Rihanna Teams Up With Eminem Again For “Monster” Single

Finally! The veil over Rihanna's cryptic Tweets from early September has been removed. Turns out the "#monster" Rih mentioned in her Tweet was not a Lady Gaga reference; it was a direct callout to Eminem's new track "Monster," which features Rihanna's vocals.

We should have known better to not hold out hope for a pop-diva extravaganza since Gaga revealed the official track list of ARTPOP, but we've always believed in optimism here. Anyway, the result is nothing short of great. Eminem's still as angry as you remember him to be — if not more poetic in his aggression. "Monster" is a real big track with an explosive Rihanna hook that feels as autobiographical as her hook in Eminem's 2010 track, "Love The Way You Lie." "I'm friends with the monster that's under my bed / Get along with the voices inside of my head," she sings in between Eminem's outbursts of frustration over the way the vision he had for his career and work was mangled, twisted, and changed by the industry, the monster.

Said monster is a double entendre: On one hand, it could be the actual voices of doubt and hope he hears while also representing the way his label and influencers above him haunt his thoughts. Put all of that over a pounding production, and you've got yourself a monster hit.