Rihanna's 15 Biggest Controversies

No matter what happens, Rihanna is one of those celebrities that I will never have enough of. Not only do I live for her music, but I love everything about her persona. Why do I live for Rihanna? There is an endless source of controversy. Love her or hate her, you could never accuse Rihanna of being boring— not in a million years. Rihanna does not care about what anyone else thinks. She just does whatever she wants whenever she wants and she pretty much always gets away with it. Even if she is causing a scandal, Rihanna almost always comes out unscathed. You just can't keep a bad girl down.

Nevertheless, my girl RiRi has had more than her fair share of criticism over the years. Rihanna has been hated on for the outfits she wears. She has been penalized for the photos that she has posted online. She has been attacked for her song collaborations with Chris Brown and Eminem. She has been the object of desire in multiple love triangles. And even though Ri always keeps it cool, there always seems to be some sort of drama going on.

Don't worry about Rihanna though, she is not a victim and she never has been. Rihanna has come for her haters plenty of times with a super, strong vengeance. Rihanna is not afraid to stir the pot or stand up for herself and people have definitely taken notice. Ri is not someone that anyone should mess with ever.

Whether Rihanna is performing or not, she is always providing entertainment for the masses. These are fifteen of the biggest Rihanna controversies to date.

15. She Feuded With Ciara

This will always hold a special place in my heart as one of my favorite celebrity feuds. I think it is because Rihanna vs. Ciara is just such a blatant mismatch. Not only do they have different levels of stardom, but Rihanna is a million times more ruthless than Ciara. It all started when Ciara made a low key comment about a run-in with Rihanna at a party and saying she wasn't super nice. Rihanna clapped back hard on Twitter and things escalated back and forth. Ciara tried to remain positive, but she usually slipped back in to feud. Rihanna post videos on Instagram mocking Ciara and she just really went in. The controversy climaxed when Ciara said Rihanna shouldn't want to see her on or off the stage and Rihanna asked her what stage she was speaking of. It was a harsh burn, but fairly accurate since Ciara is more well known for her romantic relationships than her professional feats.

14. She Got Banned From Instagram

Rihanna has never been shy about showing off her body and that is one of many reasons why everyone loves her. Well, everyone loves her except for some people who work for Instagram. After she posted A LOT of boob-baring photos on the social media site, Rihanna's Instagram account just disappeared. Needless to say, Instagram was extremely boring for six months. And Rihanna was not going to take this absence lying down. The social media queen responded by making her Twitter avatar a topless picture of herself because apparently that social media platform is more accepting of nudity. This is also when she wore that see-through dress at the CFDA awards in protest and slayed the red carpet. I have no idea why anyone would be against Rihanna getting naked, but it did happen and she was definitely pissed off about it.

13. She Wore That "Naked" Dress

After she came under fire for posting nude photos online, Rihanna's Instagram account disappeared and she was pretty peeved about it. It was her body and she was not going to let the issue die. She wanted to show her body off whenever she wanted however she wanted. So how did she make up for getting trouble because she was naked, she got naked again that's how. Well, technically Rihanna was not naked, but she was wearing a see-through dress. Rihanna wore a completely see-through dress with no bra to the CFDA awards and completely stole the show. Not only did she look glamorous, but she made a major statement.

12. She Offended People With The "BBHMM" Music Video

"Bitch Better Have My Money" is arguably Rihanna's most controversial music video yet. It is full of nudity (of course), foul language, drowning, violence, and drug references. Although the song was a major hit, the music video did not sit well with people. In fact, the BBHMM video ended up making a lot of people angry. "Bitch Better Have My Money" came under fire from critics who thought the seven-minute long music video was incredibly misogynistic. And of course, the controversy made more people click the links online and the music video ended getting a lot more attention than when it was initially released. Once again, Rihanna controversy ended up turning into a victory for the singer.

