If love is like a drug, then sex must be Rihanna’s kryptonite. 

‘You Da One’ is basically a 3:30 showcase of Rihanna’s body. Rihanna gives her viewers an explicit view of herself, and of her song. Between having images cast on her in the nude, the scrolling, fluttering lyrics on the screen, and close-up shots of her lips, her eyes, her crotch, and her tattoos, Rihanna doesn’t leave much up for interpretation or fantasy. 

Before I get misunderstood, I thought that some parts of the video were extremely artistic. The shot of her blowing smoke up towards the would-be ceiling is beautiful. She looks stunning while those images are projected on her naked body. The grill is bad-ass. I like the lyrics on the screen. The lip shots creep me out, but in a good way.

But, after ‘We Found Love,’ I was left a little bit underwhelmed with this video. Of course, ‘We Found Love’ sought out to portray a much more methodical, sequence-of-events type scenario. That wasn’t what this video tried to do. ‘We Found Love’ affected me emotionally, and this video affected me….differently. I want to be her. 

This, again, doesn’t mean that I didn’t like what she did. I love her enough to accept the video for what it is, and even if I don’t buy it, find some way of getting it into my iTunes. 

I guess this is the best way I can think to describe it: 

If ‘We Found Love’ was like having sex on E, then this video was like sex with no E. A little underwhelming and disappointing after the experience with the drug—but that doesn’t mean I hate sex now.