A day after debuting a new song live at the March Madness
Music Fest in Indianapolis, Rihanna released "American Oxygen" on Jay
Z's streaming site Tidal on Sunday.
"As you demanded----> #AmericanOxygen
now on @TidalHifi --> http://smarturl.it/RihAO #AO," Ri tweeted
Sunday afternoon, marking the second time in less than 24 hours that Tidal has
the exclusive premiere of an artist's new song. The first, in case we must
remind you, was Beyoncé's seventh anniversary tribute to Jay, "Die With
You." This is either making a convincing case for us to sign up, or really
annoying, depending on your Illuminati theories.
"American Oxygen" is a slow, steady ballad about
the American dream. "We sweat for a nickel and a dime, turn it into an
empire," Rihanna croons over sparse instrumentals. The absence of
club-banging production matches her previous release,
"FourFiveSeconds."
"I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t
want to perform a lot of my songs. They don’t feel like me. So I want to make
songs that are timeless," Rihanna told MTV News of the songs she recorded
for her new album, which still doesn't have an official release date or title (though she's been calling it #r8).
At her performance on
Saturday night, RiRi joined her fellow artists in slamming Indiana's Religious
Freedom Restoration law, "Who's feeling these new
bullsh-- laws that they're trying to pass over here? I say f--- that sh--,"
she told the audience. Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a revision on
Thursday allowing communities with ordinances that protect LGBT rights to keep
those in place.