11. She Was In A Love Triangle With Drake & Chris Brown

Just when I think it's over, it never is. The love triangle between Rihanna, Chris Brown, and Drake is the stuff of modern legend. Well, maybe not "legend," but it provides endless entertainment. As we all know, RiRi and Chris Brown had a tumultuous on and off relationship. In the meantime, Drake made his way out of the friend zone a few times without actually dating Rihanna. So obviously the two men ended up hating each other and everything they said or did out of jealousy ended up bringing Rihanna's name into the press yet again. In one of the craziest stories, Chris Brown sent over a champagne bottle and Drake gave it back to him with a note that read, "I'm fucking the love of your life, deal with it." And then a brawl ensued in the club. Rihanna clearly has something special because these two are pretty much always fighting over her.

10. She Murdered A Rapist In The "Man Down" Video

Rihanna is not afraid to really go there when it comes to her songs and music videos. Case in point the video for "Man Down." So what was the issue this time? People were taken aback by the storyline where Rihanna kills a man who sexually assaulted her. Many thought it was a lot to see her gunning down an unarmed man no matter what the backstory may have been. Critics felt that Rihanna was promoting violent behavior to her fans. Still there were plenty of fans in the Rihanna Navy who supported the video and felt like Rihanna was sending across positive messages of female empowerment. Nevertheless, the video is quite controversial.

9. She Called Out CBS For Its Skewed Stance On Domestic Violence

CBS started using Rihanna's song "Run This Town" for its Thursday Night Football promo commercials which everyone was loving since every Rihanna song is amazing. Well, CBS decided to pull her intro from Thursday Night Football following the release of scandalous video footage that showed NFL player Ray Rice beating his wife. The network wanted to maintain an "appropriate tone" by pulling the Rihanna song. This made a lot of people angry because it came off like CBS was punishing Rihanna for being a victim of domestic herself by not wanting to associate her with the broadcast. To add insult to injury, CBS wanted to use her music the next week and Rihanna was just not having it so she tweeted, "CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, Fuck you! Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this." And of course, Rihanna standing up for herself made headlines that it shouldn't have. Instead of using Rihanna and her song as an opportunity to make a positive impact, Rihanna was punished for being a victim and it was terribly unfair.

8. She Got A Thai Strip Club Shut Down

Rihanna was doing what most young people do after a wild night out: share the salacious details of the experience on social media. Usually when I do that there is virtually no consequence, but when RiRi tweets it pretty much always makes headlines. So of course, it was going to be a thing when she tweeted about her experience at a Thai sex club. Among other things, Ri wrote, "Either I was phuck wasted lastnight, or I saw a Thai woman pull a live bird,2 turtles,razors,shoot darts and ping pong, all out of her p*$$y." Several tweets later, the club in question got shut down because it was unlicensed. The power of Rihanna.

Rihanna threw shade at Chris Brown's on-again-off-again girlfriend Karrueche Tran a million times on social media, but there is one incident that stands out above the rest. To understand what Rihanna was trying to convey, you will need some background information. Rihanna collaborated with Chris Brown on the "Birthday Cake (Remix)." In one line of the song, Rihanna sang, "Sweeter than a rice cake, cake worth sipping" which made everyone think that Ri was referring to Chris's then-girlfriend who is half Vietnamese. To make matters worse, she Instagrammed a photo of rice cakes with sunglasses and hoop earrings on and captioned it with other lyrics from the song, "Ima make u my bitch." Rihanna never admitted that the "rice cake" in question was alluding to Karrueche, but everyone knows that it was. Shade thrown.

6. She Took Offensive Photos In A Mosque

Rihanna is an Instagram superstar, so she is always on the lookout for a good background for some new photos. Except this time Rihanna's picture locale was just not appropriate at all. RiRi got in trouble at an Abu Dhabi mosque when she posted pictures of herself there on Instagram. Rihanna was wearing a jumpsuit and a hijab in the photos. It caused issues for many reasons: First and foremost, she was in an area that was off-limits to most visitors. Second, many people felt that she was violating the sanctity of the religious location. And to top it all off, she was hit with cultural appropriation for the outfit and headwear combination. I'm sure that Rihanna meant well with the photos and was probably only trying to pay tribute, but the whole thing was just all sorts of offensive.

