Yesterday Rihanna attended the American Music Awards (AMA's) at the
Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California. This was supposed to be a
celebration of American music over the past 12 months so obviously it
wasn't entirely about Rihanna. However;
The show was opened by Katy Perry, Rihanna's sometimes friend and
opponent of her relationship with Chris Brown. It was closed by Miley
Cyrus who has been frequently compared to Rihanna over the past 12
months or so as both a rival and possible replacement. Somewhere in the
middle Lady Gaga performed "Do What You Want (With my Body)" alongside R
Kelly who was playing the role of a black President. This was a none
too subtle reference to how US President Barack Obama has endorsed the
horrors that have been inflicted on Rihanna over the past year in order
to further his own political agenda. The show was hosted throughout by
Cuban/American rapper Pitbull and featured Puerto Rican Jennifer Lopez
performing a tribute to Celia Cruz a Cuban singer who was dubbed "The
Queen of Salsa." This was all to appeal to the Hispanic audience that is
so central to the immigration reforms Obama is trying to use Rihanna to
force through.
Despite my best advice Rihanna not only attended the award ceremony but
sat in the audience throughout. I suppose we should be thankful for the
small mercy that Rihanna was seated away from anyone controversial such
as Miley Cyrus although she was just across the aisle from Katy Perry. I
suspect that physical gap was supposed to represent the rift between
the pair caused by Chris Brown. For the early part of the ceremony
Rihanna wore a black custom Jean Paul Gaultier bra top and mini-skirt
with lace trim that gave the impression of a much longer skirt.
Throughout Rihanna's hair was worn short, slicked back and pinned down
in a style known as a "Dominican Doobie Wrap." This was obviously better
then the Whitney Houston/Winnie Mandela style Rihanna had been sporting
over the last week but was a none to subtle reference to the
immigration issue.
Despite being nominated for four awards Rihanna only succeeded in
winning "Favourite R&B/Soul Female Artist." This was a surprise
because I would have thought in order to get Rihanna to attend the AMA's
the organisers would have had to at least guarantee that she would win
everything she was nominated for. The reason why most people would have
expected Rihanna to miss the AMA's is because the organisers were openly
mocking her by presenting her with the special, and unique "Icon"
award. This type of award for which there is only ever one nominee is
normally reserved for people at the end of their lives and is sometimes
dubbed the "Quick Give Them Something Before They Die" or "Epitaph"
Award. Therefore by presenting Rihanna with the Icon Award the AMA
organisers were trying to send the signal that Rihanna's time is up and
her career is now over.
Prior to accepting the Icon Award Rihanna changed into a full length inky grey silk gown and performed "Diamonds"
with a full orchestral accompaniment. "Diamonds" is of course the title
track of Diamonds World Tour that was intended to destroy Rihanna's
career and still might with Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the
management) continuing to push for it to be extended with a South
American leg. The act of Rihanna performing "Diamonds" at the AMA's was
itself intended to be another nail in the coffin of Rihanna's career by
reminding us of the really nasty element of the tour strategy that
involved turning the mineral rich nations of central Africa into an even
worse hell hole. Fortunately due to the raising of several quite large
armies that element of the plan failed to materialise.
Rihanna was presented with the Icon Award by her mother Monica
Braithwaite. This was obviously intended to raise all the issues about
Rihanna's childhood such as her violent father and the impact on
Rihanna's own relationships especially with Chris Brown. Those who have a
greater depth of knowledge of the subject will also have picked up on
the reference to the ongoing Berdon LLP case and the associated Inland
Revenue Service (IRS) investigation into Rihanna. After all while I
don't know the truth both Rihanna and her mother's apparent evasiveness
in giving depositions of evidence has been used to imply that the pair
are guilty of tax evasion and therefore the IRS audit is justified
rather then merely a mechanism to allow the management to exert control
over Rihanna through fear.
In her acceptance speech Rihanna talked about growing up in Barbados and
her journey to America and fame and fortune. This obviously has quite a
strong relevance to the immigration debate. However when you consider
it alongside the IRS issue it seems to also touch on the issue of
slavery and people trafficking. By talking about how at 15 years old she
had to battle her mother in order to be allowed to audition for strange
men in their hotel room wearing her school uniform Rihanna appeared to
be arguing in favour of child prostitution. However on what was clearly a
difficult evening I think we might let that one slide.
In case anyone failed to pick up on the fact the AMA's were marking the
end of Rihanna's career - and hey Rihanna turned up - later in the show
two of the original members of the band TLC performed "Waterfalls" with
Lil' Mama assisting. The third original member of TLC - Lisa 'left eye'
Lopez - was killed in a car crash in 2002 meaning that the band is now
forever associated with death. Also before the start of the Diamonds
World Tour I made reference to the song "Waterfalls" in order to
highlight the espionage 'waterfall' technique that the management were
intending to use to destroy Rihanna's career by turning her fans against
her.
As for Miley Cyrus she closed the show by singing "Wrecking Ball"
wearing basically panties and a sports bra in front of a computer
animation of a giant pussy cat that was singing along with her. Even by
my standards this was a really tasteless reference to the fact that
since Miley Cyrus has started appear wearing not many clothes literally
millions of people have started commenting on her 'Camel Toe.' A 'camel
toe' is the outline of the outer lips of the vagina or 'pussy' as they
press up against tight fabric. I believe there is now even a Twitter
hashtag #MileysCamelToe.
So in closing the only good thing I can say about the AMA's is that now
Chris Brown has been given Court mandated rehab Rihanna now has a little
under three months to stop, breathe and consolidate her position in LA.
Alternatively she could press ahead with the move to the east coast.. I
of course though think that Rihanna should come to London, UK to see me
for a bit. That's because part of the reason I'm so p*ssed off by all
this is that it has always been so easy to avoid.
16:45 on 25/11/13 (UK date).
Edited at around 19:30 on 25/11/13 to add;
Writing the above was an experience akin to having your teeth pulled
out. So for the sake of brevity I left out Katy Perry's performance
because it struck me as obvious. However I've now decided that might
have been remiss of me.
All the Japanese iconography was clearly a reference to Japan. However I
think the main theme of Katy Perry's performance was that of the
Geisha. Although there is slightly more to it then that Geisha's are
essentially prostitutes so this brings up the prostitution element of
the slavery/human trafficking debate which has been a central element of
Rihanna's life recently especially in her relationship with Chris
Brown. Also the issue of "comfort women" who were essentially Chinese
women who were kidnapped to have sex with Japanese soldiers during the
second world war is still a major source of tension between China and
Japan. Therefore it seemed an appropriate way to start a ceremony that
was intended to exert pressure on people in the eastern hemisphere who
were getting up and starting their working week while all this was going
on.
As for my performance apart from screwing up my sleep patterns the
management were hoping that I'd be watching and giving a live Olympic
ceremony style Twitter commentary in order to make sure all the issues
were raised and discussed by the audience. In protest I decided to just
muck about in the most confusing and offensive way I could manage in. So
for example when I announced I was following Katy Perry on Twitter I
was merely pointing that I was actually listening to Orpheous' "The
Can-Can" at the time. When I asked Miley Cyrus if she'd had any large
incursions recently I was trying to hint that I was listening to Massive
Attack in the smuttiest way possible.
(Originally Posted on 25/11/13)
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