New Video: Rihanna, 'Rude Boy'

Uh, so, this new Rihanna jam is mad naughty. See, I was initially distracted from the risque content by the fact that it is largely comprised (visually) of Rihanna dancing around various fake (or...very still) forms of wildlife (lions, zebras, DAMN!).

In this Melina Matsoukas-directed clip, Rihanna does her fair share of suggestive writhing (as is her wont). But it wasn't until I closely scrutinized the lyrics that I started blushing a bit. "Come here, rude boy boy Can you get it up? Come here, rude boy boy. Is you big enough? Take it, take it Baby, baby. Take it, take it Love me, love me." WAIT A SECOND! I think she's talking about hanky-panky!

"Rude Boy" features Rihanna dancing and singing in front of a green screen, with a rainbow of Jamaican-flag-inspired colors animated in during post-production. According to MTV News, Rihanna claims the vid was inpsired by the Pop Art movement, and there's definitely some Keith Haring homage in the clip.

But there seems to be some other inspiration at work here, as well. That of M.I.A.'s vibrant video for "Boyz." The colorful, purposely lo-fi animation, the color palette. Nothing particularly wrong with it; heaven knows there's a hundred videos of dudes playing guitar in the desert.

No less an authority on M.I.A. than Diplo has noted the similarity in this tweet: "anyway.. riri is lookin soo damn hawt in this video but its super boyz boyz boyz #howmaydere ? yahmsayin?"

The Major Lazer producer's ongoing war with the English language aside, he does have a point. And he might wanna look at his "Keep It Goin Louder" video and see whether Rihanna's giving him the leatherman hat tip there too.

Tags Diplo, M.I.A., Major Lazer, Rihanna, video