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Rihanna - You Da One

Music Video | USA | 2011
ArtistRihanna
DirectorMelina Matsoukas
Director of PhotographyGösta Reiland

Wiki

Synopsis

Rihanna presents "You Da One" as a stylized black-and-white fashion performance. Moving between stark studio setups, projected geometric patterns, a photo-shoot atmosphere, and graphic title cards, she delivers the song with a playful but deliberately provocative attitude. Lyrics appear across the frame and over her body, while blonde wigs, dramatic makeup, a white bowler hat, cane, and sharply posed choreography give the clip a retro, pop-art edge. The visual language mixes music-video glamour with imagery associated with A Clockwork Orange.

Factoids & Trivia

  • The video was filmed on November 30, 2011, at MC Motors in Dalston, East London.
  • It premiered on December 23, 2011, shortly after Rihanna released the song as the second single from her album "Talk That Talk."
  • Its most recognizable visual reference is Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange." Rihanna's bowler hat, cane, eye makeup, and white costume echo the film's famous droog imagery without reproducing its storyline.
  • The clip combines several formats rather than following a conventional narrative. It works partly as a fashion shoot, partly as a lyric video, and partly as a graphic projection piece.
  • The lyrics are treated as visual objects, appearing as stamped words and phrases across the screen and, at times, over Rihanna herself.
  • Norwegian photographer Solve Sundsbo accused the production of borrowing from his 2008 image series "Numero 93." The complaint focused on a sequence in which Rihanna wears a white outfit covered with black dots.
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