She has attained fourteen Billboard Hot 100 number ones thus far and is the second Barbadian artist to win a Grammy Award. She is also a cultural ambassador for Barbados. In 2021 Rihanna was named a "National Hero" in her home country, earning her the title "The Right Excellent."
Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados to Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor, and Monica Fenty, an accountant. Her mother, a native of Guyana, is Afro-Guyanese and her father is Bajan and Irish. She is the oldest of three siblings; two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. She began singing at around the age of seven. Her childhood was deeply affected by her father's addiction to crack cocaine and parent's rocky marriage, which ended when she was fourteen years old. Rihanna attended Charles F. Broome Memorial School, a primary school in Barbados, and then the Combermere School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates at the age of fifteen. In 2004 she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trained with the military of Barbados and Shontelle was her drill sergeant.
At the age of 15, she formed a girl group with two of her classmates. In 2003, friends introduced Rihanna and her two bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. The group auditioned for Rogers, who said that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." While auditioning for Rogers, Rihanna sang Destiny's Child's cover of "Emotion". Over the next year, Rihanna and her mom shuttled back and forth to Rogers home in Stamford, Connecticut. Then, shortly after turning 16, she relocated in the United States and moved in with Rogers and his wife. Carl Sturken helped Rihanna record a four-song demo, which included the ballad "The Last Time," a cover of Whitney Houston’s hit "For the Love of You" and what would become her first hit, "Pon de Replay" to send to various recording companies. It took a year to record the demos, because she was going to school and would only record during summer and Christmas school breaks. Rihanna's demo made its way to Def Jam, which invited her to audition for the label's then-president, Jay-Z, who quickly signed her.
Rihanna broke into the recording industry in 2005 with the release of her debut album Music of the Sun, which features the number 2 hit single "Pon de Replay". Less than a year later, Rihanna released album artist=Rihanna]A Girl Like Me and earned her first number-one single, "SOS, which sampled the popular 80s track "Tainted Love". "Unfaithful" was also released and was fairly successful.
Rihanna released her third album Good Girl Gone Bad in June 2007. Prior to the release of the album, she spent the week of the Grammys writing songs for the album with Ne-Yo. She adopted a more sexual image while recording the album, eventually dying her hair black and cutting it short. Rihanna worked with Timbaland and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, as well as previous musical collaborators such as Stargate, Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers to re-imagine her album compositions with uptempo dance tracks. Rihanna commented, "I want to keep people dancing but still be soulful at the same time. You feel different every album, and [at] this stage I feel like I want to do a lot of uptempo [songs]."
The album topped the charts in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Ireland, and peaked at number two in the United States and Australia. Unlike previous work, the album featured a more dance-pop sound instead of the dancehall, reggae and ballad styles. The album received positive reviews by critics, becoming her most critically acclaimed album at that time compared to her previous efforts.
It yielded eight hit singles - "Umbrella" "Shut Up and Drive", "Don't Stop The Music" "Hate That I Love You" "Rehab" "Disturbia" "Take A Bow" "If I Never See Your Face Again" - all singles reaching the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 — including the worldwide number-one hit "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z.
In addition to reaching number one in various countries, "Umbrella" was the number one single in the United Kingdom for ten consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one single since Wet Wet Wet's single "Love Is All Around" spent fifteen weeks at the top in 1994. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007 published by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2008, "Umbrella" earned Rihanna and Jay-Z a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in addition to receiving nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It managed to stay at number one in the United Kingdom for 10 weeks, the longest time spent by a female and in the 21st century, on this chart.
"Umbrella" has also been recognised in various forms of accolades by the music press. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007, published by the music magazine Rolling Stone. Time magazine also listed the song number three on their Top 10 Songs of 2007. The song is listed number one on Entertainment Weekly magazine's list of the 10 Best Singles of 2007, while topping the magazine's poll for the best single of 2007. Blender magazine awarded the song Song of the Year in their Readers' Poll 2007. The music press has considered "Umbrella" as 2007's Song of the Summer, while The New York Times writer Kelefa Sanneh regarded it as "arguably 2007's signature slow jam".
