Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This special Rihanna episode of Vibe Check is brought to you by Squarespace. The key to a business that shines is a website that stands out. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for growing your business online. Stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. Your products, your content, and even your time. Monetize your content and expertise with member areas. Create pro-level videos effortlessly with the Squarespace Video Studio app. Sync your social profiles and site.
Check out squarespace.com slash vibecheck for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code vibecheck to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Hello, my ladies, my sisters, my diamonds. It's time to call this meeting of the Fenty fan club to order. Yes, let me put my bronzer on. Sign me up for her MLM, you know, her Avon lady moment. I will be a Fenty girl. Let's do it. I'm Sam Sanders. I'm Saeed Jones. And I'm Zach Stafford. And you are listening to Vibe Check. Vibe Check.
A very special episode of 5G. Very special episode. The diamond episode. I mean, because that's the thing. We know, you know, we are Wednesday gals. We live for a routine. We live for a schedule. I am certainly not used to recording on a Sunday night. No. And can we give context to listeners of when we were recording this? Because I forgot next, me and Sam were at a party together. Right. I'm home now. There's delivery of food about to arrive. I was about to say. So maybe you should grab some food. Listen, I crossed the 10 twice today. Ooh.
To watch this halftime show and get home to record. But it is now 9.44 Eastern on Sunday night, 6.44 Pacific. The game is still going on, but we are gathered here this evening to talk about the halftime show. We usually tape this show on Wednesday mornings, but we said for Rihanna, for the halftime show, we're doing it Sunday night. So this is our first special bonus episode. Happy to give it to y'all. Happy to give it to our listeners. Yeah. So let's just jump right into it. I would say we are pregnant with anticipation. Oops.
Because we can't confirm pregnancy. So here's the thing. Yeah, I was watching it with my neighbors down the street, just a cute 10-minute walk, and then I walked the dog. I'm glad I needed that 15 minutes to get home and to get back on Zoom with y'all because now we have confirmation from Rihanna and her reps several times over. She is pregnant. Right.
We've got a special guest tonight. It's her baby. It's funny. So like, I want us to go through the night. So let's get to the songs that she's performed. Let's get to the looks. Let's run through it all. But I think the big news of this performance is the pregnancy announcement.
I kind of liked how she did it. You know, as soon as she hit the stage, I said, I see something. And Zach and I were fighting the whole halftime show. I was like, no, I think she's pregnant. Well, we were doing math. I was like, the baby was born May 2022. Can she be pregnant? I guess she can technically. Listen, as someone who is low-key an Irish twin, you can. My mother was pregnant with me six weeks after she gave birth to my brother. Oh, my God. It's possible. Oh, my God. Listen, listen.
I was her favorite mistake. But we have to start there because it is like, you know, breaking news, huge news. But also, who does this bring to mind? Who else announced their pregnancy while performing? I remember the iconic Beyonce performance at the VMA. She does Love on Top. And at the end, she rubs the baby bump. Rihanna in the halftime show this evening said,
kind of harken back to that moment on an even grander stage yeah i gotta say i always love when this happens it always gives me all the warm feelings how do y'all feel about it um i mean i have so many wonderful feelings about the performance i thought it was beautiful i would say i thought it was a little more subtle than beyonce because if you remember beyonce sang all of love on top she was wearing a tuxedo to kind of emphasize and then she like opened the
you know, opened the top, dropped the mic. You know, there was no question. This was like a more subtle moment where I was like, I don't know, the lyrics of Diamonds, the song Rihanna was singing. I was like, maybe she just got caught up in this. I ain't trying to look at people's bodies in that kind of reading that way. I couldn't help but just look at it. But it also felt like it was in line with
Rihanna's entire aura, this entire halftime show, which I want to talk about more. She is regal and majestic in her almost effortless exercise of her power. Yeah. She in every ease at ease. She's at ease with herself. She's at ease with her catalog. She's at ease with performing. And of course she was at ease with like casually rubbing that baby bump saying, oh, here it is. I thought it was great. I thought it was great. Yeah.
