Not only did Miguel sing Rihanna’s “Kiss it Better” while having to check the lyrics on his phone during a special appearance at SXSW, he also confessed he has no idea what the Bajan princess is saying on her latest hit record, “Work.”
TMZ recently caught up with the singer and asked him what Rihanna is saying on her catchy Caribbean song. “I don’t know,” the Afro-Mexican admitted, “but that s**t sounds amazing though. When it comes on ‘work, work, work, work’ that’s all you really need to know!”
Au contraire. Miguel also needs to get hip to the fact that Rihanna is fusing Jamaican Patois in the lead single off ANTI. While Genius did us the favor of annotating the song on the surface, BlackGirlLongHair gave us deeper linear interpretations. Also, Rihanna’s “Work” is not the first American hit song to feature Jamaican Patois (see Kendrick Lamar’s Black the Berry and Kanye West & GOOD Music’s Mercy).
Watch Miguel’s response to the lyrics of “Work” below.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=R5NkDeMosAQ