Rihanna's 777 Tour picture album. (Bauer Griffin)more pics »Rihanna has the number one album in the country this week with Unapologetic, her seventh studio album in seven years. Though the singer has charted 12 number one singles over the course of her career, it's actually her first time at the top of the Billboard 200.
"Wait!!!!! What the F**K?!!!! UNAPOLOGETIC just debuted at #1 in AMERICA!!!!! My first number 1 album there!!! Thank you Navy, u deserve it," Rihanna tweeted shortly after the news broke, displaying her typical candor. She then added, "I'm legit crying like a pussy right now!!"
While Rihanna certainly has a lot to celebrate (we're guessing there will be at least one bottle of Ace of Spades involved, given her taste in bubbly), the news comes at an interesting juncture in her career. The Barbados-born singer recently faced some of her worst press to date, having barely participated in the poorly orchestrated publicity stunt that was her 777 tour. There are rumors of excessive partying, fables about her chronic tardiness. And of course there's her rumored reconciliation with her abusive ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. It's not hard to imagine there are more than a few people on Rihanna's team who are attempting to jump ship, as the New York Daily News hinted on Tuesday.
Rihanna wouldn't have named her album Unapologetic if she were concerned with what people thought of her; brazen raunchiness has been key to her brand for years now. But it's hard not to wonder if that raunchiness will give way to recklessness. Bad behavior might get her a lot of attention, but Rihanna has too much to lose to play so hard.
Rihanna is the first to admit that she has no interest in being a role model. Last year, she told Vogue UK that leading an exemplary life has nothing to do with being a pop star. "See, people – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead," she noted. "The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me and being a role model became more of my job than I wanted it to be. But no, I just want to make music. That’s it."
But this resistance to PG-13 presentation has cost the singer jobs. In August, some months after she started using the hashtag "#420" and even allowed photographers to snap her rolling some kind of special cigarette on a poor man's head, skincare company Nivea dropped the singer as its spokesmodel. CEO Stefan Heidenreich stated, "I do not understand how to bring the core brand of Nivea in conjunction with Rihanna. Nivea is a company which stands for trust, family, and reliability."
Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com, believes Rihanna's bad girl antics won't affect her career in the long run. "She's sexy, she's beautiful, [her fans] like that. Girls wanna be here, men want to do her. It doesn't seem to be a big problem," he asserts. But her relationship with Chris Brown is another story.
"I think that's a lot more troublesome in the long run," Bragman says. Like many who've cringed in reaction to the singer's renewed interest in Brown, Bragman is disgusted by the message it sends. "She empowers him and I hate it, I hate it for her, I hate it for the message it's sending," he says. "There's too many people who have real problems."
Brown's made it harder to give him the benefit of the doubt, too, by consistently responding to criticism with defensiveness and general repugnance. On Sunday he shuttered his Twitter account after he spewed a bunch of misogynistic vitriol at a comedian who'd poked fun of him one time too many, threatening, among other things, to defecate in her eye. A real charmer, that one. And Rihanna's made her association with him impossible to ignore via song (see the laughably ironic "Nobody's Business"). Even those who claim no interest in her private life are forced to confront it.
Rihanna already has a tight grip on superstardom. By Forbes' estimations, she raked in over $50 million in the past year, and can apparently afford to fly to Germany to hang out with her "lover." But it's hard to say if she'll remain an enduring force in the music industry when she's forging her identity on rebellion alone.
(all images Bauer Griffin)See more Rihanna photos:
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