I think it was really powerful to have a woman who's currently pregnant, who didn't tell us before, and to do a whole Super Bowl set. Like, a Super Bowl set is hard. And what I have to get to, because I know so many of you girls were saying this, because I heard you in the bars and the clubs. Everyone was saying, Rihanna's not practicing. We got to watch out for her. I remember seeing those rooms. I was nervous seeing those rooms. I was a little worried. We were all nervous. We were all nervous. But the fact that, like, she may have been taking care of herself. She just had a baby. She's now pregnant. Right.
I think this is a lesson in care that people should really be listening to. It's like she already... I think someone said, I think my boyfriend said this as we walked in the house. He said, what I liked about Rihanna was she's like, I'm already great. That's why I'm invited. Why do I have to premiere a new thing? Why do I have to do a new thing? Like, I just got to show up and do my songs how I want to do them and dance how I want to dance. And that's enough. And I love that so much. And let's get to that. I want to just like kind of go through the show. I think the first thing we should do, big picture, is talk about all the songs she fit in. Yeah.
Well, wait, wait. We have to talk about the first impression. We have to talk about the stage. I'm sorry. Before we even heard her, before we listened to the music, I felt like the first impression was, wait a minute. She's in the air. Is she hovering in the air? She's in the air. And like, if you haven't watched it yet, go back and watch it. Oh, wow. It was technically masterful, but also beautifully simple. Yeah. You know, there weren't too many colors on that stage. The platforms were simple and flat. Yeah.
But she just starts ascended in the sky and hovers from the sky to the ground and back again throughout this performance. It was sleek in a way that like Apple products are sleek, which is interesting to me. Almost looks like she was dancing on iPads. It looked like iPads.
It was just really simple. But I think that backs into the whole performance. It was, you know, just simplicity, minimalism. When you think about this compared to Katy Perry's maximalist grow up, that was a performance, which was fantastic. But it was like every color, every rainbow, everything. It just was...
there were two colors on this stage she wore red the Teletubby dancers wore white and that was all you needed yeah and I'm calling them Teletubby dancers I love it I love the Teletubbies personally I mean so the thing is the reason I actually wanted because I think this I love the performance I tweeted to me I was like wow I'm not even halfway through it and I feel comfortable saying I think this is one of the best performances of the last decade at least it would easily be in my top five top ten but
But the set was one of many flexes because I think one of the challenges with the Super Bowl, even with iconic performers, is just being in a different context. You're not at your own music space. You're not at a music venue. You're in the middle of the largest NFL game, this context that just kind of pulls your focus and pulls your attention. And so often, even great halftime performances, the stages always kind of look the same.
In the end, the dancers all kind of wear the same kind of chintzy. You know what I mean? And I just love that the moment it began, it looked so specific to Rihanna. And I think that was really powerful. Well, and a lot of times what happens in these halftime shows is they're too bloated. They've got too many special guests. They've got too many things to distract your eye. You don't even know what to look at.
The beauty of this show was its simplicity. I knew exactly what to focus on. Nothing overwhelmed me except the quality of her catalog, right? I think it was nice in that we didn't have any...
any superfluous frill on that stage. Yeah. I thought it was beautifully simple. You're right. So I would say like the set design being, I mean, being like, hey, I'm not afraid to be on the platform. Not just coming down. She was going up and down. They were moving several times. It looked like the Super Smash Brothers game.
I just said if you played it. She was giving you Mario. And she won her level, damn it. She won her level. She defeated the boss. But it also, you know, just to contextualize this, amongst her peers and one musician who we shall not always name because he is problematic, but Kanye West is who made the floating stage really popular in the last 10 years with the St. Pablo tour, which had a floating stage, which was iconic when it premiered and everyone loved. But,
that was the tour where things started going awry. So when I saw it floating, I was like, oh, she's referencing other major stages in this moment. But how she did it was so minimal, so perfect, so beautiful in ways that Kanye wishes. Well, and to mention the Kanye of it all.
Another powerful flex of one of the most powerful women in pop. Yeah. She did a few songs where the leads on the songs were men. And she said, I don't even need these men to help me do this. I can do it. Kanye, Jay-Z, who? And I know we want to kind of get through the set list, but I noticed that as well, Sam. And I was delighted that it felt like she leaned into the lead up to Run This Town. Yep.