In August 2009, Rihanna collaborated with Jay-Z and Kanye West on "Run This Town." The song peaked at number two on Billboard Hot 100 and also reached the top ten in five other countries. She appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia for the September 2009 Issue. The shoot was influenced by Rihanna's hair, which she had cut for the shoot into a mohawk-like style. The style of the shoot was Extreme Couture and very dark, and in one shot she appeared semi-nude. Rihanna performed "Run This Town" along with Jay-Z and West for the "Answer the Call" concert at Madison Square Garden in September 2009, making it her first musical performance since the altercation with Brown. The trio also performed "Run This Town," on the premiere of The Jay Leno Show on September 14, 2009.
In November of 2009, Rated R was released in the wake of a physical altercation with romantic interest Chris Brown, who pled guilty to felony assault. The album's lead single, "Russian Roulette" -- written with Ne-Yo - was one of the year's most controversial singles. The album also includes collaborations with Tricky, The-Dream, Stargate, and SRP.
One year later, Rihanna released her fifth studio album called Loud. It's lead single, "Only Girl (In the World)", reached number one in more than ten countries. The song also won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.
Talk That Talk was released one year after Loud. With the song "We Found Love", Rihanna became the fastest solo artist in the chart's history to achieve twenty Hot 100 top-ten singles, breaking the previous record set by Madonna. The song later became her eleventh number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. "You Da One" became the second single from the album but was not as successful as "We Found Love". The third single from the album, "Talk That Talk" featuring Jay-Z, was announced on Rihanna's Twitter. The fourth single, "Where Have You Been", peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100.
On February 20, 2012, Rihanna and Chris Brown released 2 remixes, one featuring the "Talk That Talk" album track "Birthday Cake" and the other featuring Chris Brown's "Turn Up The Music"
In April 2012, the singer appeared in the movie "Battleship", which is based on the game of the same name.
Rihanna's seventh album Unapologetic was released on November 19, 2012; it was preceded by the lead single Diamonds, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming Rihanna's twelfth number one single on the chart and tying her with Madonna and The Supremes for the fourth-most number ones in the chart's history.
On January 28, 2016, Rihanna released her eighth studio album ANTI exclusively through streaming service Tidal. The album peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200, becoming Rihanna's second number one and eighth top ten album on the chart. The album was supported by the release of four singles including the lead single "Work" featuring Drake, which topped the Billboard Hot 100. Further platinum singles "Needed Me" and "Love on the Brain" both peaked inside the top ten of the Hot 100. In 2016, Rihanna was featured on several singles. The first collaboration was Calvin Harris' "This Is What You Came For," which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two in the United Kingdom. Rihanna was also featured on Drake's "Too Good" from his album Views and Mike Will Made It's single, "Nothing Is Promised". On June 27, 2016, Rihanna released "Sledgehammer", the lead single from the Star Trek Beyond soundtrack. On August 28, Rihanna was honored with the MTV Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Rihanna was elected artist of the decade of 2010 by Pitchfork, Insider, Lofficiel among other major music magazines.
In October 2022, Rihanna released "Lift Me Up" from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, marking her first solo single since 2016's "Love On The Brain". It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 in the UK. The song was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award, making it Rihanna's first nomination in both awards. On February 12, 2023, she performed at the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, marking her first performance since the 2018 Grammy Awards. Her Halftime show became the second most watched Halftime show of all time with 118.7 million viewers, just after Lady Gaga’s (117.5 million), but behind Katy Perry’s (121 million).
