Yesterday, Rihanna's "B-tch Better Have My Money" music video dropped on YouTube and set off a tidal wave of debate, the ripples of which can still be felt all over the web.
If you haven't seen the clip, be warned that it's extremely NSFW, and you should proceed with caution if you're easily upset by graphic violence, gratuitous nudity, or Eric Roberts:
Weirdly, BBHM features all of those things in spades, and while some of the 10 million who have already viewed the clip on YouTube seem unsure of what to think, many, many others are taking hard-line stances in favor of or against what might be the most divisive music video of all time.
Some have praised the 7-minute short film as an ode to female empowerment, a declaration that fictional women should be able to engage in the same horrific on-screen acts as Dexter or Tony Soprano without being blackballed for encroaching on the territory traditionally occupied by male villains.
Others say it's just the opposite - a senseless slice of shock value that serves no purpose other than to glorify violence against women.
The harshest critics of the clip have questioned why the victim chosen by RiRi and her posse must 1. female, and 2. naked throughout much of the video.
Yes, she's the wife of an accountant (played by Hannibal's Mads Mikkelsen) who somehow screwed Rihanna over, but why wasn't he thrown in a trunk and hung upside down in his underwear?
Sure, he gets his in the end, but the decision to focus on oddly-sexualized female-on-female violence has struck many as at best odd, and at worst profoundly offensive.
So what are we left with?
Is the Internet doing what it so often does to art and over-analyzing it within an inch of its life? Probably.
Is Rihanna loving the sight of the YouTube views piling up as fans and haters alike look on in either delight or disgust? Most likely.
And you can bet she's celebrating just like her character in the video - with a fat blunt, atop an ever-growing pile of money.
Perhaps we're all the "bitches," and we should all just fork over the cash. #DeepThoughts
Anyway, check out the clip and decide for yourself. Oh, who are we kidding? It's been online for over 24 hours. You've almost certainly made up your mind already.
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