All the lights. All the lights work where it felt like in the camera direction made you start looking to the edges of the set because you're like, oh, she's about to bring out a guest. And it was like, no, honey. I don't need them. I am the beginning and the end. You think I need Drake? I am the Alpha and Omega. You think I need Jay-Z? You think I need Kanye? Yeah. Let's get to these songs. So our official tally of her set list.
Ballsy, boss-ass bitch, and kind of queer. She comes out to Bitch Better Have My Money. Yeah. Then she goes to Where Have You Been? Probably one of the gayer Rihanna songs ever. Yeah. Only girl in the world. We found love. Rude boy. Work. Wild thoughts.
Pour it up, all of the lights, run this town, umbrella, diamonds. And there was a tease of the instrumental of Pose, one of my favorite tracks. Okay, you noticed that because I also heard a tease of S&M. I heard that. Yes. And I was like, ah! And I have to say, when I was thinking about what songs she might do, I thought she would lean on the biggest hits, the biggest number ones, the most mass market songs.
But to open with Bitch Better Have My Money, to do Cake, Cake, Cake, Cake halfway through, that was ballsy. And just to do Pour It Up on the halftime stage. I loved it. I loved it. And we played a game at our watch party, and I put Pour It Up as my top five thing she's going to do as a random thing just because alcohol is back in a big way.
You were just talking about how everybody's sober. Not Ms. Kimberl. How dare you? Not just Tito Taylor over here. Girl.
No, I will say, I never would have guessed that poured up. I just, I did think. To open with bitch better have my money. That is saying something. That is also speaking to her power. It's just power. Do we think that was her wink at, you know, Twitter? People have been mad at her for taking on this job because she has been protesting the NFL for many years because of Colin Kaepernick, because of domestic abuse, because they use her song without her permission, all these things. And the first time she decides to do it is because Apple's doing it.
And Apple, you know, paid a big, big,
And she has a good relationship with them, you know? And she has a good relationship with them. And she said, you know what, girl, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to grab my money. So I took that as her winking to us. Oh, totally. I got my back, which is also similar to Beyonce in Dubai, who got her back too. Get your back. I got to say, I kept comparing this show to the last show last year, which was like the death row smorgasbord. Dr. Dre and 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige and Eminem and I think Kendrick too, all of them.
that show probably had as many songs in 13 minutes as well, but that show felt like it gave me whiplash. Right. And this show did not. Yeah. And I think it was because it was just Rihanna on that stage. I think it was part of it was cutting from artist to artist to artist. This was just her. Yeah. So going from song to song so quickly still felt manageable. Yeah.
I think that makes sense, right? Because more featured guests means more needed cuts and camera angles, which makes it feel more for me. There weren't that many cuts with this. If it's just her. And then also, you know, because as I continue to think about why Renaissance should have won album of the year, part of the reason Renaissance is so good is the transitions, the editing. And I felt like with this, though it was, what, 13 songs and 13 minutes or whatever. 12 songs and 13 minutes, yeah. It transitioned, it flowed. Yeah, it flowed.
flowed it didn't feel chaotic or messy it felt like a club mix you know in the best way and i would say the production value of this was like none other beautiful scene it's usually clunky it's usually all over the place and it's because they they rehearse at a warehouse in la and then they gotta go set up and the stage is built within 20 minutes it's like a lot of chaos there's like that inevitable moment when they just let people run onto the field yeah there's always a run of the field it's too much but this was not it was really beautifully directed i have
no idea who directed the halftime show, but they deserve an Emmy for this. It was just the visuals and that last visual of her singing Diamonds and rising up and floating. That camera pulling back. It did not look real at all. And it was really her. Unlike...
like the Lady Gaga jumping at the stage. That wasn't real. She didn't actually do that, but Rihanna actually floated up into the center of the stage, which was just beautiful. I think for me, the big takeaway with this whole show is like Rihanna more than any other pop star working today feels like she just knows how to own her power and she is going to be comfortable in her own body, in her own skin, in her own catalog and kind of let the body of work speak for itself and
I think she would even say she is not the best singer in the game or the best dancer, but she is one of the smartest pop stars of our time because the skills she has, she uses them always to the ultimate effect. She knows exactly how to use her gifts.
And then to see her do that so brilliantly and just look and feel comfortable the whole time. I don't know, man. I just think it's pretty great. It's impressive. Yeah. And I know people will say, oh, well, she was lip syncing. Honey, they all do. They all lip sync. Honey, they all do. They all do. And I'm not mad at them.
