MyTenSense.com

I’m a big fan of Rihanna’s music and style, but I was very disturbed when I received her new CD as an early Christmas present.
The album is appropriately titled Rated R because teenagers, especially impressionable girls, should not be exposed to this CD.
The CD’s booklet includes many disturbing pictures, including several topless and semi-nude photos and a spread of Rihanna striking several poses with devil horns. On the first page, there is a pic of Rihanna with a bag wrapped tightly around her head with the nostrils stuffed.
Another page pulls out the phrase: “I lick the gun when I’m done…” and another page screams, “I’m such a f—king lady”.
Then there’s the actual music that sets the atmosphere for suicide and gun violence, especially the album’s first release “Russian Roulette” and “G4L”.
You won’t find the catchy and inspirational tunes like “Umbrella” and “Take a Bow” from Rihanna’s 2007 Good Girl Gone Bad album on Rated R, which can be renamed Girl Goes Over The Edge.
Rihanna has gone too far to prove her toughness after enduring domestic violence at the hands of her ex, singer Chris Brown.
After listening to most of the CD and uploading it onto a Mac and IPod, my friend and I were equally disturbed and agreed that the “gift” should be returned.
I’m very disappointed that Rihanna, a talented and beautiful artist who considers herself to be a role model for young women, would put out such a disturbing album that can inflict all sorts of damage on her fans.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
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Russian Roulette is usually played out in movies during gangster shakedowns, and it’s a common form of suicide for real-life soldiers and police officers. The game entails loading a single bullet into a six-round gun and pulling the trigger to decide whether you live or die.
Singer and actor Ne-Yo decided to make the deadly game into an art form by writing the song “Russian Roulette”, and the Grammy Award winning songwriter immediately imagined mysterious, sexy singer Rihanna sitting across a table from someone with a gun between them.
Well, it’s not too hard to imagine Rihanna across the table in a civil dispute because she acted out a similar scene in a music video with Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine in the remix of the band’s hit song, “If I Never See Your Face Again”.
Not long before, Rihanna recorded a video with Ne-Yo for their hit duet, “Hate That I Love You”, that Ne-Yo penned. Ne-Yo also wrote Rihanna’s hit song, “Take a Bow”.

So Rihanna didn’t hesitate when Ne-Yo asked her to sing “Russian Roulette”, and the song is the first release from her fourth album Rated R, due out Nov. 23.

By Teneshia LaFaye
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/teneshialafaye
Add me on Myspace: www.myspace.com/tlafaye