While you might be tempted to view this as Rihanna showing the young'ns how Twerking is done — all respect to Ms. Miley, of course — keep in mind that photos from this shoot first crept out in May, way before the word was enshrined in the Oxford English Dictionary.
In fact there's a huge backstory here, teased in this little Twitter back and forth between director Vincent Haycock and Rihanna:
@vincehaycock luckily none of that matters, just take your name off the check while u at it! Whatever your issue is leave my fans out of it
How's the video itself? Well, it's got pasties, strippers, twerking and a whole lot of content that's probably the unsafe side of NSFW. To summarize the wise man Chazz Michael Michaels, "It's provocative."
Some of the most impactful videos are the simplest — the emotional close-up on Sinead O'Connor for "Nothing Compares 2 U," or the body exploration of D'Angelo for "Untitled" — and this Rihanna clip has a similar set-up and intimacy.
Celebrated director Sophie Muller has made videos for Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Beyonce, Shakira, Sade, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding, Garbage, Dixie Chicks and many more. Now you can add Rihanna to that impressive (yet abbreviated) list..