Rihanna’s Rudeboy: a good old-fashioned romance

29 Mar 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in Celebrity, music, 0 Comments

Guys, would like to take a moment to consider Rihanna’s latest single, ‘Rudeboy’, which I have had in my head for past 3 weeks straight. Now this song has received a lot of flack for ‘being shallow’, but I personally perceive it to be a very important contemporary commentary on relationships. Let us dissect the lyrics:

In the opening verse Rihanna grapples with issues every woman faces in her lifetime, namely, will her boyfriend / husband / one-night-stand be able to ‘get it up’. Assume she is talking about a tent, and that she and her loved one are camping. Being able to ‘get up a tent’ is key sign that man is ‘a keeper’. This v NB question is followed by ‘is you big enough’, referring one presumes to her potential man’s emotional maturity. As in, ‘is he enough of a big boy to handle an emotionally  and mentally complex woman such as myself’.

She then goes onto instruct her potential mate to ‘take it, love me’, which I take to be a symbolic offering of her spirit to him, as if he has made the grade in ‘being able to get up a tent’ and has proved himself to be ‘emotionally big enough’.

In the next verse, Rihanna explores ‘taking things to the next level‘. Potential man has proved himself, and now she is ‘letting him express his emotional needs’ by letting him ‘be the captain’ and ‘do his thing’. She uses the idea of the now, of living in the present, by using the words ‘tonight’, and further goes on to task him with opening up emotionally by instructing him to ‘giddyup giddyup giddy up babe’.

Now that Rihanna and her man have laid the ground rules for their commitment to one another, ‘I wa-wa-want what you wa-wa-want’ she can ask him if he is happy with their life together with, and expresses that ‘making him happy makes her happy’. She expresses that she would enjoy it if they continued their very measured courtship with ‘give it to me baby like boom boom boom’.

Onto my favourite verse. By ‘touch me there’ Rihanna is talking about how the love of her ‘rudeboy’ reaches deep into her soul and ‘touches her there’. In ‘I like the way you pull my hair’ she is clearly referring to how he gently plays with her hair when they are waking up together. She then goes onto express how if she weren’t in love, she would not pretend to be, with ‘if I don’t feel it I ain’t faking no no’.

From Rihanna’s album artwork, it is clear that Riri has ‘big things on her mind’, that cause her to put her head in her hand, as if it is ‘all too much’. Wouldn’t you feel the same if you were tackling such poignant issues in such strict monosyllabic pentameter? Please enjoy Rudeboy: