Connecting Rihanna’s ‘good girl gone bad’ roots to brandy’s ‘afrodisiac’
Digital Magazine
Here’s how Rihanna drew inspiration from Brandy, as she sought out a transformation.
BY HARPSICHORD
MAY 12, 2023
A digital illustration of paparazzi capturing Rihanna and Brandy hanging out in the back of a limo in 2008
Back in 2007, a 19-year-old Rihanna had been asked by Entertainment Weekly about “[the] pressure to make a great album rather than a few great singles.” She agreed that would be Good Girl Gone Bad’s primary focus– three career albums in. Then she revealed her peculiar inspiration behind the LP: Brandy’s Afrodisiac. “When I buy an album I hate when I have to skip songs,” said the artist. She remarked how she listened to Brandy’s fourth studio project from 2004 “all the time” while recording her own material.
Good Girl Gone Bad turned out to be Rihanna’s most brooding record up to that point. Her two previous albums– Music of the Sun and A Girl Like Me– were brighter in the music tones of an ingenue. Gone Bad offered a bite with its immersion of dark techno, new wave, and pop rock influences into contemporary R&B. Its lead smash single, “Umbrella,” proved the album also had an urban, hip hop edge.
Looking at the span of Brandy’s discography, Afrodisiac is often praised for being a predecessor album to that brand of alternative R&B. It glides with the infusion of ambient undertones (“How I Feel”), hip hop breakbeats (“Turn It Up”), and the techniques of muddy blues (“Necessary” and “I Tried”). In 2023, for their list of “200 Greatest Singers of All Time,” Rolling Stone referenced the album’s “more adult tone” over a sample of Coldplay’s “Clocks.”
At the time of Afrodisiac’s release, mainstream R&B excelled at midtempo ballads with confessional tones (see: Usher’s diamond selling record of a similar name). The genre’s A-list teen stars of the ‘90’s were becoming adults in front of the public eye. Their lives were beginning to get a lot messier and storied with realness. As expressed on the album’s deep cut “Should I Go,” the genre also felt a void because one of those teen stars, Aaliyah, passed away a few years prior. Brandy herself had faced public scrutiny for lying about being pregnant out of wedlock during her previous era for 2002’s Full Moon. Essentially all these elements somewhat shaped Brandy into becoming her own, “Bad Girl.”
Similar to Afrodisiac, Rihanna’s album embraces the aforementioned notions. Brandy opens her album by thanking her critics “for all the tears, all the stress” on the autobiographical, “Who I Am.” Eventually that would be mirrored theme wise on Rihanna’s “Question Existing”-- where the singer opens up to her diary about the nature of critique and her constant mood swings. For the first time in their respective careers, audiences witnessed stripped back emotions from both ladies. If anything, they were going to provide the answers for what the public wanted to know– through their lyricism.
It had always been a dream for Brandy to collaborate with Timbaland. She had admired his work from afar when he collaborated with Aaliyah in the 90s until her untimely death in 2001. Parts of 1998’s Never Say Never and follow up, Full Moon, echoed those electro futuristic vibes– but through the production lead of Darkchild. A sudden shift from her signature Darkchild sound came as a source of reinvention not only for her, but Timbaland himself. Brandy told USA Today, “I made the change because I needed to evolve,” after scrapping records from other producers.
One of the primary producing components of Timbaland– aside from his masterful incorporation of European synth-dance genres– is his blending of Arabian flutes. That can be heard soundscaping “Come As You Are,” one of the nine standard edition tracks he’d produce for the album. Serving as another candid disclosure, Brandy chronicles “I was just a girl, so soft spoken,” before repeatedly belting “now I’m a woman, a passionate woman.” Three years later, Rihanna would incorporate those Middle Eastern Timbaland vibes on “Lemme Get That,” a sassy number about gold digging. With a vocal bridge, the singer delivers a megaphone-affected plea refuting she actually is one, and is just a woman that enjoys lavish gifts.
When Brandy released Afrodisiac, her peers were all offering innovative works that changed the trajectory of contemporary pop music. Timbaland had found a muse in one of those individuals: Justin Timberlake. In 2002– as Brandy made waves with Full Moon– Timberlake and Timbaland struck platinum with “Cry Me A River,” an ode to discovering infidelity and confronting the ex-partner about it. “I Tried,” the fifth track of Afrodisiac, wallows along like “Cry Me A River,” where Brandy exposes her ex for “hav[ing] a bitch.” “I Tried to be blind to your games” croons the singer over a country-swaying beat from Timbaland.
Ironically, Rihanna would work with Timberlake on another Good Girl Gone Bad track titled “Rehab.” The song plays on an outlaw country beat that holds a signature Timbaland uptempo bounce. Although the song doesn’t expose suspicions of cheating like album staple “Breakin’ Dishes,” it recalls the dramatic urgency of its predecessor album by comparing a toxic relationship to “my favorite drug.”
Speaking of “Breakin’ Dishes,” Gone Bad gets its fuel from its rowdiness. Over a trippy, hyperactive techno beat, Rihanna repeatedly warns her audience that “I’mma fight a man tonight.” It’s got the same angst as Brandy’s “Sadiddy,” which features Timbaland beatboxing as Brandy notifies her listeners that she will fight in the club and “it won’t be pretty.” “Sadiddy” like “Breakin’ Dishes” highlights how both ladies were shedding their good girl images, and that they may appear glammed up but will get knuck if their buckness was tried. “I don’t know who you think I am,” goes Rihanna over a ticking time bomb. Both albums personified being bougie on wax– exerting a stratosphere of divahood.
“Breakin’ Dishes” adds to the effect of Rihanna channeling dance music. Other hits like “Don’t Stop The Music” and deep cut “Push Up On Me” took chapters from ‘80s electro-pop, while Brandy’s “Turn It Up” set out to embrace New York house party hip hop in the ‘90s. Rihanna is asking the DJ to play her favorite songs to dance too, while Brandy is also requesting specific artists while getting it in. As audiences are listening to more mature subject matters from both ladies, they can’t help but groove to the music– ultimately setting Rihanna as an unspoken dance queen of her generation, and Brandy as the more subtle one of her’s.
What makes both albums refreshing for their discographies is how current they were as relics of their respective times. Brandy collaborated with Kanye West on two serious songs about defining monogamy: “Talk About Our Love” and “Where You Wanna Be.” At the time, West had been an emerging producer breaking into the mainstream as a widely recognized A-list solo artist. “Where You Wanna Be” races with a guest appearance from trap music influencer T.I., who was just breaking into his own global success. West’s mastery of accenting a thumping hip hop drum against the stringwork of orchestral violins created a sense of urgency on the climatic “Where You Wanna Be.” It feels as though the song is a ticking clock. Four years after Afrodisiac’s release, T.I. would collaborate with Rihanna on their No. 1 hit “Live Your Life” – which came in the middle of the bonus Reloaded chapter to Gone Bad. She’d find herself working with West a year later– starring as a damsel in distress for his “Paranoid” music video.
Rihanna too had a knack for recognizing sounds that would dominate, as well as the artists who wrote and produced those vibes. The-Dream’s solo career started to blow up around the time of Gone Bad’s release. He contributed to “Breakin’ Dishes” and “Lemme Get That.” Ne-Yo, who was in the midst of his own run, featured on the hit R&B ballad “Hate That I Love You,” and lent his (“Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé) ear and pen to the title track where the singer announces she’s not only “Gone Bad” but is moving on from the toxicity “forever.”
When Rihanna debuted in 2005, the mainstream urban sound rediscovered another successful wave of West Indies fusion. Brandy’s title track contributed to that canon – the breeziness of a flute adding to its seduction and charm. “I admit that I’m a prisoner of your sex appeal,” sings Brandy over Y2K-enhanced pop. The music video features her dancing in water– mirroring the tropical feel of the song. The allure of the title track exposed a new side to Brandy in the public eye– costumed by open belly blouses, mini skirts, and stiletto high heels.
Rihanna also explores her sexuality with the usage of electronic flavored subgenres of reggae during the midsection of Gone Bad. The pop star urges her lover to just “Say It”-- or rather give thee signal– over a sample of Mad Cobra’s 1992 Jamaican dancehall ballad “Flex.” Rihanna channels a slight coyness from Brandy. She allows for the sample’s intention to speak rather than explicitly stating her intentions, as Mad Cobra’s version announces “it’s time to have sex.”
Rihanna’s “Sell Me Candy” tantalizes with a high-paced, cheerleader-like chant on top of steel drums. During her tour, audiences would get a taste of her evolved fashion sense consisting of bondage leather and laced-up thigh high boots.
Buried within Afrodisiac is Brandy’s home roots of Mississippi, and other entities of southern music. By the time the title track approaches its bridge, church organs can be heard. The signature baby cry– familiar to what’s happening in Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody”-- is now synonymous with Timbaland’s “dirty south” hailing. Organized Noize– an Atlanta production trio known favorably for their work with Outkast and launching dirty south rap in the mid-90’s– added to the muddy blues sound of “Necessary.” Meddling rock and dance into R&B had been nothing new, but Brandy’s (and primarily Timbaland’s) contributions capitalized what was happening with Kelis and The Neptunes (1999’s “Caught Out There”), and Aaliyah and Bud’da (2001’s “I Can Be”) . Rihanna’s “Shut Up And Drive” delved into its parent album’s overall 80’s soundscape, as it jolted topical bubblegum pop with glam-grunge and R&B swagger.
Both women benefited from the commanding presence their albums gave. Brandy’s album stands out for being chock full of cohesive production balanced out by risky vocal ad-libs and expository penmanship. The same would be the case for Rihanna’s third studio effort. Gone Bad may have started her wave of international superstardom, but it would be the later years where Rihanna would get more candid while facing scrutiny. On the opposite end, Brandy abandoned her commercial brand in favor of recognition for innovative artistry. Rihanna would take a chapter from that page on 2016’s ANTi. That time around she was able to experience Afrodisiac’s lessons as a more matured woman. This in turn inspired Brandy to request Rihanna as a wishlist feature. And in full effect, you can hear the Afrodisiac-Gone Bad-Anti cycle prevalent on Brandy’s 2020 b7 album.
