Bark + Bite

Rihanna explores sex, drugs, but no rock'n'roll in "We Found Love" video

If you loved the bright lights, fun colors and uplifting spirit of Rihanna's last album, Loud, sorry. You're in for a bumpy ride. While the lead single from her upcoming album Talk That Talk is an unabashed dance song, it's a got a dark side to it too. After all, she is singing about being in a "hopeless place."

That hopeless place, it turns out, is somewhere in a dingy bathtub in a trash dump of an apartment in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Everything about her life is an utter mess, but Rihanna still finds that she has a hard time pulling away from her bad boy lover in the video for "We Found Love." This love is a sick addiction, but thankfully, Rihanna finds the cure.

Watch the video for Rihanna's lead single below

Coldplay and Rihanna cry a beautiful, deep river of sorrow in "Princess of China"

When word hit the street that Rihanna would be collaborating with Chris Martin and the fellas on their upcoming album Mylo Xyloto, it was obvious that we were all in for something momentous. And now that the full version of "Princess of China" has leaked, it's safe to say that RiRi and Chris didn't disappoint.

Chris brings on the bombast and the storms as he blunders about his stepped on and broken heart. Rihanna swoops in with her angelic chords chirping about fights and lost games, while Chris accompanies her under the harmony. The two of them do quite a bit of harmonizing and it's really quite lovely. It turns this sad, sad, love song into something beautiful. They sound like two songbirds, bemoaning their pitiful state to the world.

Lyrically, some have taken issue with the line where Rihanna croons about being a princess and her lover being a king. Princesses usually marry princes, after all. And if he's a king, then she should be a queen. Not being an expert on all things royal, but there's probably some king in history who kept his bride a princess and not queen. Then again, that's neither here nor there. The point of the line in the song is that they could've been royalty together, now they're stuck being peasants all by themselves.

Listen to Coldplay and Rihanna's duet below

Rihanna unveils edgy artwork for Talk That Talk

Rihanna is looking to get tongues wagging with her next album Talk That Talk, and her album covers are taking the first crack. The singer unveiled the covers for the standard and deluxe editions of her new album, which is slated for a November 21 release, and they're much more Rated R than Loud.

The standard edition is in color and features a dirty blonde/brown Rihanna with raccoon circles under her eyes and a volatile look on her face while she licks her lips. It wreaks of aggression so much that it looks like it could be the cover for the female version of Fight Club.

The deluxe edition cover is a black and white affair that's relatively demure from a stylistic standpoint, but it features Rihanna with a big puff of smoke coming from her mouth. The Nate Dogg line, "smoke weed everyday" comes to mind. Guess Rihanna's real serious about not wanting to be a role model for these youngin's, huh?

She'll probably still get invited to the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards next year anyway.

Rihanna rides the subway, breaks Billboard record

Sometimes members of pop royalty just want to feel like one of the paupers. Rihanna, who is overseas in the UK for her LOUD tour and playing 10 sold-out shows at the O2 arena, was snapped riding the "tube," the term Londoners use for the city's subway system.

Fans were caught by surprise by the singer's unexpected experiment with public transportation. Rihanna should definitely keep this up and make random appearances at Jiffy Lube, White Castle and Forever 21. Mingling with the commoners = Good times.

But the big news in RiRi world is that the Barbadian star has another notch under her belt. Her latest single, "We Found Love," from her upcoming Talk That Talk album has put her over the top. She is now the first solo artist to reach 20 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 the fastest.

Head below for a trip down memory lane of all the hits:

The masticated review of Rihanna's "We Found Love"

If Rated R was the equivalent of the dark ages in Rihanna's world, and LOUD her renaissance, then it's hard to say what her yet-to-be-named sixth album will be. The industrial revolution? The post-modern era? The release of her latest single, "We Found Love," is sending all kinds of mixed signals. It's a synthy, frothy slice of angel food cake, but the imagery is stark, tom boyish and a little hardened.

The lyrics to "We Found Love" touch on this dark cloud hanging over RiRi as she proclaims that she was able to find love in a "hopeless place." What's that hopeless place, exactly? It's hard not to draw parallels to that incident in her life here. Especially since Chris Brown made sure to favorite her tweet mentioning precisely this line. (He's since deleted this of course).

