Just when we were getting over Rihanna’s ‘Bitch Better Have my Money’ she hits us with another song, ‘American Oxygen’ debuted on Tidal Jay Z’s streaming service.
Rihanna’s “American Oxygen” was teased in a March Madness promo last month, but she performed the full track during the March Madness Music Festival in Indianapolis this weekend. The track, which is reportedly on her new Kanye West-produced album.
It’s a slowed-down, dubstep-influenced track calling out a “new America.” “Breathe out, breathe in/ This American oxygen/ Every breath I breathe /Chasing this American dream/ Respect for a nickel and dime/ Turn it into an empire,” she sings. The newly political RiRi splices together clips of 9/11, MLK Jr., the Ferguson riots, and global warming while she remixes the Star Spangled Banner. This is a huge departure for an artist who isn’t exactly known for her political statements (unless you count her support of #freethenipple, of course). Her message seems mixed; Is she for this new America? Is she not? Has Rihanna gone full philosopher and suggested that there’s no way to escape the vicious paradox of the “American Dream”?
You can listen to “American Oxygen” via Tidal or below.
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