Rihanna and Chris Brown have reunited on wax with remixes of their hits “Birthday Cake” and “Turn Up the Music.” The former blows up the sexual innuendo with Brown’s opening line stating “girl, I wanna fuck you right now.” “Birthday Cake” was already catchy enough and Brown’s addition does nothing to change that. “Turn Up the Music” is the unexpected drop. Rihanna drops a short verse in the middle, but outside of that and some ad-libs the song remains the same.
As expected, there’s been a lot of dicussion about Rihanna being a disappointment and a bad role model for not only forgiving but working with an ex-boyfriend that viciously beat her three years ago. The former couple has pretty much went against the advice of their labels in working together. But what people are going to need to accept is their music and leave their personal lives to just that… being personal. Rihanna and Chris Brown are not role models at all and haven’t been anything near that for the majority of their careers. If your child looks up to either of them, then there’s a much better job you need to do at parenting.
There are many musical icons not named Ike Turner who were women abusers, ranging from James Brown to the Notorious B.I.G. and Fela Kuti. If we can acknowledge their musical gifts without endorsing their personal transgressions, is it not possible to do the same here?
RIHANNA X CHRIS BROWN “BIRTHDAY CAKE REMIX”
CHRIS BROWN X RIHANNA “TURN UP THE MUSIC REMIX”
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 