After what felt like an eternity, our beloved Rihanna — or as she’s known on Instagram, @badgalriri — finally made her triumphant return to us peasants. Last week, her eighth studio album, “Anti,” finally hit the Interwebs.
While initial critical reception for the long awaited album has been mixed, one thing’s for certain: she’s predicted to slay the charts next week with a whopping 400,000 copies being sold exclusively on TIDAL in the album’s first day of release.
Considering Rihanna has the rest of a sales week to sell albums via other music platforms, this is impressive.
The road to “Anti” has been one of great challenges. Rihanna actually began the promo-train for #R8 last January with her country-folk tune “FourFiveSeconds.”
“FourFiveSeconds” marked the return of Rihanna after 2 years since her last album, “Unapologetic.”
The duet featuring Kanye West and Sir Paul McCartney failed to generate much traction, so it was quickly followed up by buzz singles, “B—- Better Have My Money” and “American Oxygen.”
The former song saw Rihanna embracing her inner @badgalriri and rap-singing to a whole lot of nonsense.
“Like blah, brrap, brrap! Pay me what you owe me, don’t act like you forgot,” Rihanna yodels on the chorus.
While the bop became a club staple, it failed to be a big hit for Rihanna.
Nearly all of Rihanna’s prior releases had a lead single that dominated the charts. Whether it be “Umbrella,” “Only Girl (In The World)” or “We Found Love,” Rihanna’s almost always had a big single prior to an album’s release.
Yet, in 2015, she released three singles and none of them were as successful as they should’ve been. By the time the year was nearly halfway over, Rihanna had yet to even announce a title for her eighth album.
It’s not like people weren’t interested in Rihanna. She has partnerships with Puma, Samsung, Dior and other major brands. Her Instagram feed is golden. She’s a tabloid mainstay and a fashion icon.
It’s almost as if after a two-year-hiatus, people seemingly didn’t care about Rihanna as a singer anymore. They were more interested in Rihanna as a celebrity.
In the Age of the Kardashians, Rihanna has practically mastered the K Klan’s infamous ability to turn a lifestyle into a business. But by doing so, it seemed as if Rihanna had lost some of her grip on the music industry in 2015.
Besides generating buzz by holding a glitzy artwork and title reveal for “Anti” in October, Rihanna kept many of the album’s details underwraps. So much so, speculation arose as to whether or not the album was scrapped.
Yet on Jan. 27, Rihanna finally gave the plebeians what they’ve been wanting: a new lead single featuring Drake in the form of “Work.”
What should’ve been a shoo-in for success was underwhelming yet once again. The single will likely be a hit for Rihanna, but it is subpar in comparison to lead singles from her early career.
People were obviously still interested to hear Rihanna’s next album though. Over 1.4 million people downloaded her new album within 14 hours of its unexpected release.
It should be noted that Rihanna’s partnership with Samsung resulted in 1 million copies of the album being given away to fans for free.
Yet, the fact Rihanna managed to sell 400,000 copies of an album in a single day is pretty impressive. This is a feat usually reserved for Taylor Swift or Adele.
Analysts are expecting “Anti” to give Rihanna the biggest debut sales week of her career.
Considering the only buzz the album has had has been attributed to its infamous delay and lack of buzz-singles, this is flabbergasting.
At this point in her career, Rihanna doesn’t even need to bother making good or even catchy music anymore. Rihanna kind of does whatever she wants.
She’s basically the Anti Pop Star.
It’s obviously working.
John Gavin Harp is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from St. Francisville, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @SirJohnGavin