10 Years Ago, Rihanna’s ‘Rated R’ Was the Rebel Cry We Were Waiting For
Her artful transformation allowed her to redefine her narrative, her way
In the fight to reclaim herself as someone greater than a victim of violence, Rihanna used 2009 to mark her reinvention. It could be argued that her girl-next-door persona had concluded in 2007, when she exchanged her long honey-blonde tresses for a vampy, raven bob to coincide with the maturity of her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad. But that was just the look. At the root of her transformation and artistic rebellion was the music itself.
On her debut album, Music of the Sun, and follow-up, A Girl Like Me, she was molded into a Bajan Beyoncé-lite, nearly indistinguishable from her peers aiming for pop stardom. By the time she tested the waters with a new enigmatic style and an Aeon Flux-inspired haircut on Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna was closing in on her breakthrough.
Lauded as pop’s new “it” girl, Rihanna’s previous manufactured identity was shed to give way for a daring emergence that shot Good Girl Gone Bad to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Bolstered by new legions of fans, singles from Rihanna’s third album all charted, as her status made her a household name. Rihanna was on a high — but her reign nearly crumbled during an assault that…
