The 10 Biggest Controversies Surrounding Rihanna Songs

November 22, 2012 - 4:53 pm by Chris Yuscavage

Know what's great about Rihanna's songs? Most of them make headlines before we ever even hear them. Rih-Rih knows how to shake things up and cause controversy simply by attaching her songs to guest appearances, single artwork, and even song titles that make people do double-takes the first time they see them. And, over the course of her career, she's made news time and time again, not for the songs that she sings but for the way that she presents those songs to the world.

The latest example of this is her new song, "Nobody's Business," off her new album, Unapologetic. It features Chris Brown and, before it was even released, people were already huffing and puffing about it. Some hated that she chose to work with Chris Breezy on another song this year (the two teamed up for the "Birthday Cake" remix in the spring). Others took offense to the title they chose for the song. And, once it actually leaked? Wowwwwwww. Twitter went ham.

As we said, though, Rihanna's not new to this. In the past, she's stirred up a lot of controversy with her songs. So, in light of what just happened with "Nobody's Business," we decided to take a look back at The 10 Biggest Controversies Surrounding Rihanna Songs. This girl clearly knows how to get people talking. Take a look for yourself.

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The Song: "Birthday Cake (Remix)," from 2011's Talk That Talk The Controversy: As we mentioned in the intro to this list, "Nobody's Business" isn't the first Rihanna/Chris Brown song to cause controversy. Earlier this year, the former couple paired up to remix Rih-Rih's uptempo album cut. And, because of the history that they share—and the lyrics contained within the song—it didn't sit well with a lot of people.
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The Song: "Diamonds," from 2012's Unapologetic The Controversy: The cover art for Rih-Rih's current single featured her wrapping diamonds in rolling paper. This girl really loves her weed, huh?
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The Song: "Love the Way You Lie," from Eminem's 2010 album, Recovery The Controversy: This track featured Em and Rih-Rih confronting a taboo issue that many people don't want to confront: domestic violence. And, because of Rihanna's background with the subject, those same people were even more taken aback when they heard about her involvement with the song.
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The Song: "Russian Roulette," from 2009's Rated R The Controversy: Although the producers of the song claim that Rih-Rih was using the concept of "Russian roulette" as a metaphor, there were some people out there who thought Rihanna was promoting the concept of suicide with this single. Others also called her out for promoting Satanism within the song. Either way, the song caused a lot of controversy.
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The Song: "S&M," from 2010's Loud The Controversy: The Official Charts Company in the U.K. changed the title of the song to "Come On" to try and avoid any controversy. But, instead, it actually caused more controversy. Rihanna even sent out a tweet indicating that she was "absolutely not" okay with them changing the song's title.
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The Song: "We Found Love," from 2011's Talk That Talk The Controversy: The music video for this single was filmed in Ireland, where Rihanna caught a ton of slack for appearing topless in the middle of a field during the making of the video. The farmer who let the video's directors use the field was actually so upset about it that he came out and criticized Rih-Rih for doing it. But, the controversy didn't end there. Once the video dropped, it was also criticized for glorifying domestic violence and drug use.
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The Song: "Man Down," from 2010's Loud The Controversy: The opening scene from the music video for "Man Down" featured Rihanna shooting a man in the back of the head in the middle of a train station. And, while the video later pointed out that the murder was in retaliation for a sexual assault, there were a lot of people that didn't stick around long enough to get the whole message.
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The Song: "Cockiness (Remix)," from 2011's Talk That Talk The Controversy: As if the lyrics to the song itself weren't controversial enough, Rih-Rih took things to another level when she performed a remix of it with A$AP Rocky at the 2012 Music Video Awards. Towards the end of the performance, Rocky shocked both the crowd and the audience at home by grabbing Rih-Rih's backside. We're still not exactly sure why he did it—or why she didn't seem to mind.
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The Song: "Umbrella," from 2007's Good Girl Gone Bad The Controversy: Sometimes, Rihanna creates controversy even when she's not trying! At the height of the popularity of "Umbrella," the United Kingdom was going through a period of historic rainfall. And, as a result, the newspaper The Sun asked readers to boycott the song. They failed and the song remained at No. 1 for just about the entire summer. But, it became an interesting soundtrack for the rainy region.
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The Song: "Nobody's Business," from 2012's Unapologetic The Controversy: "Nobody's Business" became everybody's business last week when it leaked to the 'net. Chris Brown and Rih-Rih have done it again. And, we're sure there are many more controversies to come from these two...
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