No, and that's what I want to point to our friend Jay Wortham's tweet, which I think sums up my feelings about the lip sync. Because girl, they're all lip syncing, and it's better when they lip sync. Some of these girls don't need to be syncing live in the stadium. But Jay Wortham wrote, that blissed out moment when Rihanna stopped pretending to sing to beam at her bounty is my inspiration for the remainder of the year. And that was beautiful. That she was fully embodied in that.
She was present. Because you know what? Even if she doesn't sing that song again on that stage, it's still her song and you still love it. Even if she's just twerking in front of the track while it's going, it's still her song and she owns the power of that song. I just think it's so difficult. You literally can be one of the biggest...
music celebrities in the world, but to step into the NFL Super Bowl halftime, it's so understandable how you can lose yourself, if not during the live performance, during the concept development, and then that's when you end up with like three features, and then suddenly your performance just looks like every other halftime. I just think from beginning to end,
It was just her, you know, and you're right. It was, and we can talk more about this after the break. Right. But the sense of ease. And I think it's easy to mistake ease for a lack of discipline, a lack of effort or lack of competence. That's not what I saw. I saw someone who was fully assured and that was powerful. Well, and for me, Rihanna's ease, right.
represents an almost aspirational self-awareness. She knows herself, she knows her gifts, she knows her work, and she knows how to use it.
And I was prepared to knock this woman for like not having the choreo worked out because she's not known for her dancing. I even loved the choreo that she gave us because she knew what she could do and she knew what the dancers needed to do. And she let them do that. I just think that like the lesson of Rihanna for me is like,
Find your strengths. Know your strengths. Let them speak for themselves. I love that. They spoke loud tonight. They sure did. I loved it. Before we go to break, I want to just ask y'all, can we give any kind of score to this halftime show? I hate giving grades. Yeah, I would just say, I think I'm confident to say, I think of the last decade. So if we go back to 2013, and I believe that was Beyonce's first show.
Super Bowl performance, and we put them in, you know, top five. Beyonce got two of those slots, obviously. And I would say Rihanna now has one of those top five slots for me for the last decade. And, you know, you can choose how you want to compare people, but I just thought it was excellent. And beyond being just generally excellent, it was so specific to her. And I just think that is so hard to do. Yeah, that's self-awareness. I'm going to say this is...
it's up there. Visually, I think it's one of the best because it was simple and clean. Yes. I think I'll remember these visuals much longer than I'll remember any other halftime show visuals, save for when Beyonce came out, Black Panther, marching on the field. I think you're right. But that was the one. That was the one. That was amazing. Anywho, God bless those Teletubby dancers. Love y'all. Shout out to them. Taking a break. Shout out to those Fenty Puffer jackets or whatever they were wearing. We'll be right back. The Fenty Tubby's. The Fenty Tubby's.
This very special Rihanna episode of Vibe Check is brought to you by Squarespace. Yes, Squarespace, the folks who had that really cool ad in the Super Bowl with like multiple Adam drivers. Infinite Adam drivers. Infinite Adam drivers, which honestly, sign me up for infinite Adam driver. Adam driver multiverse.
The key to a business that shines is having a website that stands out. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. Stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. Your products, content you create, and even your time. Squarespace makes it easy for creators to monetize their content and expertise online.
with member areas. Unlock a new revenue stream with gated content like videos, online courses, or newsletters. Create pro-level videos effortlessly. The Squarespace Video Studio app helps you make and share engaging videos to tell your story, grow your audience, and drive sales. Display posts from your social profiles on your website. Automatically push website content to your favorite social media channels so your followers can share it too.
Check out squarespace.com slash vibecheck for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code vibecheck to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
We are back for part two of the Fenty Fan Club, and we're going to go bigger picture right now here on Vibe Check and talk about some of our favorite Super Bowl moments of previous years. There's so many. I got a few thoughts myself, but I want to just give the floor to my sisters as we continue to recover from Rihanna's amazing halftime show. What other Super Bowl moments are living in your head rent-free right now? Well, let me start in the negative space, and I mean that literally. The negative space.
