Rihanna has offered up provocative and/or in-your-face album titles in the past — Good Girl Gone Bad, Rated R and Loud come to mind — but perhaps none have been as brash as Unapologetic (out November 19), which comes accompanied with artwork featuring the bare-breasted singer covered in nothing but scribbled words. So what is she apologizing for? Being the queen of the charts? Her sexed-up image? Reportedly getting back together with abusive ex Chris Brown?
Several sites had plenty to type furiously about regardless this latest controversial move from RiRi. Head below for a roundup of opinions from around the Internet.
:: Acknowledging her tireless release schedule, Entertainment Weekly quipped, “Well, the lady likes to stay busy.”
:: The Source adds, “Rihanna never seems to have any trouble when it comes to the charts. In fact the Roc-Nation star is ready to drop her seventh, count it seventh, album in seven years. Think about that for a second.”
:: E! Online got more to the nitty gritty: “Surprise, surprise! Rihanna’s naked again.”
:: The Huffington Post remarked, “She’s a vision of course, and quite literally sheds her tough exterior and marks herself with the emotions that make the woman.”
:: Yahoo’s OMG blog chimes in with this: “Her modesty is just about protected by words scrawled across the album cover including ‘unapologetic’, ‘fearless’ and ‘fun’. As we say though, only just.”
:: HollywoodLife.com spoke to several psychologists about the album, including one who stated this: “Unapologetic is clearly a message to those people who would dare to criticize her for saying she’s still in love with Chris [Brown] and going back to him. Unconsciously, what it really means is that deep down she knows that Chris is ‘unapologetic’ for beating her up! It is really sad and stupid for her to send this message to her fans because it tells them that it’s cool to stay with a guy who has abused you.”
:: The Los Angeles Times says, “The title and cover art also continue her knack for alluding to speculation about her personal life while never actually explaining much. The title professes autonomy, and the art harkens back to the magic-marker body art of the Riot Grrrl era.”
:: The Prophet Blog takes a classier approach: “For the artwork for her seventh studio album Unapologetic, Rihanna flicked through her phone and found one of the naked snaps she sent to the Young Money crew when Breezy wasn’t looking, then drew all over it while she was drunk and texted it to Def Jam with a short message that read: ‘jst use dis. #phuckyall #getmuny’”
What do you think of RiRi’s album cover? Super scandalous or NBD? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!
LMFAO i love The Prophet Blog’s review.
Honestly, I don’t think the cover is very well designed. When I first looked at it, I couldn’t even figure out which word was the title. I thought it was “Love” at first because that word is all by itself across her face and the letters are larger. Just because “Unapologetic” has black sharpie behind it doesn’t make it obvious that it’s the title. They should have either made it larger than the other words or written it in a different color, like red for example. In fact, this whole era feels rushed so far. “Diamonds” isn’t a bad song, but the “shine bright like a diamond” hook is kind of annoying and is so repetitive, esp. towards the end of the song, that it seems like Sia ran out of ideas when writing it. It could have been better if it had been fleshed out more. But I guess things are going to catch up with you (or your writers and producers) and these oversights are eventually going to creep in when you put out 7 albums in 7 years and you only give yourself a few months to make an album. Still looking forward to the album though.
she needs to slow down with the albums…damn…she just did talk that talk not too long ago…slow down ur fans aint going nowhere…its her seventh album in seven years..not even usher or beyonce have that many and they been doing it since teenagers