Anti (album)
Anti is the eighth studio album by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was released on 28 January 2016 by Roc Nation and Westbury Road. Rihanna started recording in 2014 after departing from Def Jam Recordings, who had released all of her albums since her 2005 debut. As executive producer, Rihanna recorded Anti with producers including Jeff Bhasker, Boi-1da, DJ Mustard, Hit-Boy, Brian Kennedy, Timbaland and No I.D., at studios in Canada, the United States and France. SZA and Drake contribute guest vocals.
This article is about the studio album by Rihanna. For the extended play by Autechre, see Anti EP.Anti
28 January 2016
April 2014 - January 2016
- Westlake
- Sandra Gale (Los Angeles)
- Jungle City (New York City)
- Twin (Paris)
- Windmark (Santa Monica)
- SOTA (Toronto)
43:36
- Westbury Road
- Roc Nation
- Boi-1da
- Brian Kennedy
- Chad Sabo
- Daniel Jones
- DJ Mustard
- Fade Majah
- Fred Ball
- Hit-Boy
- Jeff Bhasker
- Kevin Parker
- Mick Schultz
- Mitus
- No I.D.
- Robert Shea Taylor
- Scum
- Timbaland
Conceived in the midst of creative struggles and emotional turmoil, Anti features an atmospheric production brought by lo-fi beats, distorted vocals and downtempo arrangements. The first half consists of bass-heavy tracks, while the second is characterised by textured minimalism. Compared to the radio-friendly dance songs which had characterised Rihanna's prior discography, Anti is more muted and soulful. Primarily a pop, psychedelic soul and alternative R&B album, Anti also incorporates an array of eclectic influences spanning from dancehall, hip hop, soul, industrial, psychedelic, doo-wop, country, synth-rock and trap. The lyrics are about the emotions ensued from love and relationships, from endearment and desire to betrayal and liberation, with references to sex, drugs and alcohol.
The promotional campaign for Anti from summer 2014 comprised prolonged release delays and a $25 million deal with Samsung. Rihanna announced the cover art and title at the MAMA Gallery on 7 October 2015. The Anti World Tour ran from March to November 2016, and four songs were released as singles, including the US Billboard Hot 100 number one "Work". In the United States, Anti is Rihanna's second number-one album and the first album by a black woman to spend 300 weeks on the Billboard 200; it was certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album topped charts in Canada and Norway, and it received multi-platinum certifications in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, and Poland.
Upon its release, critics commended the album's emotional honesty but were divided on the production; praise mainly centered on Rihanna's newfound musical freedom. Some took issue with the lack of radio-friendly songs and the unfocused tracklist, but others noted the musical shift marked Rihanna's artistic maturity and regarded it as one of her best albums. At the 2017 Grammy Awards, the album and its singles received six nominations, including one for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Anti featured on 2010s decade-end lists by such publications as Billboard, NME and Pitchfork. It ranked 230th on Rolling Stone's 2020 edition of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. As of March 2024, Anti is the fourth-longest charting female album in Billboard 200 history.
