An oral history of the song that launched Rihanna's career, by BiancaEnRogue
Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture and Photo by Youtube It’s hard to picture Rihanna in 2020 without her multiple crowns: wealthiest female musician, one of the world’s best-selling artists, a multi-hyphenate businesswoman, the first woman of color to lead a luxury fashion house under LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
A Girl Called Robyn: ‘Listen, You’ve Got Something Special’ Dancehall, reggae’s rugged younger sibling, rushed back and forth in waves since it’s birth in the ’70s. And in the early aughts, the genre found yet another audience with the millennial masses. Jamaican artists like Elephant Man, Sean Paul, and Beenie Man dominated airwaves, clubs, and even the Billboard Hot 100 with singles that urged people to shake off their troubles on the dance floor.
I told her, “Listen, I think you’ve got something special. I live in Connecticut and our studio is in Westchester, New York. On your school break or something, maybe we could fly you both up and just experiment if you’d like to take a shot at this.” Then we ended up signing her to our production company [SRP].
One day Chris calls me and says, “I got this girl that I’m managing. She’s working with some producers and [they’re] not really treating her right. She’s sitting in a studio. They don’t pay for food for her. They’re not sharing their weed.” [Laughs.] I sent him the record and then he sent the message back asking if I can take some of the sounds out. Alisha wrote “Pon de Replay” and sent it back — I never met her.
Remember the movie Beetlejuice? The scene where they sing “Come, mister tally man, tally me banana” [from Harry Belafonte’s 1956 song “Day-O ”], I used to rewind it all the time because it was so dope. That song came into my head when I heard the track after a few hours of sitting there with the beat just repeating over and over again. Zhané had a song called “Hey Mr. DJ” [in 1993] and it had this vibe.
Rogers: It was one of those beats that comes along every few years that you just hear and can’t even define it. It grabbed everyone the minute it came on. Carl filled in the track with bass, chords, and synth lines and gave it some more structure. And then we had Rihanna sing it and we gave it a little bit more melody to what M’Jestie had done.
Rogers: Our lawyer, Scott Felcher, was lining up meetings with labels. We were telling people we got a hot new artist from Barbados and we’re flying her up next week. We played it for some label people that we were really tight with just to get some initial feedback. There were a few people that said, “She’s kind of pitchy, she sounds a little tinny in her voice.” The first label we went to was [the now-defunct] J Records.
Then right before we left, Ferrera said, “Well, you can go have her perform the song for the promotion team.” So we went into this conference room with the regional radio promo people and we put on the boom box. She performed the song, and then she did another ballad on acoustic guitar called “The Last Time.”
Rogers: Normally those kinds of deals would take six, seven weeks of negotiating. But our lawyers, Scott Felcher and Keith Culter, got in there. L.A. Reid stayed until the thing was done. There’s actual footage of us signing the contract that’s going to be in this upcoming documentary that Rihanna’s releasing on Amazon Prime. We canceled the rest of the meetings, and all the other labels were very angry when they heard “Pon de Replay” on the radio.
[Star power] is just something that people have when it’s just you and the camera. There’s a level of confidence. There’s a way of controlling the body that’s more than just practice. There’s the “It” factor: I see what’s up kid. Got it. ‘There Was a Lot of Chatter About If She Was Gonna Make It’ The executives at Def Jam and Rogers may have recognized Rihanna’s talents, but the world at large wasn’t quick to pick up on it. The singer was still an unknown face and got caught up in a cloud of comparisons to Beyoncé and Ciara. In fact, she wasn’t even meant to be the big star at the record label — that title was reserved for then-rising R&B star Teairra Mari.
M’Jestie: People didn’t know Rihanna; it would’ve been different if I wrote “Pon de Replay” today. [The song] didn’t pick up in the urban market as much as it did in pop. So it was a lukewarm reception in my surroundings, but something bigger was happening in the world. Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture and Photo by Youtube M’Jestie: There were no fans there for Rihanna in 2005. It was more of, “Who’s this girl with the big forehead?” [Her music] was overshadowed by people trying to pick her apart and trying to understand where she came from and how long she’ll last and comparing her to Beyoncé. There was a lot of chatter about if she was gonna make it. I don’t think that really stopped until “Umbrella.
15 Years Later: ‘Her West Indianness Was Always the Foundation’ Despite the initial hiccups, “Pon de Replay” soon proved to be a hit. It debuted at No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100 that June, and later soared to its No. 2 peak a month later. The song that blocked it from snatching the top spot? Mariah Carey’s comeback single, “We Belong Together,” which spent a total of 14 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1.
Also if you watch the “Work” video, there’s a guy that Rihanna walks over and starts dancing with. That’s the same kid from “Pon de Replay.” That’s not set up; he was just dancing around. That’s Toronto video dancer history right there.
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