been" is a house and up-tempo dance-pop number that draws influence from R&B and hip hop. It features hard, chilly synths and a punk inspired breakdown sequence, and will almost certainly be Rihanna's biggest club smash since "Don't Stop The Music." The 24-year-old pop star continues her trek throughout the world, looking for that special guy, who seems to slip through her fingers at every turn.
The Dave Meyers-directed pulsating clip starts with a dripping wet Rihanna emerging from a mucky river, scantily clad and as lonely-looking as hinted at in the track's lyrics. "Where have you been all my life?" she sings while performing more intense choreography than fans of the singer might be used to. She shimmies and shakes in an exotic desert-like setting, wondering where her one true love might be hiding to the song's bumping beat, and it turns psychedelic as it nears its end and a kaleidoscope effect is filtered over the clip, with glitter-sprinkled Rihanna looks as if she still might have to live her life all by her lonesome with her siren call being blasted into the wilds of the world.

Duet partners Drake and Rihanna teamed up again and finally unveiled his long-in-the-works video for "Take Care," the first single and title track from 25-year-old Canadian rapper's sophomore album, which has a far more complicated history than the usual pop hit. Drake explained how his childhood favorite Winnie the Pooh was a key inspiration while conceptualizing "Take Care."
Over the past three years, Drake has risen from mixtape maestro to genuine superstar; the kind of enigmatic talent who can proudly embrace his "emotional" side one minute, then release the "Practice" video the next. And in doing so, he has carved out a rather unique niche in the world of hip-hop and R&B, and we're not just talking about his sweaters. Often duplicated, but never replicated, there truly is no one making music quite like him. And yet, despite all that, Drake has never made a truly great music video, or at least one that fits neatly into his maudlin, monochromatic world. Until now this one.
Rather than being a warning to be particularly careful, "take care" is more of a declaration of goodwill meaning "look after yourself." The phrase became current around 1970. Samples Jamie xx's remix of Gil Scott-Heron's version of "I'll Take Care of You," the track finds him linking up with Rihanna who sings the original words of the song while Drake raps, and the cross-genre couple promising to "take care" of each other after being wounded by their lovers. Rihanna's lifts the depressive mood which is present on the majority of Drake's songs.
Filled with animal imagery, natural landscapes and achingly tense slow-motion effects, the the Yoann Lemoine-directed clip is as beautifully elegant as the song, especially with regard to the chemistry between its two stars. The black and white with occasional color washes video has a very intimate, humbling and delicate vibe with minimal visuals which allows us to focus on them. It comes off as an artistic therapy session where Drake reveals his inner feelings all while Rihanna listens and reacts to his subtle emotions. Simplicity at its best.

Continuing her proud tradition of killer music videos, Rihanna returns to lighthearted fare with an early Christmas present for her fans - premiering the video for her latest single "You Da One" online Friday. The 23-year-old Barbadian songstress goes beyond the typical pop video parameters by paying homage to the legendary 1971 Stanley Kubrick film "A Clockwork Orange."
Released as the second single from her sixth studio album "Talk That Talk," "You Da One" is a mid-tempo pop and electropop song with elements of other musical genres, including dancehall and reggae, and it has simple lyrics talking about a comfortable relationship. The song starts in traditional Rihanna territory with building on a slow, skanking rhythm, expands with a starbursty chorus, then contracts nearly as quickly on a knotty, ratcheting middle, and also features a dubstep bridge before the final chorus.
This island-flavored tune finds Rihanna singing of good loving, and the Bajan singer told Ryan Seacrest that its message of the power of love is what attracted her to the tune. "This is one of those records, it becomes very addictive," she said on his KIIS FM radio show. "To me, it's very infectious: the more you listen to it, the more you want to listen to it. It had a reggae vibe, but it's a sweet little love letter. I love the record. It's kind of dirty, I love it."
The video was directed by Melina Matsoukas, and filmed on November in Northern Ireland. Mostly shot in black and white, the clip is a cut-up of styles and influences, with partly a photo shoot and a lyric video as lyrics are stamped across the screen and Rihanna's body. As the only person shown traipsing around a film, Rihanna gyrates her way through the 3:28 song and exudes sexuality, whether she's touching her bowler hat, strutting toward the camera with a pimp cane or draping herself over a giant ball. The result is simple, psychedelic, and totally brilliant.

