Rihanna f/ Drake - "Work"

[Glove Slap]

In early 2016, Rihanna was in a precarious position. After aiming to launch #R8 sometime in 2015 after a break from the breakneck release schedule she'd been on for 8 years, it had all boiled down to some self-glorifying videos for Samsung as the year closed. She'd had three singles, the recent of which had been one of her biggest commercial failures. Producers were criticizing other producers, material was still being gathered, fans were confused, etc.

Meanwhile, the wimpy Stressed Out and the vile abomination known as 7 Years were rising on the charts, threatening the number one spot. Things were bleak on all sides, and then...

The track was originally heard in small clips from an unused video set in late 2015, and were quickly pulled. When released, Work became Rihanna's 14th #1 hit, saving the Hot 100 from the aforementioned two entities. As terrible politicians criss-crossed the country, and terrible posters infected the Hot 100 threads, Work continued to shine like a beacon of hope at the top for 9 weeks, powered significantly by Streaming and finding less CHR success than the majority of the Hot 100 number ones of the decade at that point. It would be her only #1 hit for the year, but kicked off a massive 2016 for her after a year of things not coming together. It broke spin records at Urban and was the 4th biggest hit of 2016 in the US, the highest by a female artist. 

[Deleted]

One of the worst songs of the 2010s decade.

[Glove Slap]

Jan 1, 2018 14:10:34 GMT -5 @walker9 said:

One of the best songs of the 2010s decade.

And it forever will be.

[MilesW1998]

This song gets way too much hate. Yeah, it's probably the worst of her 14 #1s, but she could do so much worse, and this isn't even that bad tbh.

[Deleted]

Ik it's far from being great, but I can't lie, izza bop for me.
Just remove Drake's part and I'll work to the full song on a good day
Forever iconic 

[Live Your Life]

FIRE. I'm still not tired of it. I like how authentic it is to her and her culture, especially after everyone was making those diet dancehall songs that were labelled "tropical house." This is how you do it.

Because this song is so catchy and fun (and your average person didn't understand what the hell she was talking about), I think the sincerity of the lyrics got overshadowed. But it was just a nice concept for them to flip the script and have her "work" to get a man's trust back after he saw her do her "dirt." It's usually the other way around in music.

The videos were nothing special, but they served their purpose.

[Choco]

Can't believe this is 2 years old.

This is the definition of a bop, a great way to re-introduce her to the charts and one of my favorites from that year.

[Dreams]

Horrific.

[deepston]

This song is nothing that special but I won't lie, every time this comes in the club I can't help but shake my ass like there is no tomorrow.

[Caviar]

Time flies. The remixes to this were fire.

[boysilver400]

Overrated and one of her worst songs. Drake adds nothing here.

[Bwol]

I used to hate this but I actually love this now.

[B-Boy]

It's probably my least favorite single from the album, even though I jammed to it all throughout 2016. The hook is insanely catchy.

[g8erboi]

This is kind of a classic tbh.

[Deleted]

This was a great performance, also SZA being there was a plus 

[Exclusive]

Flawless dancehall bop!

[crazyb]

The fact that this is 2 years old now is just weird.

[#LisaRinna]

[born]

Iconic #1 smash. I was so glad this became a hit. It took more than 2 weeks for me to fully digest (cause it was THAT new and unexpected) but it remains one of my favorite 2016 songs and definitely one of the most memorable moments in the industry for 2016.

[kcdawg13]

Fantastic song, great comeback from her previous flop singles

[𝓲𝓽'𝓼.𝓰𝓿]

I still hate this song for blocking Stressed Out from #1. But this song was good though.

[Mayman]

This song is still so good. It's just so fun and never gets old for me.

[Choco]

Three years in, still polarizing. It came on the radio the other day at the office and me and a girl that sits close to me were singing along like wah wah wah wah while the woman that sits behind me started this huge rant of all the reasons she hates it. We still didn't change the station 

[wjr15]

Classic. I remember when this first came out and thought Rihanna was drunk while recording this. But it grew on me quickly and this is a bop. Rihanna is the only person who could have a bunch of drunk slurring for a chorus and make it WORK.

I miss this woman on the charts.

[NeRD]

Meh.

[Fire]

I'm not lying when I say this is in my top 10 for the worst songs I've ever heard. This is actually atrocious.

[aussie1]

This is mid tier for Rihanna but my god when this was dominating it was just amazing. This will go down as a classic in the decades to come, for good reasons for some and bad reasons for others. I always thought this song was underrated lyrically. She is pouring her heart out on the verses. 

This still goes off in the clubs btw.

[annoymous1]

Not there best collab but it aged well if it comes on the radio or on a playlist I won't skip it and i loved it's chart run also.

[Adrian C. 🍓]

Annoying. What's My Name and Take Care are sooooo much better.

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

Iconic. This aged really fine tbh (just like ANTI).

I miss her so much!