Can I have one more person completely miss my point so that I can round it up to a clean 5? lol
I honestly wouldn't have much to say about Rihanna if people didn't have the audacity to say she's comparable at this point to Beyonce. They're not in the same quadrant, category, or caliber. Rihanna has the record for hits and that's not anything to dispute, nor is it anything to scoff at. However at the end of the day it's evident from the fact that Beyonce is brought up pretty incessently when the topic of Rihanna comes up (while the reverse isn't true) that Rihanna fans are desperately trying to find a niche for her to claim.
I suppose because she's also a black woman who does a variant of R&B that she's suddently a threat to Beyonce. That has not been the case nor will it be. While Rihanna's success has increased over the years so has Beyonce's. The latter didn't need top 10 hits for her success to grow however, whereas the former obviously has depended on it. Beyonce still makes more bank, gets more high-profile endorsements, gets more critical acclaim, gets higher TV ratings, and (I assume) grosses higher on tour. What this tells me is that Rihanna is absolutely NO threat to Beyonce's trajectory, and that the two can co-exist without any forseeable overlap to contend.
Saying that Rihanna would replace Beyonce in any kind of category is ridiculous, because Beyonce's ultimate value to the mainstream and the music space is not something Rihanna has come close to beating, let alone competing with. Beyonce's success and recognition has become so colossal and profound that she gets the world's attention without even having a hit to release. And all that says to me is that she's surpassed the incessant need to prove your worth through top 10 hits.
Rihanna's at that place right now, and that's the place Beyonce was in during Destiny's Child. It's a preliminary step in the rise to power if you don't have any unique brand or special place in the music space. You just have to rely on getting good songs and releasing them in a timely way. Beyonce nuzzled her way out of that grind by going solo and marketing herself correctly (and she became an icon by album 3, mind you). You can call me once Rihanna gets there, but UNTIL she does, #NAVY doesn't need to run its mouth and jump to conclusions about someone who's too half-baked for all the achievements she already has. If she wants to come for Beyonce she needs to work on herself, coz right now she ain't cuttin' it for me.
Look at it this way. The last few years have had Rihanna going as hard as she could in the game, while the last few years have had Beyonce barely try. While Beyonce sits and nurses, Rihanna's out there doing every gig she can, taking advantage of every successful opportunity she can. Fast forward to where we are now and people are STILL proclaiming Beyonce the queen of pop. People are STILL buying tickets to see her show, and she's getting accolades, public praise, high TV ratings and the highest-profile gig in American television. If this is what Beyonce gets while she's being LAX, imagine how many weaves would get snatched if she was operating on the schedule that Rihanna was working in. Point blank, Rihanna is STILL getting clocked in every category that Beyonce's even relevant in. We'll see how things go once her album comes out, but until then Beyonce has her beat across every category where Beyonce has done so much as SHOWN UP to. Rihanna replacing Beyonce? My ass.
