I don’t actually know why Rihanna covers the spring issue of Interview – and that’s why it’s such a good interview, because there’s no obvious This Is What I Am Here to Promote vibe about the conversation. It also helps who she’s having the conversation with: Mel Ottenberg, her former stylist and the editor-in-chief of the magazine. So they have a history and a shorthand. Not that Rihanna is a bad interview otherwise though because she’s actually, for a star at her level, and she’s at the top level, a lot less guarded and much more accessible with the media than some of her peers.
With Mel, though, she has even fewer boundaries, which is why this interview is such a scream to read. You can hear Rihanna, picture her reactions, imagine how she might be laughing. And she’s the one telling Mel to not edit her, to not take her off the record, and pretending like she won’t answer personal questions but then talking about how and when she and A$AP Rocky fell in love.
RiRi and Rocky aren’t cagey about their relationship, but they also aren’t out here putting themselves on blast with every opportunity. With Mel Ottenberg for Interview, it is I think the most she’s revealed about her and Rocky, not just in terms of when they first met and how their relationship progressed, but how they feel about each other and why it’s different from how they’ve felt about anyone else.
“We’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve seen him in relationships. He’s seen me in relationships. We’ve seen each other outside of relationships. We knew what we’re capable of, and the trouble that we could bring to each other’s lives. We can make or break each other’s hearts. And so, we started dating with a lot of caution.”
“The trouble we could bring to each other’s lives.” So I guess Rihanna and Rocky were, for each other, that person they instinctively knew to avoid, until they could no longer avoid it. And, well, yeah, that’s been obvious to even the public from well before they officially became a thing. My petty ass, of course, immediately thinks of Drake because it was also obvious to the public that he was never going to be it.
Back to RiRi and Rocky and their plans to proceed with “caution” – that went away with COVID.
“COVID sped up our relationship, which I felt like god knew we needed because we were going to start a family. And had it not been for COVID, we would’ve taken a lot more time to get comfortable with each other, to even know that we were ready.”
When they were ready, they were READY. Two babies in two years and she’s telling Mel now that she’s open to having more kids. Which basically means she’s having more kids, soon. And then maybe she’ll get her tits done. Yes, they talk about getting her tits done. She wants a lift, so that they can be “pinned back to my shoulders, right where they used to be”. LOL.
Like I said, it’s a freewheeling interview and a freewheeling read and it happened on Rihanna time at 3am and the takeaway here is that it must be fun as f-ck to hang out with her. And style her. Because Rihanna is not afraid to take risks and not afraid to not look pretty. The concept of this shoot wasn’t about appealing to the MiniVan Majority – like that idea gets thrown out when you put her on the cover as a horny nun:
And Rocky cosplay?
