Authors: Sarah Oliver
T
he news that Rihanna was dating baseball star Matt Kemp broke in the first week of January 2010. After her New Year’s Eve performance they travelled to Mexico for a holiday, where the paparazzi managed to get shots of the pair relaxing in a hot tub together. They also snapped Matt with his hand on Rihanna’s backside and the two of them kissing. Rihanna had lots of fun on the holiday and got the opportunity to swim with dolphins. However, it wasn’t a romantic vacation with just the two of them, because she brought along her friends. They hung out as a group, went to the Beach Club, El Squid nightclub in Cabo San Lucas, enjoyed a yacht cruise and had fun on jet skis.
While the couple were on holiday, Matt’s agent was asked by E! Online whether they were dating. He denied everything, saying: ‘I think dating might be a stretch at this
point. They are in Cabo, but past that they are just good friends and I don’t think we can label it as anything other than friendship right now. Who knows what will develop past the friendship.’
Rihanna tries to keep her relationships private but the press never let her. They always rush things, which must frustrate RiRi at times.
Three years older than Rihanna, Matt Kemp plays for the Major League Baseball team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. His position is outfielder, and baseball is his life. Growing up in Oklahoma, he always excelled at baseball and basketball in school.
Most of his friends are baseball players, and Rihanna was his first celebrity girlfriend. His nickname is ‘The Bison’, because a commentator called Don Sutton once said during a game that he looked ‘like a big buffalo running around the bases.’
It must have been nice for Rihanna to date someone who wasn’t involved in the music scene, but who at the same time knew how to handle fame and fans. Like Rihanna, charity work means a lot to Matt, too.
He also shares her love of tattoos and he has quite a lot of them himself: he has a tattoo sleeve on his left arm, which has a Greek mythological figure with a sword; a rose; a script text on his chest; and ‘Living For The Moment’ across his back.
After returning home, Rihanna decided she needed some new bikinis, and asked Celeste Johnny to design her some especially for her. On her official website, Celeste states: ‘Johnny Vincent [her swimwear company] was born out of my love for fashion and the Caribbean, in essence my ‘Paradise’. It is my goal that through my designs, fabric, colours and accessories you will feel just that. I hope the passion that I create with is shown in my designs and transferred to you when wearing my pieces. I am a true believer in loving oneself, loving the beauty that is unique to us all. I truly hope you will feel how beautiful, wonderful and sexy you are when you wear one of my designs. I hope you truly feel the love of my paradise as it embraces you.’
Rihanna loves Celeste’s bikinis, and was photographed wearing a hot pink design at Christmas and on her holiday. Fans rushed to the site to order them for themselves and they soon sold out.
Celeste was thrilled when she was asked to design a bikini especially for Rihanna and told
OK! Magazine
: ‘She looked great and I just got an email that she wants a striped bikini, so I’m kinda going over things with her assistant as far as, like, the colours that she wants.’
Rihanna has become a fashion icon, and millions of women around the world would give anything to look like her. She can take any item of clothing and use it to make a statement. Her clothes reflect her personality, and you can often tell how she is feeling by what she is wearing.
After her holiday, RiRi had to get straight back into her
work because she had singles to promote. The second single to be released in the US from
Rated R
was ‘Hard’, featuring the rapper Young Jeezy. It was released on 19 January 2010 in the US and in August 2010 in the UK.
The track was written by Rihanna, Young Jeezy, and Tricky Stewart and The-Dream. ‘Hard’ reached No. 8 in the US charts and No. 42 in the UK. The track wasn’t given a worldwide release, but fans from other countries did download it and it charted at No. 9 in Canada, No. 15 in New Zealand, No. 21 in Slovakia and No. 26 in Sweden.
Both fans and critics loved Rihanna’s vocals on this track and its hip-hop style. The video was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who came up with the concept of basing it on a military operation in the desert. The clothes Rihanna wore made a statement, and it was clear that she had fun shooting it. She admitted to MTV: ‘It’s couture-military. Everything is surrounded by the whole idea of something military. We have tanks, we have troops, we’ve got helicopters, we’ve got explosions… Tight gear, lots of cute outfits, lots of bullets. Crazy.’