5. She Sang About Abuse On "Love The Way You Lie"

For some warped reason, Rihanna got a lot of negative publicity when she was the victim of Chris Brown's domestic assault. Her beaten face and other unauthorized images hit the internet and it was absurd. Later, Rihanna collaborated with Eminem on the song "Love The Way You Lie," which was about domestic violence. It was a very touchy subject in general, but even more so given Rihanna and Eminem's past history. With that said, song ended up being a monster hit and people really related to it, including Rihanna and Eminem who both experienced different sides of domestic violence. Although the lyrics were controversial, people ended up embracing the song.

4. She Got Back With Chris Brown After The Initial Break Up

Unfortunately, the violent altercation between Chris Brown and Rihanna became a very public story. Everyone and their grandmother had opinions on the incident and their relationship. Initially the twosome broke up, but were soon seen together hanging out and going to basketball games together. People were very offended by this move because they did not understand why Rihanna would want to be around Chris ever again. It was and still is a very touchy subject. The thing is that it is not any of our business to cast judgment on someone else's relationship. Secondly, no one knows the full story about a relationship they are not in. Sure, Rihanna's fans were just expressing concern about her safety, but they were still pretty pissed off at their beloved RiRI for hanging out with her ex.

3. She Sang With Chris Brown After They Broke Up

Once Chris Brown and Rihanna seemed to be done with the cycle of an on-again-off-again relationship, the two surprised us all when they decided to collaborate on a song together. It really came out of nowhere when the former couple collaborated on the song "Birthday Cake (Remix)." Not only that, but the entire song was one extended sexual metaphor and while it is a personal favorite of mine, some other people were pretty shocked to see these two singing on a song together, let alone such a sexually charged tune. But once again, scandal ended up working in Rihanna's favor and the song ended up becoming a hit.

2. She Tweeted About Palestine & Deleted It

There is a lot more to Rihanna than music and partying. Occasionally, she uses her high profile platform to speak out on international issues. Rihanna came under fire when she tweeted "#FreePalestine" and deleted the post eight minutes later. It's crazy to think that Rihanna is such a high profile celebrity that something posted online for eight minutes could actually make a headline, but it did. Within that short time span, the tweet was retweeted seven thousand times. Aside from the retweets, there was also an array of negative responses that questioned her decision to publicly support this. Apparently Rihanna did not even mean to post it in the first place and she accidentally tweeted "#FreePalestine" when she clicked on a website link. To make matters worse, she didn't even know it happened until all the replies started flooding in. Even when Rihanna makes a mistake, her words can incite a controversy.

1. She Was Accused Of Doing Coke At Coachella

If you follow Rihanna on Instagram or listen to her music, you are well aware that Rihanna loves to smoke weed. She has been very vocal about the recreational habit throughout her years of fame. So this is not something that makes headlines anymore. Shit really got crazy when a video emerged from the Coachella music festival where it looked like Ri was snorting cocaine and the internet went crazy hating on my girl. So how did Rihanna respond to those accusations? She went in, of course. Among other things, she said, "Any fool could see that's a joint that I'm basing with cigarette! Who tF snorts tobacco??!! FOH witcho "never been to a rodeo so someone squeezing their nose means they're doing coke" lookin ass!! (sic)."

Rihanna is the only person who would use smoking weed to get out of an excuse for getting in trouble and it is just too great.

No one could ever accuse Rihanna of being boring. It seems like everything she does gets a ton of attention so there is always a new Rihanna controversy on the horizon. She always has an opinion to share and is not afraid to be herself. Never change, Ri.

Sources: BET, Daily Mail, Mashable, International Business Times, The Telegraph,

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