Just as I greatly appreciated that Rihanna, even though she had a perfect excuse because of those platforms to perform Lift Me Up. She didn't do it, thank God. Wow. She did not. And you know what? God answers prayer. Look. God answers prayer. I'll tell you that. Because you know I was praying about it. So I would say actually a highlight from past NFL performances was not the featured performance, in this case, Katy Perry. It was the fact that Katy Perry briefly had the wisdom to remove herself from the stage
And let Missy Elliott take over for what I think would be one of the more standout featured performances of the last few years. And this was the iconic Left Shark halftime show. Yeah, it was like the Left Shark left the stage and then Missy Elliott came out and turned it out. And I don't know if y'all remember, but remember the next day, like several of Missy Elliott's biggest hits were number one on the Apple chart? Yeah.
And a lot of young folks watching that halftime show were like, who's this Missy Elliott? She's got a promising future. They were like, what do you speak of flipping it and reverse it? Explain this to us elders. She should put out more songs.
So that was a great show. To me, that felt like a great surprise guest. That was cool. Yeah. So that's one. That's a really good one. And then to go back further, what I always go to every Super Bowl is the Whitney Houston Star Spangled Banner. Come on now. So your favorite halftime performance was not that? What's my favorite moment? Well, that's what the thing is. I always forget that it's not. She never performed the halftime.
All she did was she rearranged the Star-Spangled Banner once during a war in the Middle East, and it changed everything. It changed the song and everything. And I think whenever you're a Black performer, that has to be top of mind when you enter. Rihanna, when she was planning this, she had to think about that. Shirley Ralph, when she was- And Shirley Ralph's performance was beautiful. Of the Black National Anthem. Left every voice. It was amazing. And I think just whenever we're talking about Black women at the Super Bowl, I just have to go back to Whitney Houston and give her just credit for that.
for that moment because it continues to be true. But we also have to leave even further back to Diana Ross and her halftime show. Girl. Sam. Talk about it. I know that's your favorite. Go for it. I mean, so the show is great because Auntie Diana is always a little bit drunk auntie at the party and that's the appeal. Oh.
She is. Truck. And I love it. But she does this iconic halftime show where she's giving you Diana Ross of the Springs like, oh, I love you. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Then at the end of the show, when it's time to go, a helicopter comes onto the field, hits the Super Bowl halftime show stage, and these men pick up Diana Ross and put her in the helicopter. And as she's singing, she rides away. Yeah.
And again, we talk about visuals. I mean, obviously, I think that was 1995. So I was 10. That's all I remember. Yeah. I remember this woman with this beautiful black woman with her big, big hair. I remember the bright colors she was wearing. And I just remember her. Because it's not like she's – look up the images if you haven't seen them. You've got to watch it. But it's like she's all but like sitting out of the edge of the helicopter. And she's talking the whole time. She's like, hello, you love me? Oh, my God. Say hello.
Yeah, it was pretty incredible. I got to say one of my most iconic moments. I think the best halftime show of all time and the most iconic visual, honestly, Prince's halftime show. Yes. The backstory before his show was really interesting. So after Nipplegate and Justin and Janet at the Super Bowl halftime show for about seven or eight years after that.
the producers of the show went really safe. And so they basically only had boomer bands playing, like White Guy Rock, Rolling Stones, et cetera. And they were boring shows. But one of the like rockers of yore who they decided to have on one year in that post-Janet moment was Prince. And Prince alone is enough. Y'all know. One of the greatest live performer of the last century, let's just say it.
But towards the end of the show, which is on a stage lit up with purple lights because that's his color, Prince starts singing Purple Rain. And in the midst of the purple lights, it starts raining. So the rain looks purple. I thought.
I think about it and I cry. Yeah. I mean, it was beautiful. You talk about visuals. It was really beautiful. And this is also, while this man is singing like an angel and playing the guitar like a devil, it was the best live performance I've ever seen on a stage epic. I think it's, and I also think of the moment, I believe there's a moment with a huge white
tarp comes down. And so his shadow, his silhouette is projected. And so you can just really see him and that beautiful guitar. And I think it was, I think it's the best. And it's because it's not just visually, we're also having a moment of watching him as a musician playing his instrument like no one else can. You know, just incredible. I do want to say,
hearing us talk about all these halftime shows of years past. On my other podcast, Intuit, from Vulture and New York Magazine, we have an entire episode recapping the best and worst of all the halftime shows. Go check it out. You'll like it. Oh, the worst. We got some of the worst in there, too. That's for you to do over there. We're talking about the good things. We're talking about the good things. But check that out. Best and worst over on Intuit. I would never talk about the worst. Never. Well, you know, speaking of actually a mixture of good and bad...