She also talked about what she loves about ‘Hard’: ‘When I first heard the song, I was in Paris. Dream and Tricky, they flew out and played me the record. They played me a few [songs], but this one stuck out to me. It had such an arrogance to it, which is so far from who I am, which is part of why I wanted to do it. It was fun, it was bragging – a lot of attitude. Young Jeezy was the perfect person for the topic of the song, just the vibe of the song. I love, love, love his verse. He added so much more to the record.’
The song went on to win the Viewer’s Choice Award at the 2010 Bet Awards.
After the Haiti earthquake hit on 12 January 2010, Rihanna was deeply affected; when she was interviewed on a Norwegian talk show she explained that it felt to her as if the earthquake had hit Barbados. She said: ‘In the Caribbean, we think of ourselves as one big family, one country… we’re all together. We all represent each other.’
Rihanna wanted to do something personally to help. She decided to release her own version of the Bob Marley Classic ‘Redemption Song’ and released it for download on 19 January, a week after the earthquake struck. The money she raised was given to the Help For Haiti appeal.
It was only available to download for 48 hours and charted at No. 18 in the US charts, thanks to an appearance on
The Oprah Winfrey Show
the day after its release. Rihanna had performed the song and also spoke about why she was releasing it. She told Oprah and the audience watching at home: ‘This song for me, growing up, anytime there was a difficult situation, I always listened to this song because it was so liberating. Even now I listen to it when my back is up against the wall. I feel like the people of Haiti need to hear
something
inspiring.’
She later added: ‘Often in a tragedy like this, it’s the orphans who suffer most. In Haiti, they’ve already had almost 400,000 orphans prior to this. There are so many kids out there without parents, who can’t find their parents. There are a lot of kids dead, a lot of kids hungry, they have
no way to get food, they’re helpless. That’s why we have to take care of them: the children are the future.’
Rihanna also sang on another track to raise money for the people of Haiti. ‘Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)’ was sung by Rihanna, Jay-Z, Bono and The Edge (from U2). This track was released on 23 January 2010.
The song was written as a direct response to what had happened. Producer Swizz Beatz texted Jay-Z and Bono to see if they wanted to do a single, and both agreed. Bono actually came up with the song’s hook while talking to Swizz on the phone.
Swizz revealed all to
Rolling Stone
magazine: ‘The idea of the song is “We’re not gonna leave you stranded” and that’s what the chorus is, so me and Bono started going back and forth with ideas, and he was like, “You know this word stranded keeps standing out to me…” and I asked him to sing it, and he put me on hold ‘cause he’s recording the ideas on a Dictaphone – so he did it there and then on the phone.’
They all spent about three hours on the phone talking about the song and then the Edge worked on what they had come up with after they recorded it separately. Rihanna was then brought in. Swizz explained: ‘I knew that Jay would be able to tell a story, and that Bono would be able to sing and bring it home. The last component that I added was Rihanna, and she’s kinda like the angel that’s on the track, softening it up and giving it that caring feeling, because this hook is so powerful.’
It was performed live at the London leg of the ‘Hope for
Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief’ telethon, which was hosted by
Twilight
star Robert Pattinson. Other stars gathered in Los Angeles and New York as this was where the rest of the telethon took place. George Clooney hosted the Los Angeles leg, while Wyclef Jean ran proceedings in New York.
The track charted at No. 16 in the US, No. 41 in the UK, No. 3 in Ireland, No. 10 in Austria, No. 14 in Denmark and No. 39 in Belgium. Money raised from the single and the telethon went to several charities including Oxfam America, UNICEF and Partners in Health.
On 27 January 2010 a very special girl called Jasmina lost her fight against leukaemia and died. Rihanna was very close to Jasmina, and her death affected her deeply. She had been one of the celebrities who launched a campaign to find the little girl a bone marrow donor. Rihanna had loved her energy and the fact that she was always smiling.
When the news of her death broke, Rihanna released a statement. In it she said: ‘I am incredibly heartbroken that Jasmina has passed away. She was such a brave and special child.
