Rihanna debuted her latest single American Oxygen at the NCAA March Madness Music Festival (a free three-day outdoor music festival in celebration of the NCAA Men’s Final Four in downtown Indianapolis.). During her performance she protested the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “Who’s feeling these new bullshit laws that they’re trying to pass over here? I say, ‘Fuck that shit,'” Rihanna told the crowd, “We’re just living our motherfucking lives.” After the festival performance she then dropped the official music video on the new streaming service TIDAL – which she co-owns along with a dozen or so music megastars.
The visual could be considered patriotic as Rihanna performs alone in front of the American flag, yet the visuals that flash in between Rihanna singing don’t make you feel good about America at all. The powerful images from America’s turbulent history include clips of Martin Luther King during his famous speech and his funeral procession, the 1969 Moon Landing, the Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics and 9/11. There are plenty of protest clips from Occupy Wall Street and the protests in Ferguson, Missouri to the UC Davis pepper-spraying incident and civil rights marches.
With American Oxygen Rihanna is showing a social and political consciousness that we haven’t really seen before from most of her past discography. The single is taken from her upcoming 8th studio album, following FourFiveSeconds and Bitch Better Have My Money.
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