Pour It Up
Rihanna Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Throwin' hundreds like loose change, still got my money (ayy)
Got your broad in that Mulsanne, that Bentley, homie (ha, ha)
Seats whiter than cocaine, that .40 on me (yeah)
Got me and Chi-Chi, bring broads, mane, she like my homie (let's go)
I'm King Tut with my gold chain (gold chain)
My partner with me, he the dope mane (yeah)Straight gas, nigga, that BP on that E-40, that OG (ayy)
These bitch niggas be actin' up, these hoes niggas be actin' foul (chea)
They'll grind with you, they'll shine with you
Be pointing fingers off at your trial (damn)
My Rolls-Royce with my driver in it
Gettin' fucked up 'cause I ain't got to drive (yeah)
That Kendrick on them bottles came, poured a swimming pool
Now we 'bout to dive (that's right)
Got one room, got three bitches
Nigga, damn right, the way it's supposed to be (yeah)
Two Glock .40s at all time
Gon' shoot back a nigga shoot at me, just know it (ha, ha, yeah)
Oh
All I see is signs
All I see is dollar signs
Oh
Money on my mind
Money, money on my mind
Throw it, throw it up
Watch it fall out from the sky
Throw it up, throw it up
Watch it all fall out
Pour it up, pour it up
That's how we ball out
Throw it up, throw it upWatch it all fall out
Pour it up, pour it up
That's how we ball out (it's the biggest nigga in the game)
That's how we ball out (sexy bitches world wide, what's up?)
That's how we ball out (fuck with me huh? Yeah) (M-M-M-M-Maybach Music)
That's how we ball out
My foreign cars, domestic beefs (huh)
Peter Luger's, the better seats
Dollar after dollar (dollar), bottle after bottle (boss)
Late for you haters even though my plane charter
Suede Bally shoes, true rude boy
Ferrari, 400 horses, we do it for cool points (ha-ha)
Baby, do the math, I'm coppin' Chanel bags
Talkin' Belle Harbour, cigars by Hermes (woo)
Know we ran the streets, eating cold bully beef (huh)
Now we at the Grammys, Tom Ford to my feet (ah-ha)
Boss on the avi, Rihanna screensaver
Whenever you see fat boy, I know it mean paper (we trippy, mane, uh)
Juicy J pourin' up codeine, Benz all white, no chlorine
Bad chick with me got ass and titties
Freaky bitch gon' fuck the whole team (yeah, ho)
Ziploc bag full of OG, I go in like a door key
Your girlfriend down on both knees, she catch more balls than a goalie (yeah, ho)
Purple all in my Sprite, I'm high as Denzel on Flight (yeah, ho)
Scared money don't make no money, you niggas shaky like dice (yeah, ho)
I'm in the bed with your wife, we popping' pills, we going hard (yeah, ho)
When she with you she a church girl, when she with me she a porn star (yeah, ho)
Smokin' on doobies like cigarettes, which one these strippers give head the best?
Pussy so good that I think I'm in love, what am I sayin'?
It must be the drugs (drugs, drugs)
Pour it up, pop that ass, I make it rain, ho (yeah, ho)
I'll make it flood, shorty, you might need a raincoat
Strip club and dollar bills
I still got more money
Patrón shots, can I get a refill?
I still got more money
Strippers goin' up and down that pole
And I still got more money
Four o'clock and we ain't going home
'Cause I still got more money
Money make the world go 'round
I still got more money
Bands make your girl go down
And I still got more money
Lot more where that came from
I still got more money
The look in your eyes, I know you want some
I still got more money
Pour it up, pour it up (ayy)
That's how we ball out
That's how we ball out
That's how we ball out (aight, Rih, let's get it, baby)
That's how we ball out (turn up)
I catch a case and I go to jail (still got more money)
I came home and went back, oh well (still got more money)
I'm multiplying everything I spend (still got more money)
Ayy, and these trap niggas I represent (still got more money)
Ayy, it's Hustle Gang and we poppin', got big bank rolls in our pockets
Hoppin' out a foreign vehicle (what), throwing forty Gs, ain't no issue, bitch, bitch
I'm thorough as it get, official, bitch, bitch
Better watch your pussy poppin', I might wanna come and get you, bitch
Now everywhere you may see me surrounded by bad bitches like Rih-Rih
Got them booty shots, look like Nicki, face and toes pretty, I'm picky
See these trap niggas, they honor me and these rap niggas up under me
Ain't nothin' for me to get a hundred ki's and then stimulate the economy, like
Oh (yup)
All I see is signs (ayy)
All I see is dollar signs (yup)
Oh (yup)
Money on my mind (hey)
Money, money on my mind (yup)
Throw it, throw it up (okay)
Watch it fall out from the sky (okay)
Throw it up, throw it up
Watch it all fall out
Pour it up, pour it up
That's how we ball out
Throw it up, throw it up (ayy)
Watch it all fall out
Pour it up, pour it up (ayy)
That's how we ball out
That's how we ball out
That's how we ball out
That's how we ball out
In Rihanna's song "Pour It Up," the lyrics are centered around the idea of having money to spend and partying with it. The chorus repeats the lines "Throw it up, throw it up, Watch it all fall out, Pour it up, pour it up, That's how we ball out," portraying the idea of throwing money and living lavishly with it. The verses of the song speak to specific ways the money is being spent - in strip clubs, buying expensive alcohol, and living a luxurious lifestyle. The second verse even talks about how the money is used to close deals and obtain things like expensive fragrances. The song's overall message seems to be that having money allows for a carefree and fun lifestyle, where one can enjoy the finer things in life.