And I hate doing this because I love this woman so much. I love her so much, but we just have to make the joke. So Destiny's Child, the reuniting of Destiny's Child and Supergirl was an iconic moment, next level, mind blowing. We knew what was going to happen. It was incredible.
But Michelle Williams almost falling when she exploded on the floor. Did she almost fall? She didn't almost. She was just a little unsteady. She didn't almost fall. It was giving me 106 and Park when she fell. It was just like she's always almost falling. It was not 106 and Park because you heard the fall on 106 and Park. You heard that they shot them up and she landed with them.
There was a moment in her face where all the trauma falling in many years past came rushing back and she was like, I didn't do it. I made it. And I just was like, I'm so glad. I didn't think it was like Michelle almost felt. It was more that like a tense, like a, understandably. I mean, my gosh, I'd be like tense. Like she was like definitely not comfortable being shot out from under the stage that way. Yeah.
But it was an amazing moment because Beyonce's so good at being thrown out of a stage door. Kelly's also really good at it. Michelle still, you know, years later, still like, oh, I did it. So I just love it. But beyond that, I think that's what a Super Bowl moment is about, is about taking you into a nostalgia loop,
that everyone can connect with and everyone gets excited about. And having those women show up for Beyonce in this huge moment for her and to reunite and sing their hits was just beautiful. And that's kind of like the magic of the Super Bowl, the biggest stage in music. Yeah. And the magic of the halftime show, let's be real, it's black.
So before 1993, there were just like weird ass halftime shows. They started out with like rinky dink, like marching bands. Then they were just like strange and like awkward and bad. One year was like an ice skating theme, just horrible. But in 1993, after Fox had an in living color halftime special to draw away viewers from the actual game,
The makers of the games that we got to have a celebrity halftime show. And in 1993, they had the first celebrity halftime show. Guess who it was? Who? Michael Jackson. Oh. Michael Jackson created the celebrity halftime show. He set the standard. Wow.
And the most infamous halftime show, unfortunately and not fairly, came from his sister. From top to bottom, our very conceptualization of the celebrity halftime show is black. It's Beyonce, it's Michael, it's Janet, it's black folks. Yeah, to talk about the long shadow of this,
that halftime performance between Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. And the way she was treated, not just by the public, but by the industry, CBS, Les Moonves, the NFL. Just today actually news broke via TMZ that at the past Grammy, so that was what this weekend, this past weekend, a week ago. There was supposed to be some kind of tribute or some kind of lifetime achievement award of some kind awarded to Janet.
But because they could not work out behind the scenes the details of the decades-long overdue apology from CBS, it fell through. So I think it is really striking in terms of infamy that here we are in 2023 and something that happened at least over a decade ago now is still- Yeah, way over there. Wow. It is-
And that was such a moment in culture where, you know, it's similar to, I don't know, like J-Lo and the dress that launched YouTube or Google image researchers. It was a moment that like really impacted the internet and that image was everywhere. No. J-Lo launched a
Google image search. Janet and Nipplegate launched YouTube. YouTube is created because of Nipplegate. Because of Nipplegate. And it's like this moment of just like mass change. Janet, in that moment, made a lot of money for a lot of people. Yes. YouTube's not giving her a cut of all their proceeds, you know? And the same way with even the first halftime show, when Michael did that first celebrity halftime show, which gave us what we know as the celebrity halftime show, they didn't pay him.
They only made a $100,000 contribution to a charity that he chose. So like the story of these halftime shows and the blackness of it all is also black folks still not getting their paper. Is it similar with Rihanna now? I don't know if they get paid or not. Is she getting paid? We don't know the details of this. We don't know. We can just speculate all day. Apple must have paid her. Apple, someone paid because they're using her likeness in the app.