Nicki Minaj and Rihanna survive a plane crash, battle ninjas and evolve with their surroundings in their long-overdue clip for "Fly," premiered during VMA pre-show on Sunday night. The slow and tickling number is the last cut from 28-year-old Trinidadian hip hop queen's debut project "Pink Friday," has its inspirational feeling, and is set to be released to US rhythmic radio today and officially released on September 11.
The New York MC talked more in depth about the song: "'FLY' is one of my absolute faves. I wanted to work with Rihanna for a long time. I'm very proud of her accomplishments; especially since she was born on an island like me. This song is a female empowerment song. But then again, its not specific to just women. It speaks about flying, soaring high in the face of every single solitary adversity that comes your way. I speak about how the media has attempted to box me in and how that has made me feel suffocated. After years of being dragged thru the mud, I've mustered up the courage to re-define myself. I believe that I represent an entire generation. My fans have become my family; and together we have become a movement. Get ready for it. We came to win."
The song is inspired by the emotion of soaring above and overcoming all stereotypes and negativity, only to have come out victorious. Even though her roots are elsewhere, Minaj sounds better on the "Pink Friday" tracks that are more squarely in the club R&B vein, which she almost always spikes with enough rap to remind anyone that she isn't another Beyoncé or even Sasha Fierce, not by any stretch. "Fly" makes good work out of its Rihanna cameo, while the dark glamour bird soars, Minaj skitters around her with her vulnerable but choppy rhymes, equal parts tough woman and big softie. The inspirational tone has her charismatically colorful, larger-than-life personality all over them.
The pair of beauties are going to save the world in more ways than one with this gloomy Sanaa Hamri-directed clip, which was shot back in early January, and it ironically starts out with ominous footage of a downed airplane. It opens with Minaj pulling up to the wreckage in a very luxurious ride. Rihanna eventually shows up to provide angelic vocals while the two walk through the smoking, apocalyptic wreck. A crew of mysterious ninjas shows up to assault our rapping beauty, as Minaj defeats the powerful ninjas with her moves, the world begins to revive itself as flowers are seen growing around them. The sun shines down on everyone as the video closes.

Rihanna gets buddy Avril Lavigne on board in the just-released video for her celebratory tune "Cheers (Drink to That)," serves as the seventh overall single from 23-year-old Barbadian's fifth studio album, "Loud." This grungy party-drinking anthem dedicated to a night on the town is a wise, world-weary paean from a gal at the bar who's seen some stuff, has moved on and wants to buy everybody a round of fruity shots. The video is about letting loose and toasting to the weekend.
Bet you didn't think Avril Lavigne would be sampled anytime soon, but this track samples Lavigne's 2002 ballad "I'm With You," with incorporates the element of dancehall, dance-pop, pop rock, and R&B. About why the decision was made to sample Lavigne, rather than getting the Canadian pop singer to come in and re-record the vocal for the song. "I asked the same thing, but when I heard the track, it was already embedded in the music, so the producers already had it that way," she explained. "But it wouldn't have made a difference. It would have sounded the same. But I'm just glad that we could use her sample, because it became such a huge part of the instrumental that if it were not to be in the song, it would change the whole vibe of the song."
Rihanna told MTV News about this tune: "I love that song. That is one of my favorite songs on the album. It makes you feel like celebrating. It gives you a great feeling inside like you want to go out and have a drink. People can't wait for the weekend." Rihanna also told Spin magazine: "It's a song you would hear in a bar but I think you could also hear it all over pop radio. It's really grungy and melodic and catchy. And the way the producers sampled Avril — it's like she's an instrument. It's really cool how they combined [the song] with her vocals."
There are no special effects, storylines or no chance of lawsuits. The music video shows footage and behind-the-scenes from her concert experiences and performing on tour to her every day life as well as various different activities she did during her homecoming trip to Barbados. It also finds Rihanna in an appropriately celebratory mood and it's mostly a lot of shots of her partying backstage with friends and celebrities. This is probably the most candid and loose we've seen Rihanna as she goes bar hopping and slices open a coconut. Again, that video fit the song, as is the case here.