After chewing on Rihanna's new single, here are the strengths and weaknesses of the song.

A new era of Rihanna is upon us

The transition from the Hawaiian Punch red hair to the coffee brown tresses wasn't just RiRi playing the color lottery with her hair systems, it was actually a sign to the Navy that change was gon' come.

The prominent theory running around was that Rihanna was gearing up for a re-release of her platinum-selling album Loud, but nope. Rihanna is instead opting to drop a whole new album on her fan base and she marked the occasion by teasing the new single's name ("We Found Love") and unveiling the new R logo for the as-yet-unnamed era in the Rihanna reign on Twitter.

The new R logo (which quickly became a trending topic on Twitter, by the way) is filled with print. Like the print in a newspaper. Is this is a sign that Rihanna aims to continue her "attack" on the press as she did in her "S&M" video? Or does it mean her new album is destined to make the news?

Either way, it all seems to be moving at the speed of light. Although no firm release date has been announced, Rihanna and her handlers have said the new album will arrive this fall. This new album will be the singer's 6th studio album.

And if all that excitement weren't enough, Rihanna has launched a social media game for her fans to unlock more information about Rihanna's new album and single with her Facebook page's "Rihanna: Unlocked" tab. That RiRi, she's no slouch in the excitement department.

Rihanna + Coldplay? This could be epic

Photo: Wireimage

When Rihanna swapped musical fluids with pop/rock band Maroon 5 for "If I Never See Your Face Again," the results were somewhat tepid at best. The song peaked at #51 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was quickly and largely forgotten by both artists' fanbases.

RiRi also got to rub shoulders with rock god Bono for the Haiti earthquake benefit single "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)," but since it was for charity, the song never got a formal promo treatment aside from the sole live performance of it on a telethon.

Rihanna, however, has maintained her crush on all things rock. She practically gushed on the red carpet when she got to hang out with the Kings of Leon at the EMAs last year. But now, Rihanna is possibly being blessed with the opportunity of collaborating with one of the biggest names in modern arena pop/rock: Coldplay.

In an interview with British tabloid The Sun, Chris Martin spills the beans about Rihanna's emotional vocal contribution to a song called "Princess of China" from the band's forthcoming album.

"The album is designed as a whole piece. It has boy and girl lead characters and top of our list for the girl part was Rihanna... but it took a while to pluck up the courage to ask her.

"We did a show in Las Vegas and I met her and said, 'Do you think there's any chance?' I was very Hugh Grant-like and spluttering about it.

"She has such an amazing voice and it's so different to mine. When the vocal happened I thought 'Wow, you sound different' but I think that's also because she was singing a different song to what we are used to hearing from her and it is written by a bloke from Devon."

Oooooooooooohhhhh yesss! If this collaboration turns out to be true (the British tabloid isn't the most credible of sources after all...), then this could potentially unseat her collaboration with Eminem as Rihanna's Best Collaboration with a White Man Ever. And with Coldplay's name attached to it, RiRi could be garnering some Grammy noms soon too.

Body parts are pretty much tingling in antcipation, to be honest. October 24, the release date for Coldplay's new album Mylo Xyloto can't come soon enough now.

SOURCE: That Good Hit

Rihanna and Kanye team up for a LOUD performance

Kanye West and his little sister Rihanna teamed up for a surprise performance of their collaboration "All of the Lights" from his critically acclaimed album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at the New York stop of her LOUD tour. And the cameras were there to capture the behind the scenes and the performance.

While Kanye is headed out on the road with his big brother Jay-Z in support of their Watch the Throne album, it wouldn't be a bad idea if Kanye teamed up with RiRi for a mini tour too.

Anyway, Rihanna also showed some love to Ye on Twitter after their performance together.

@kanyewest thank you bro!!! U made it a night for New York to remember #poppopgetwell #watchthethroneless than a minute ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry Favorite Retweet ReplyRihanna
rihanna

Watch Kanye and Rihanna rock the stage in the video below