Background[edit]
Rihanna's seventh studio album, Unapologetic, was released on 19 November 2012, by Def Jam Recordings.[1] Unapologetic combines urban and R&B with radio-friendly pop tunes and dubstep influences, and its lyrics are about Rihanna's sexual autonomy and emotional struggles.[2][3] Critics likened the sound and themes of Unapologetic's to those of her previous albums, namely Rated R (2009), Loud (2010) and Talk that Talk (2011).[4][5] She embarked on the Diamonds World Tour to promote the album in 2013, and co-headlined the Monster Tour with American rapper Eminem in 2014.[6] After touring, Rihanna intended to take a year off to "just do whatever [she wanted] artistically, creatively", but reportedly started recording new music as soon as October 2014.[7][8]
Unapologetic was Rihanna's last album under Def Jam, who had released all of her discography since her first album, Music of the Sun (2005).[9] In March 2014, she signed with American rapper Jay-Z's Roc Nation after leaving Def Jam and gaining the right to her album masters;[9] Jay-Z was her mentor when she first moved from Barbados to the United States.[10][11] Up to that point, Rihanna had released one studio album each year from 2005 to 2012 (with the exception of 2008), totalling seven.[12]
Singles[edit]
"Work" featuring Canadian rapper Drake was released on 27 January 2016, hours before the Tidal release of Anti. Rihanna stated on Twitter that the song is the "first single" from her album.[59] "Work" debuted at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It became Rihanna's 27th top ten hit. With this feat, Rihanna tied Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Elton John as the artists with fifth-most top ten songs on the chart.[60] The singer reached 27 top ten singles on the Hot 100 in a span of 10 years and eight months between her first song, "Pon de Replay" and "Work" and became the fastest solo artist to reach the plateau.[61] In its fourth week, "Work" peaked at number one on the Hot 100 chart and became Rihanna's fourteenth number-one song in the United States and the 1,052nd number-one single on the chart overall. Subsequently, she became the artist with the fourth-most number-one songs on the chart following the Beatles with 20 and Carey with 19, and Elvis Presley with 17. She broke a tie with Michael Jackson, who had reached 13 chart-toppers on the Billboard Hot 100.[62]
On 29 March 2016, Rihanna announced that "Needed Me" and "Kiss It Better" would both be serviced to radio the following day as the album's second and third singles.[63] "Needed Me" saw far greater success becoming Rihanna's 28th top ten single on the Hot 100, tying her with Stevie Wonder for fourth place as the acts with the most top tens in Billboard history.[64] It notably became her longest charting Hot 100 hit, surpassing the 41-week run of "We Found Love".[65] "Kiss It Better" was a moderate success charting at the lower end of the US Billboard Hot 100, initially released as the promotional focus at pop radio, "Kiss It Better" reached as far as number twenty-four on the Pop Songs chart, leading Roc Nation to release "Needed Me"—an initially "urban radio priority"—to pop radio as well, due to its success.[66]
On 21 August 2016, Rihanna announced via her Instagram account that "Love on the Brain" will be the next single. Prior to being announced as a single, "Love on the Brain" debuted on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at number 30 and charted on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 83.[67] After being released as a single, the song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 80.[68] The song peaked at number five, becoming the third top ten single from Anti, as well as her twenty-second top five hit.[69]
Commercial performance[edit]
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Anti platinum denoting one million copies sold two days after its release, brought by Samsung purchasing one million copies and giving them away as a free download, as part of the November 2015 deal.[136] The album debuted at number 27 on the Billboard 200 chart dated 13 February 2016.[137] Despite its first-week sales of 1.4 million downloads, Billboard did not recognize free album sales via promotions.[138][139] According to data provider Nielsen SoundScan for Billboard, recognized first-week of Anti included 4.7 million streams and 126,000 digital songs.[137] The following week, the album topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and the Billboard 200, marking Rihanna's second number one on the latter.[140]
Anti peaked atop the Billboard 200 for two non-consecutive weeks, claiming the top spot on the chart week ending 2 April 2016.[141] The same week, its lead single "Work" topped the Billboard Hot 100, marking Rihanna's second time topping both the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts simultaneously; Unapologetic and "Diamonds" topped the charts in December 2012.[142] According to Nielsen SoundScan, Anti was the ninth-best-selling album and the fourth-most-consumed album of 2016 in the United States, amassing 603,000 pure sales, 4.195 million song downloads, and over 1.4 billion streams.[143]
