Photo Credit: Vevo
Rihanna and Drake have released not one but two music videos from two different directors for their newest collaboration, Work. Each video and director appears to have chosen a very different aesthetic as you can see below (just keep watching after the first to find the second version). Perhaps the first caters more to what fans have come to expect from Rihanna, and the second, bearing a stylistic resemblance to the video to Drake's Hotline Bling, caters to the tastes of Drake fans.
Two very different interpretations, no?
 Photo Credit: Vevo |  Photo Credit: Vevo |
Rihanna's Pronunciation in Work is Not What You Think
There has been some controversy amongst critics, fans, and casual listeners regarding Rihanna's relaxed pronunciation in her verses and in particular, the chorus of Work, namely, calling it "gibberish". Fans and music critics haven't taken kindly to Rihanna's parts of the song. And if you don't know any better, it could sound like some lazy singing in parts. Here's an example:
Work work work work work work
He said me haffi
Work work work work work work!
He see me do mi
Dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt!
And so me put in work work work work work work!
When u ah guh
Learn learn learn learn learn learn
Mi nuh cyar if him
Hurt hurt hurt hurt hurting
To the uninformed – and I'll admit, I was one – it sounds like she'd left previous efforts at the door. Like she was phoning it in on this track and, as many a twitter user has suggested, she wasn't singing words at all, but gibberish.
But on some investigation, the way Rihanna sings in Work is not a lack of effort on her part, but is actually patois, a Caribbean dialect shared between Jamaica, the Bahamas and St.Kitts, and is commonly heard in music in dancehalls there.
So, thanks Rihanna for having some home pride and reminding the Western world who has appropriated you as one of our own, exactly where you're from. It's a great platform to educate ignorant listeners, like myself, of different musical stylings around the globe. Or at least musical styles of the Caribbean.
Keep doing you, Ri-ri, keep doing you.
Work work work work work work
He said me haffi
Work work work work work work!
He see me do mi
Dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt!
And so me put in work work work work work work!
When u ah guh
Learn learn learn learn learn learn
Mi nuh cyar if him
Hurt hurt hurt hurt hurting
To the uninformed – and I'll admit, I was one – it sounds like she'd left previous efforts at the door. Like she was phoning it in on this track and, as many a twitter user has suggested, she wasn't singing words at all, but gibberish.
But on some investigation, the way Rihanna sings in Work is not a lack of effort on her part, but is actually patois, a Caribbean dialect shared between Jamaica, the Bahamas and St.Kitts, and is commonly heard in music in dancehalls there.
So, thanks Rihanna for having some home pride and reminding the Western world who has appropriated you as one of our own, exactly where you're from. It's a great platform to educate ignorant listeners, like myself, of different musical stylings around the globe. Or at least musical styles of the Caribbean.
Keep doing you, Ri-ri, keep doing you.
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