Rihanna guns down a man in a dark, and emotional music video for her latest single "Man Down," is her fifth single lifted from her latest multi-platinum album "Loud." Rihanna is still going strong with her album "Loud," which was released over a year ago. The song was chosen as a single based on an online poll she had to determine her next offering. The West Indian beauty has always loved reggae and decided to tap into Jamaican culture as she filmed the video "Man Down" in the land of reggae music.
Barbadian singer embraces her island roots on this reggae-tinged track. She told Spin magazine: "The vibe is Jamaican and West Indian. That's something that's close to me." The song features siren noises and violent lyrics about shooting a man, however Rihanna said they shouldn't be taken literally. "The song is about breaking a certain man's heart and ending his hopes and causing pain, which is like a gun shot," she explained. "It's a very cleverly written song and what I love about it is that it's not a lyric you'd normally hear a female singing."
Rihanna's fellow Barbadian Shontelle wrote this reggae-flavored song. The 'Impossible' singer told Sound-Savvy that she hopes their collaboration will put a stop to the talk that the two Bajan stars don't get on. One moment can change your entire life. Rihanna learns this in this hardest possible way in the gripping and gritty Anthony Mandler-directed video for "Man Down." "Very strong underlying message for girls like me!" Rihanna once tweeted about the premise of the gritty visuals. Anthony, meanwhile, said the video has all elements that will capture viewers right from the beginning, saying "It's dramatic and shocking and intense and emotional and uplifting and enlightening."
In this clip, the Bajan songstress is originally a carefree island girl who is full of love, spirit and joy, but then an unthinkable moment happens and changes her entire life. She gets raped by a man she met at a party, and turns into a cold-blooded killer to seek revenge on him. With a look of fiery hatred on her face, shooting a man down in a crowded transit station. As the video continues, we're transported back a day earlier to see why Rihanna turned into a murder. As powerful as the storyline is, it's Rihanna's acting that really sells it. The look of fear on her face as she's attacked looks all too authentic. It's impossible not to get chills while watching.

Rihanna struggles with a possible breakup in her newly-premiered video for rock-tinged ballad "California King Bed," which is anything but that softness comes across clearly. The video certainly looks stunning, set in an ultra-luxurious beach house that makes us wonder how the pop siren could possibly be blue amidst such gorgeous scenery. This power pop ballad about a couple who sleep beside each other in their California king-sized bed, but feel "10,000 miles apart, is the sixth U.S. and fourth international single from Barbadian recording artist's fifth platinum album, "Loud."
"Loud" generally has more upbeat sounds. However, this is one of the slower tracks the 23-year-old Bajan singer recorded for the album. Rihanna explained: "The ballads on this album are really special. I didn't want to just put a bunch of ballads on the album, I actually wanted to keep it minimal with slow records. But there are really two powerful ballads. One is called 'Straight Up Beautiful' and the other one is called 'California King Bed,' which is one of my favorite songs on the album. It's probably going to be the biggest song on the album."
The innocuous soft jam, "California King Bed" is a wrenching ballad about the waking death of a relationship, the stage of limbo before the final crash; it's so well-delivered, in fact, that it's hard to hear. Rihanna explained the meaning of the song: "It's talking about being this close to someone yet feeling so far away, like falling out of love." As it is, the more interesting tracks are those with less salacious demands on her vulnerability, such as the big break-up power-ballad "California King Bed", which features her best vocal performance.
Like seemingly all the not-dirty Rihanna clips, there's lots of soft, gauzy shots of the lovely singer sprawled about in her undergarments in open fields and between the sheets, as she caresses and stares longingly at the hunky male model ostensibly lying next to her, yet feeling so far away. Set entirely in a gorgeously pink-palleted open air room overlooking the beach, the winds swirl and blow the curtains dramatically around the heart broken singer. In this video, Rihanna returned to nature as in her video for her previous single, "Only Girl (In the World)." Rihanna's just rolled-out-bed appearance is completed by the modest, cream-colored attire in the airy, light-filled clip.

