Today Rihanna announced her world tour. She also releases “Anti,” her first new album in three years. Where? How? You got me. My Samsung phone today has a complicated video message. Tap on it and you get some kind of mysterious treasure hunt game. It doesn’t completely work. It’s called the “Anti-Diary,” and contains a number of pictures that unlock some videos of bedrooms and other department store like set ups. I can’t get them to work, but I’m sure it’s all lovely.
“Anti” I think will appear on Samsung phones and on Tidal Hifi, Jay Z’s streaming service which hardly anyone uses. In the face of the Adele tsunami, I don’t know how good an idea that is. Are there songs? Are they good? Does it matter? Rihanna hasn’t had a big hit in a long time and she needs one. She’s been pushing a song called “Bitch Where is My Money,” a typically classy title, after having a couple of dud non-starter singles.
So let’s see what happens. I doubt this is what DefJam wanted to do, but Rihanna moved her project within Universal Music from DefJam to Jay Z’s Roc Nation.
Meantime, Yahoo accidentally published a generic Mad Libs fill in the blank review of “Anti.” I can’t believe that they actually write reviews this way, leaving specifics like song titles to be filled in around bland descriptions. That’s all she rote, get it?
You know, Rihanna has a great voice. But she gets terrible material. I don’t know why. I can’t wait to see what she’s ‘anti.’ I hope it’s not music.
