*Rihanna has not made an appearance at the BET Awards for the past seven years, so when the network announced her return to the ceremony over the weekend, fans were expecting her to deliver her infectious Bajan swag that we have grown accustomed to. Instead, her appearance was nothing more than an underwhelming PR stunt.
BET teased something huge with the pop star by placing her in the front row, where she received plenty of camera time of her playing with a roll of duct tape. She bound Floyd Mayweather with the tape, tapping his mouth shut, and later, Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker took park in her duct tape stunt.
RiRi was later “caught” backstage arguing with Stephen G. Hill, BET’s President of Programming, before throwing a stack of money at his face.
So what was the tape mystery all about?
There was no surprise performance. No surprise singles. No mention of when her next album will drop. Rihanna was at the show to promote her single, “Bitch Better Have My Money!” and its video.
Perhaps it was a clever way of her label resuscitating the single, which dropped in March but left many fans unimpressed. Perhaps the music video and continuous marketing ploys will help the single climb to the top of the charts. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, are you looking forward to the video? Peep the trailer below.
In related news, Rihanna was out at 1Oak in Los Angeles on June 27 when she found an abandoned puppy in the bathroom.
“Well, I found him in the bathroom somewhere, and he ran up to me,” Rihanna said in a Snapchat video recorded by a friend. She couldn’t resist the adorable dog’s sweet face so she brought him home with her, and named him Pepe.
“She literally just went to the club, came back with the cage, wee-wee pads, food, and a f—–g dog!” her friend said in another video that revealed all the supplies Rihanna had purchased for her new pet.