Rihanna's official music video for her latest single "S&M" has just arrived in full. The Barbadian recording artist is no stranger to showing off acres of flesh in her music videos and her new video for "S&M" may just top them all. If you're going to do a video for a song like "S&M," a track that espouses bedroom bondage and the joys of whips and chains, you have one of two options: You can make a video that accurately depicts said activities, in which case your video will likely not be legally viewable for a lot of folks. Or you can make a comically over-the-top, colorful, tongue-in-cheek, slightly dorky video. Rihanna has gone for option two.
This bluntly-titled cut was released as the fourth official single and pulsating opener hails from Rihanna's fifth studio album, "Loud," out last November. The Stargate-produced and Ester Dean-penned eurodance song finds the singer proclaiming her vices. As bracingly huge and catchy as it is, "S&M" doesn't deviate much from its blunt title. Rihanna said that people shouldn't take the raunchy lyrics too literally. "I don't think of it in a sexual way, I'm thinking metaphorically," she said. "It's more of a thing to say that people can talk, people are going to talk about you, you can't stop that. You just have to be that strong person and know who you are so that stuff just bounces off. And I thought it was super bad ass."
The video was shot in Los Angeles during the weekend of January 15, demonstrates the singer's "sadomasochist relationship with the press," according to director Melina Matsoukas. In this 90's inspired clip, Rihanna turns the spotlight onto the media who have been criticizing the pop star, as of lately. She is seen whipping gossip blogger Perez Hilton, dressed as a Playboy bunny, wearing a hip-hugging getup, black stilettos, and yellow ears atop her crimson-colored hair, reclining against a wall covered in tabloid headlines. The singer seems to have taken the chance to take a hit at the press, wearing a newspaper print gown and being kidnapped by journalists as headlines run over the screen. But it's okay; she gets her own back at the end.
The 22-year-old R&B star has always been a bit edgy, but it looks as though she's trying too hard to push the envelope now. The video is not just about kinky sex like it's mentioned in the lyrics - it manages to hit back tabloid and media which often run twisted story about her and any other celebrities. Editors from OK! magazine, said "it's every inch as red-hot, kinky and totally tongue-in-check as we expected to be." Rihanna is raising the bar while her peers and rivals led by Lady GaGa is always out there over the top. With this "S&M" video, Rihanna has tied up her competition by going further than any leading pop star to date.

Barbadian pop/R&B recording artist Rihanna is steamy collaboration with her former beau, Canadian rapper Drake, for their duet Island-infused love jam "What's My Name?" which has made a gigantic leap into the No.1 spot on this week's Billboard Hot 100, knocking off Ke$ha and giving the Barbadian beauty her third chart-topper of the year! (Total eighth No.1 hit on the chart and Drake his first.) Perfect timing for the song's video to drop!
"What's My Name?" is the second from Barbados beauty's forthcoming fifth studio album, "Loud," comes out next Tuesday, November 16. The song was written by Ester Dean whose previous credits include Usher's "Hot Toddy," Katy Perry's "Firework" and Christina Aguilera's "Not Myself Tonight." Dean also had a hit under own name with "Drop it Low." Rihanna said of Dean to Billboard magazine: "She really captured me, everything I would say and how I would say it. Some people get it halfway right. She just gets it and knows exactly what you want to hear." Dean told Billboard magazine Rihanna's biggest strength is that "she doesn't try to sound like you; she sounds like herself. She's not in there trying to figure out how she can beat you singing your song. She goes in there and says, 'I'm going to sing this song because I f---ing love it.'"
The 22-year-old Bajan beauty had originally played the song to Drake "backstage somewhere to try to get him on a verse." In the interview with Billboard magazine it was also revealed that Rihanna has wanted to work with Drake for a long time but specifically wanted "Drake's signature swagger" for "What's My Name?" She said "Drake is the hottest rapper out right now and we've always been trying to work together. He's the only person I thought could really understand the melody of the song, and the minute he heard it he said, 'I know exactly what I'm going to do. I love it.' And he did it like three days later."
Love is in the air for Rihanna and Drake as they share romantic scenes in a newly-debuted video. They steam up the scenes with their scorching chemistry. The video was helmed by director Philip Andelman and features red-headed Rihanna strutting down the streets of New York in a colorful outfit, dances in the night and getting pretty cozy with Drake. "You see what it would be like with a young couple, two 20-year-old, eating Chinese food in a New York City apartment," she said. "It's a really youthful song. It feels good. It's really flirty, but it's also really melodic. Which is why I felt that Drake was the perfect person to have on this song, 'cause he's a young rapper who has incredible melodies." Simple video but it goes perfectly with the song, enjoy!