And that's why I'm guessing it's worth it. I went to the Apple store. Her face is being used on products. She's everywhere. And that's just a basic, you know, talent. And she opened with bitch better have my money. She must've been saying I got paid. Yeah. I think, cause I know, I don't know if y'all were watching earlier in the game, but I was watching like the pre-show and all that kind of stuff. And the national anthem, the Kansas city chiefs coming out and doing a straight up really offensive, uh,
chant an award or scholarship named after Pat Tillman being used as military propaganda. There was a lot of stuff. And so even as I was enjoying the halftime, I was like, gosh,
I think the only merits at the end I can take the Super Bowl, including halftime on, is the cynical merit. Like, I can't. There's no magic here for me. Like, there's no artistry. It's just business. And I would say, again, Rihanna wins on the business front. All of those dancers were wearing Fenty Savage, which I saw they tweeted out a link being like, you can buy everything. There was a moment where she comes out and puts on, I think, some—
from Fenty Makeup. Yes. Right. You know, like she didn't even have to put out new music and said every ad was like kind of a new video for one of her past hits. You know, everything kind of goes back to the money. Bitch better have my money. And that is really cynical and cold. But I'm like, the NFL doesn't deserve anything more. Like, I felt like the NFL at the beginning was like trying to drape itself in the
mythos of patriotism and this all means something. I'm like, nah, this is about the money. And I love that Rihanna took the money and ran, to be perfectly honest. Not even ran, ascended. Ascended. Arguably strolled, yeah. And that is, of course, we have a contract. But that is, I would say, the radical departure of a Rihanna halftime show versus everyone else is that this was the first time we've ever seen product launches happen in real time. Yeah.
her being a capitalist, full-fledged, unapologetic, and saying, I'm going to just walk around, sing my songs, show you new products, and it's an unboxing. It was like the world's biggest unboxing ever. The lesson of Rihanna in this halftime show for me is just let your power speak for itself. That's it. Because they ain't going to do it for you. They ain't going to do it for you. Because they were going to take everything from her to make that show. She said, nope, I'm taking everything from you. And in addition to whoever won the game,
I hope it's the Eagles. I was playing tonight. Jalen Hurts is a very beautiful man. He is a very beautiful man. Oh, my God. Kansas won? Oh, Chantel's telling us that Kansas won. Oh, Kansas won. While we're doing this. Oh, what an upset. We're editing all of this out.
With that, shall we call an end to this meeting of the Fenty Fan Club? This truly chaotic special episode. I loved it. Listeners, let us know your thoughts on the return of Rihanna, your review of the performance, or whatever else you want to let us know. You can email us at any time. Vibecheck at Stitcher.com. Vibecheck at Stitcher.com.
Thank you so much for tuning into today's special episode of Vibe Check. We will be having our regular episode out this Wednesday, wherever you get podcasts. And if you love the show and want to support us, please make sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast listening platform and tell a friend.
A huge thanks to our producer, Chantel Holder. Chantel, really, thank you. You're pulling a very late night to make this episode happen. We appreciate you so much, and our listeners do as well. Thanks to engineer Brendan Burns and Marcus Holm for our theme music and sound design. Special thanks to our executive producers, Nora Ritchie at Stitcher and Brandon Sharp from Agenda Management and Production.
And last but not least, thank you to Jared O'Connell and Imelda Skinder for all of their help. And of course, again, we want to hear from all of you. Don't forget, you can email us at vibecheckatstitcher.com and keep in touch with us on Instagram at The Ferocity, at Zach Staff, and at Sam Sanders. Use the hashtag vibecheckpod. Also, you can follow us on TikTok. We're going back to our usual schedule because look, it's Friday.
These Sunday nights, you know, we hit a little hard. Child, I was trying to enjoy my cocktail, you know, and then here we are. But stay tuned for another episode this Wednesday. Are we going to talk about aliens and balloons? You'll just have to wait and find out. I sure do hope so. It's happening. Bye. Stitcher.
This very special Rihanna episode of Vibe Check is brought to you by Squarespace. The key to a business that shines is a website that stands out. And Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for growing your business online. Stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. Your products, your content, and even your time.
Monetize your content and expertise with member areas. Create pro-level videos effortlessly with the Squarespace Video Studio app. Sync your social profiles and site. Check out squarespace.com slash vibecheck for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code vibecheck to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.