Line by Line Meaning
Throw it up, throw it up (throw up)
Celebrating their success, they keep throwing money up
Watch it all fall out (fall out)
They are carelessly making it rain and wasting their money
Pour it up, pour it up (pour up)
They are spending extravagantly, pouring out champagne and liquor
That's how we ball out (ball out)
They are living life lavishly and spending money without concern
Strip club and dollar bills
They are at a strip club and throwing around money
I still got more money
Despite spending so much, they still have a lot of money left
Patron shots, can I get a refill?
They are drinking expensive liquor and indulging in expensive pleasures
Strippers goin' up and down that pole
They are watching strippers perform and spending money on them
Four o'clock and we ain't going home
They are partying hard and not stopping despite it being early morning
Money make the world go 'round
Money is a crucial factor in society and can dictate one's lifestyle
Bands make your girl go down
Stacks of money can attract women and influence their behavior
Lot more where that came from
They have a lot more money than what they are currently spending
The look in your eyes, I know you want some
They are aware of the influence their money has on others, and some people are attracted to it
All I see is signs
They only see opportunities for making more money
All I see is dollar signs
Every opportunity they see, they see it in terms of how much money they can make
Money on my mind
They are always thinking about money
Throw it, throw it up
They keep throwing their money up without a care in the world
Watch it fall off from the sky
They have so much money that it seems to be raining down from the sky
Valet cost a hundred bills
They are spending a lot of money on valet service
Gold all up in my grill
They are wearing expensive gold teeth
Who cares how you haters feel
They don't care about people who criticize their lavish lifestyle
Call Jay up and close the deal
They are still actively trying to expand their wealth by making business deals
My fragrance on and they love my smell
They are aware that their expensive perfume is attractive to others
So who cares about what I spend
They don't care about criticism and are willing to spend their money as they please
My pocket's deep, and they never end
They have unlimited wealth and will never run out of money
I'm going dumb with all my friends
They are partying hard and carelessly spending money with their friends
That's how we ball out
They are living a carefree, lavish lifestyle and enjoying all the expensive pleasures that come with it
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Clifford Harris, Jay Jenkins, Jordan Houston, Justin Garner, Michael Williams, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, Theron Thomas, Timothy Thomas, William Roberts
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@reece2113
if Rihanna released this song and video today the world would go crazy
@opuimor
Ahead of her time . This what everyone doing now
@GrayRabbit
Nah
@brett8460
The world went crazy when she released it then.
@coolsquad7428
Yeah she needs to do music again
@AudatiousAilbz
I remember someone talking about her twerking on water
@hellianasgf
RIHANNA IS THE ONLY ARTIST I NEVER GET BORED OF LISTENING ON REPEAT
@hermeslein6614
America sucks China is now the best and the world leader
@karenfranklin2601
EVEN THOUGH B R A Z EN CONDUCT
@karenfranklin2601
RHI IS MY GIRL !