After going deep and dark on her last album, Rihanna has ditched her edgy "Rated R" tunes for a more whimsical and upbeat dance floor approach with her new very reddish, flowery video for "Only Girl (In the World)," the lead single from her fifth upcoming studio album "Loud," which hit stores worldwide on November 16. "Only Girl (In the World)" aims squarely for dancefloor domination, as the pop star pours her heart out to one man over a full-throttle. On the high-energy track, Rihanna yearns for her lover to keep her at the center of his attention over a pulsing electro beat. The singer's voice remains silky on the verses, then bursts out on the song's monstrous chorus.
Rihanna wants her man to make her feel like she's the "Only Girl (In the World)," which is a up-tempo dominant dance-pop song that incorporates elements of Eurodance-pop in its production and beats. Incorporating strobing, dance club beats in the chorus, Rihanna pleads for her lover to give her all the attention. The song presents Rihanna at her most confident, demanding undivided attention from her lover over impeccably calculated synths and bass. The song is another collaboration with Norwegian hitmaking duo, Stargate, the Grammy-winning Norwegian producing team and when it reached No.3 on the Hot 100 two weeks ago, Rihanna officially raised her sum of top 10 hits to 16, the sixth-best total among women in the chart's 52-year history. Not a bad kickoff for an album clearly meant to mark a new chapter in Rihanna's life and career.
The video was directed Anthony Mandler who is mainly known for dark and Gothic inspired videos. In the beautifully-shot video, Rihanna's fiery red hair burns through each glamorous scene. She looks radiant and happy dancing and singing in the beautiful hills by herself. "It's really, really beautifully shot in these crazy, crazy, crazy places. We shot landscapes that we found a couple hours outside of L.A. It looks so unreal. It looks fake, like something out of a postcard with the beautiful hills... We had a lot of sunshine those couple of days, so it really worked with the whole essence of the video. But really, the video just shows this big landscape and the only person there is me," the pop queen said about video.
Rihanna is on a journey. From her Caribbean roots to the top of the charts, the runways of Paris and Milan and some of the biggest stages in the world, the 22-year-old, Barbados-born beauty has already earned the coveted title of international superstar. The song best represents the title of her upcoming album, and provides a nice contrast to her previous effort, the downbeat, emotional "Rated R." With its club ready bassline and Euro-pop influences, not to mention one heck of an epic chorus, the track is a surefire hit. "Want you to make me feel, like I'm the only girl in the world," she sings. "Like I'm the only one that you'll ever love, like I'm the only one who knows your heart."

Hot on the heels of Eminem's eight VMA nominations, the highly anticipated video for his latest chart-topper, "Love the Way You Lie," premiered Thursday on MTV at 9 p.m. The Joseph Kahn-directed video was based on Eminem's troubled relationship with his ex-wife, Kim and features Rihanna, who sings the hook, along with actors Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan, portrays the downward spiral of an abusive couple as they appear to be just as much lovers as they are fighters.
To call Eminem hip-hop's Elvis is correct to a degree, but it's largely inaccurate. Certainly, Eminem was the first white rapper since the Beastie Boys to garner both sales and critical respect, but his impact exceeded this confining distinction. "Love the Way You Lie" the second single off rapper's seventh studio album, "Recovery." "It's the story of them getting to know each other, and it's the story of their tumultuous relationship, and it was the story of the breakdown of their relationship," the 33-year-old actor elaborated further. "Ultimately, what I think he's trying to say in the song is that he should have walked away a little bit quicker than he did and not let it get as messy as it did."
The rapper commented, "[The song] I did with Rihanna is one of those tracks that I felt like only she could pull it off, only she could do it. It was great to have Rihanna, Megan and Dominic on board for this. They really brought it and made this video super-powerful." The songstress also talked about this collaboration with Eminem: "It's something that, you know, [Eminem and I have] both experienced, you know, on different sides, different ends of the table. It was believable for us to do a record like that, but it was also something that needed to be done and the way he did it was so clever."
The most important thing the video is doing is raising the topic of dating violence among young people. The video shows off love and violence intertwine seamlessly, is especially potent because of Eminem's and Rihanna's personal histories with violence or abuse. During the four-minute span of "Love the Way You Lie," Rihanna alternately sneers in the frame and seems to physically diminish before finally crumbling to the ground in front of the burning house that serves as her backdrop throughout, and Eminem sings his verses in a desolate cornfield. Through the video Fox as an abused and abusive girlfriend to Monaghan. They fight, hit, break things and steal. At the end of the video, both Fox and Monaghan's characters are engulfed by the flames.