‘She showed me more strength and spirit than many adults I have met. I feel blessed that I was able to have her in my life, and know that through her example, she has saved many lives. She was truly an angel on earth.’
Jasmina touched the lives of many people, even President Obama. He too released a statement, in which he said: ‘It is with great sadness today that Michelle and I extend our condolences on the passing of Jasmina Anema.
‘Jasmina showed tremendous bravery in the face of adversity, and her ability to stay positive throughout her battle was an inspiration to me and to all those she touched.
‘As the parents of two young girls, our hearts particularly go out to Jasmina’s devoted mother Thea. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and with all who knew and loved Jasmina.’
A month later Rihanna decided to do more to help those fighting leukaemia. She wanted to raise funds for DKMS, which is the world’s largest bone marrow donor centre, and so she asked the Pepsi Refresh Project to donate $25,000. Pepsi were already giving away a total of $20 million, and the public had to put forward worthy causes and charities that they felt deserved a cash injection. Rihanna and DKMS’ aims were to: ‘Raise awareness of the impact of blood cancers such as leukaemia, aid the 10,000 people in need of a bone marrow transplant each year, help the 70 per cent of patients who rely on strangers for a second chance, and recruit and register nearly 4,000 new bone marrow donors.’
Rihanna hosted the kick-off party for the project on 5 February 2010 at the LIV Nightclub, Miami Beach. Her project got the funding it needed after she secured enough votes. The idea behind the Pepsi Refresh Project is that people are invited to come up with an idea, promote it, people vote and then if it gets enough votes, Pepsi gives the funding.
Rihanna will always use her fame to help people, and
will continue to speak for people who need transplants. She will never give up, because she wants to help save people’s lives.
Having started the year with two charity singles, ‘Rude Boy’ was Rihanna’s first single from
Rated R
to be released in 2010. This was another track that she had co-written with Stargate, Ester Dean, Makeba Riddick and Rob Swire and it came out on 19 February.
This track used dancehall and ska elements, and both fans and critics loved it. The song became the bestselling single of
Rated R
in the US and entered at the top of the charts for five weeks. It was also No. 1 in Australia and Bulgaria, No. 2 in the UK and Slovakia and No. 3 in Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Hungary.
The video was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who had previously directed ‘Hard’, but this time, she wanted ‘Rude Boy’ to have a Jamaican dancehall vibe and she certainly achieved it. It was the first of Rihanna’s videos to be shot in front of a green screen, which allowed the graphics to be added later. When she’s dancing on top of the zebra and the lion, Rihanna had to use her imagination to try and picture what the finished video would look like. She also got to show off her dancing skills as she picked out iconic dancehall moves from the 90s, such as the ‘Butterfly’ and the ‘Bogle’ dance.
The video shoot took place in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Rihanna found it a lot of fun to film, because it wasn’t as dark as some of her previous videos. She really liked the
concept, and told MTV in an interview: ‘It’s really colourful; it’s a pop art video.
‘We shot it all on green screen. Everything was done in post-production. It’s really colourful, really energetic. It was really inspired by my Caribbean roots. I love reggae music. [Rude Boy] is a Jamaican term, so our costumes are dancehall-queen-like. It’s a fun video, probably the most fun video we’ve done so far.’
One of the writers behind ‘Rude Boy’, Makeba Riddick, revealed how the song came about to
Us
magazine. She said: ‘Rihanna and I both work with Stargate a lot – the production duo from Norway – and they had the track and started the idea with another writer, Esther Dean. She actually came up with that concept, but the song wasn’t done and there were things Rihanna wanted to change, so they brought it to me to finish. I was listening to the words and me and Ri, we were just laughing and talking about so many situations that have happened in the past and that happen to women everywhere. By the time we were done of course, we were laughing and giggling about the lyrics – surprisingly everybody went nuts over the song.’
Makeba was very surprised when ‘Rude Boy’ got to No. 1, and only found out when people started tweeting her to say congratulations. One minute, the track had been at No. 4, and the next it was at No. 1. Rihanna was even more excited, because she had written most of the lyrics for the track, and she felt it was the strongest one of the album.