Another day, another magazine cover for Rihanna (aka, another opportunity to show some skin). But this time the sexpot has been crowned GQ’s “Obession of The Year” as they rap up 2012 with their annual “Men Of The Year” December issue. She graces one of the many sought after covers. She does so in a cropped leather jacket by All Saints and…that’s about it. But if you’re used to all the nudity and want to know what homegirl had to say inside the pages, we’ve got you covered.
Her interview, which was done in NYC at Emilio’s Ballato, her penthouse suite at Hotel Gansevoort (where The-Dream showed up to make music with her), and the famous nightclub, Griffin, where she ran into Chris Brown coincidentally (which is documented in the article) was definitely entertaining yet concise, and she cleared up a few things in it.


So why does Ri Ri seem to be so obsessed with sex in her music and showing off that hot body everyone seems to love? She says it’s all a part of her Bajan culture that influences her so much. She thinks many American people are so obsessed with or confused by her love to show off what she’s working with because folks ’round the parts can be a bit prudish. I would agree. Just ask Erykah Badu after all that “Window Seat” drama:
“That comes from my culture,” she says with her Bajan steel-drum accent. “That’s just the way it’s always been, and I think that for people, especially in America, they make it like the forbidden fruit, but that only makes kids more curious.” When Rihanna was starting out, after being discovered by a vacationing music producer in Barbados, she didn’t realize she was doing anything other than what she had grown up doing in the dance halls. “I was a lot more naive about the way I moved and the way I was being perceived. The more you hear people talk about ‘Oh, you’re a sex symbol,’ it just makes you think, ‘Why are you saying that?’ And I figured it out.”
Ri Ri also discussed what she is looking for in a relationship, and like most people too exposed in the public eye, she wants someone to look out for her and be dominant. Especially in the bedroom:
“I like to feel like a woman,” she says. “I have to be in control in every other aspect of my life, so I feel like in a relationship, like I wanted to be able to take a step back and have somebody else take the lead.” Do you ever switch things up? I ask. “I could absolutely be dominant,” she answers. “But, in general, I’d rather… How do I say this in like a…non-X-rated version?” Right. Lastly, any boundaries I should know about? “Love makes you go places you probably wouldn’t ever go, had it not been for love. But I think everybody still has their limits.”
And if you were looking for Rihanna to make music like some of these other pop stars, or deep ballads that make you think like the Adele’s of the world, she says that’s not really her thing. She just wants to make you feel good:
“I want to make music that’s hopeful, uplifting. Nothing corny or super-sentimental,” she told me. “I just want it to have the feeling that brings you out of whatever you’re going through. I want it to spark that fire. I want it to be real, authentic, and raw.”
And finally, when asked by the interviewer whether or not that infamous brawl between folks in Drake and Chris Brown’s camp in the summer was because of her (the interviewer even goes as far as to call her Helen of Troy), she could only say, “There’s no proof of that being for my love. That’s my answer to that question.”
Definitely something worth picking up as the new issue of GQ with Ri Ri is out now. But you can always check out the whole interview at GQ‘s website, and get the inside scoop on what the writer witnessed when Rihanna and Chris Brown came face to face at Griffin nightclub…
Photographs by Mario Sorrenti