Proposition:
Rihanna is something of a modern-day musical
Picasso.
It must be remembered that Picasso was truly an accomplished
painter -- one who could paint a thing to look exactly as it really looked -- but chose to enter into
abstraction and
cubism as a means of stretching the representational boundaries of what art itself meant. And Rihanna's "Bitch Better Have My Money" (you'd better believe
this is the explicit version) is perhaps best thought of as comparable
modern art in the
music video genre.
The two major failings of modern music are that they are lyrically repetitive and structurally derivative. True, this song tends toward the highly repetitive in its chorus -- "Bitch better have my money / pay me what you owe me" -- strung between rapid-fire pepperings of lyrical ingenuity. But it presents a very original conveyance of its compelling message. It is just
stinking undeniable that that
bitch had better have Rihanna's
money!! But perhaps the most creative statement made by the song is in the form of the video, which shows the lengths that Rihanna will go to to seek recompense against somebody who has wronged her financially -- kidnapping a model-wife and carting her around in various states of undress while making demanding phone calls. And although it is filled with brilliant depictions, unquestionably the finest moment of the video occurs when Rihanna and her crew of kidnappers are situated on a
yacht floating in the ocean. Infuriated by her embezzler's continuing failure to satisfactorily respond to her demands, Rihanna hurls her
cell phone out over the crystaline blue waters, whips out a
handgun, and makes an instant
clay pigeon of the unfortunate object, simultaneously displaying situational irritation and razor-sharp marksmanship.
It can be no accident that
Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who portrays
Hannibal Lecter in the critically acclaimed television version of that universe is the "bitch" -- the person against whom Rihanna's vendetta is directed. And at the end of the video it is made clear that he is to be
vivisected much the same way as his other famous character would be inclined to do against a similarly situated victim. With no stylistic details spared, this brilliant effort has to be thought of as an acme accomplishment. Coming from the same artist who created conventional hits like "Only Girl In The World," this deftly demonstrates an immense range of both performership and creative acumen.