On the issue dated February 25, 2023, the album returned to the top ten of the Billboard 200 at number 8 with 36,000 units, following her Super Bowl LVII halftime performance.[144] Later that year, the RIAA certified Anti six times platinum, marking six million album-equivalent units based on sales and streaming.[145] By January 2024, Anti became the first album by a black female artist to spend 400 weeks on the Billboard 200, and become the fourth longest charting female album in Billboard 200 history.[146][147]
Anti topped the albums charts in Canada and Norway.[148][149] In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number one on the UK R&B Chart;[150] In 2019, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified Anti platinum for surpassing 300,000 units.[151] The album peaked within the top five of albums charts in many European countries, reaching number two in Ireland,[152] Sweden[153] and Switzerland;[154] number three in Denmark,[155] Germany[156] and the Netherlands;[157] number four in Greece[158] and Spain;[159] and number five in the Czech Republic[160] and Finland.[161] It received multi-platinum certifications in France (double platinum)[162] and Denmark (triple platinum).[163] Anti was the most-streamed album by a female artist on Spotify of 2016 worldwide.[164] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), it sold over one million copies worldwide in 2016.[165] According to Billboard, the album sold 11 million in album-equivalent units as of 2021.[166]
Legacy[edit]
Doreen St. Félix of MTV News stated that Anti was a "rock-star" album and was noted as a "banner for heterogeneity in R&B — the real range of it," continuing to state that in the early 2010s EDM was the popular genre. St. Félix stated in a more in-depth review that "Anti could even change with the seasons, depending on which tracks you chose to listen to."[167] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian stated that R&B was in a "golden age" and 2016 "was its most potent year yet". Petridis stated that artists such as Rihanna pushed the genre's "boundaries", noting that Anti was "sprawling, exploratory and opaque".[168] The album's commercial performance, especially its streaming performance, was noted as helping R&B "flourish" again, along with Drake and Kanye West. Rihanna was cited as the second most streamed artist of 2016 overall, earning 795 million streams by June and was named the most streamed female of 2016 and 2017 by Spotify.[169][170] Anti produced eight songs that topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart — "Work", "Kiss It Better", "Needed Me", "Love on the Brain", "Sex with Me", "Pose", "Desperado" and "Consideration" — surpassing Katy Perry's Teenage Dream (2010) as the album with the most number-one songs on that chart.[171][172]
Rolling Stone's journalist Brittany Spanos stated that Rihanna was one of three black women, alongside Beyoncé and Solange, who "radicalized Pop in 2016". In an in-depth review, Spanos stated "the album is a startlingly direct statement from a black female pop star, one that many are not afforded the opportunity to express. In the media, black women are often cast as either jezebels or mammies – oversexed or undersexed with no choice as to how they are received. Rihanna's resistance to typecasting and her positive affirmation of her sexual agency made her the year's slyest rebel, a maverick living life as she pleases."[173] Taj Rani of Billboard stated "Work" has brought the genre of dancehall to the forefront of American music, as it became the first dancehall song to top the Billboard Hot 100 since Sean Paul's "Temperature" reached the feat in 2006. She opined the song is a prime example of "an unapologetic black woman proudly showing her heritage at a time when our politics are dominated by #BlackLivesMatter and Donald Trump's racist, xenophobic and misogynistic tirades."[174] Da'Shan Smith of Billboard stated "Love on the Brain" became the most subtly influential pop single of 2017, as the music industry experienced "a prominent surge of retro-harkening balladry, across different musical genres", following the success of this song on pop radio; which he described as "a rare find today, because traditional R&B's presence on the format is an oddity."[175]
Marilyn Manson cited Anti as an influence on his band's album Heaven Upside Down, saying: "Strangely enough, one of the records that influenced this album strongly, and it can't be taken literally, is Rihanna, her last record. That one song, 'Love on the Brain', it really hit me because I saw her perform it and she just... meant it."[176] Album track "Higher" inspired the song "Liability" from New Zealand singer Lorde's second album Melodrama (2017), when Lorde was reportedly "moved to tears" listening to "Higher" and this helped her to write "Liability".[177] Contemporary artist Awol Erizku created a series of pieces inspired by musicians, one of the pieces was titled, "Same Ol' Mistakes," inspired by the song of the same name from the album Anti. Referencing one of Rihanna's logos, Erizku spoke of how the song inspired his artwork, stating: "I always thought that logo was really funny. It's one aspect of pop culture that I thought fit in my world, Rihanna is a voice of our generation, one of our ideals of beauty. You can see these two things co-existing in the same environment."[178] In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Anti at number 230 on their The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[179]
Credits adapted from Rihanna's official website.[18]
Notes
Sample credits
Credits are adapted from Rihanna's website.[181]
Performers and musicians
Production
Design and management