Last Tuesday, Rihanna released her 3rd album "Good Girl Gone Bad." Although I have indulged in many of her singles, like "Pon de replay," "SOS," "Break it off," and even "Umbrella," I've never actually purchased any of her albums. So I youtubed every track on this new album to see if it was worth fasting for a whole day to pony up the double digit price tag.
What may not be known to the multitude is how many collaborations she has on the album.
Timbaland: the soon to be legendary producer, helped Rihanna on "Sell Me Candy" and "Lemme Get That." The melody on "Sell Me Candy" has a beat-boxing base that's perfect for swaying in the Barbados sun.
"Lemme Get That" is Barbados flavor meets ghetto N.Y.C. It's unlike Rihanna to gloat, but if you heard this on the radio, you'd think she was just a regular r&b artist, which is definitely what she's going for.
Justin Timberlake: Getting the hang of helping out other artists, like his buddy Timbaland, he worked on "Rehab." The production, which kind of reminds me of "What goes around comes around," is great. But the lyrics are something that should be on a first album, not a third. "It's like I checked into Rehab/and baby you're my disease." There are countless drug cliches and a constant mention of cigarettes, which makes me wonder if she even smokes. Here's hoping he doesn't make the same mistake with his new Dutch find Esmee Denters.
Ne-yo: Besides the "Hate that I love you" single they released, which barely got noticed, he wrote the lyrics for "Question Existing." The song is about her struggle with the spotlight and how she doesn't know who her real friends are. It's actually kind of boring.
My other two favorites are:
"Push up on me" is this very Vanity 6-"Nasty Girl" old school R&B track, where she tries to seduce cocky guys like Nelly and T.I. who think girls should chase them, saying lyrics like "I could be the girl that break you down." It's very catchy.
"Breaking Dishes" is a track that sounds like it fell off of pre-Nas Kelis's tour bus—angry and volatile—and got brushed off by Fergie—adding her confident sass. It was actually produced by the guy who did Britney's "Me against the music," Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. With lyrics like: "I'm breaking dishes up in here all night/I aint going stop until i see police and lights," she definitely has the laid back-I'm going to cut you vibe. In order to sell this one, she'll have to get into an angry state that's between "Ring the Alarm" and "Irreplaceable." It's definitely a different sound for her. Even though it starts off sounding like Nelly Furtado's "Maneater," of all the tracks, I'd choose this one for her to release next.
Unfortunately, she chose "Shut up and Drive" to be her next single, which starts off sounding very punk...and not in a good way. It's like a Pink reject, with worse car metaphor's than her "Rehab." It's her sad attempt to appeal to the TRL crowd and frankly it's way too juvenile even for them...I hope. Thankfully, it's better than "Don't Stop the Music," a Z100-type techno vomit, and "Say It," a boring ballad.
All in all, I think I'll be keeping my double digits, and just forking over 4 bucks on iTunes for my favorite tracks.
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