With only a few days after music video for fourth US single "Rockstar 101" made its debut, another clip for Barbadian singer Rihanna's third international single "Te Amo" has exclusively sneaked out from Germany, and it definitely keeps with the "Rated R" theme. The four-minute steamy visual takes a look at the "Unfaithful" hitmaker in intimate scenes with dark-haired French supermodel Laetitia Casta and getting close to the Spanglish tune.
The daring scenes portray the heterosexual Barbadian singer as a leather clad dominatrix, kissing and striking suggestive poses with Laetitia Casta. The 22-year-old singer is seen sharing steamy scenes and romancing her on-screen same-sex lover while wearing lacy lingerie in the video which has not been officially shown in the US. The lyrics for the song "Te Amo" are about sapphic desires for a woman.
The new song "Te Amo" (English: "I Love You") is about a sexualized encounter between Rihanna and co-star Laetitia Casta, who gets hot and heavy with Rihanna. So you knew that angle was going to be played up in this video. I quite like the castle/pleasure dungeon theme of the video and the lighting creates a nice mood to fit the song. "Te Amo" is a personal album highlight so it's already much better to me than "Rockstar 101" in that regard. Digital Spy stating that "After the rather explicit 'Rude Boy' campaign, Rihanna's taking a well-deserved break from titillating the blokes here - only to find herself the object of another lady's affections. One of her Rated R LP's less menacing moments, 'Te Amo' finds La Fenty grappling with her sexuality over some irresistible, latin-infused Stargate beats."
The Anthony Mandler-directed video was shot late of April at the grounds of the 15th century castle of the Chateau de Vigny, which is located just outside Paris, when the Barbadian songstress stayed in town for her Last Girl on Earth tour. It shows Rihanna in a colorful floral maxi dress and a black lacy basque. "About to drop Te Amo... Really proud of what we did," Mandler tweeted about the video shoot, "Thanks to all of Rihanna's fans for the long list of suggestions... we're gonna follow our instincts and give you guys something special..." The clip's soft lighting and red hue give off a "Moulin Rouge" vibe, matching the song's sexy undertone.

In between performing on her international tour and hitting the party circuit with her friends, the Bajan superstar Rihanna's hotly anticipated new music video for new single "Rockstar 101" has premiered a little early but not on Vevo. The song "Rockstar 101" on which legendary rocker Slash collaborated is the fourth single off of Rihanna's latest album, "Rated R." The video is a dark theme not her best but still quite frisky and dark. It shows off the Barbadian songstress channeling her collaborator Slash by wearing his signature top hat, long curly wig and strumming an electric guitar. In addition, the Barbados can be also seen rocking it out with Travis Barker (Blink-182)'s battery while dressed in a bold latex outfit and wearing a red wig inspired by the Crazy Horse dancers.
Beside readying "Rockstar 101" music video, Rihanna is also preparing to release a a video for her next international Stargate-produced single, "Te Amo." She filmed the visuals at a 16th century castle of Vigny in the suburbs of Paris, France when staying in the country for the European leg of her Last Girl on Earth tour. Both songs are taken from Rihanna's 2009 studio album "Rated R". The music video for "Rockstar 101" is directed by Melina Matsoukas, who also did Rihanna's "Hard" and "Rude Boy" videos, and "Te Amo" clip is directed by Anthony Mandler with French supermodel Laeticia Casta making a cameo appearance.
The 22-year-old will be channeling several different looks though maintaining to stay sexy and keeps taking the "Rated R" theme and pushes it to new extremes as she really leaves little to the imagination in this black and white homage to the rockstar lifestyle. The imagery suits the song well and Rihanna certainly looks fierce in all aspects of the word, but it's a little too late after it's been the same thing in all of her videos from this era. All in all, it's certainly an interesting watch, but goodness would I have much rather she done one for "Fire Bomb."
Rihanna succeeds in executing the cockiness and attitude that this record boasts and you have just got to love the Slash impersonation. "Rockstar 101" was performed on American Idol on April 7 and it will officially impact both Mainstream and Rhythmic radio on June 1. The song is being used for the new CW show "Nikita," which will debut in the fall of 2010. Within the context of "Rated R," the intensely chilly, distant feel of the song works, but it is difficult to see "Rockstar 101" endearing itself to a wide spectrum of pop fans listening to the radio.