RIHANNA PT. 2 (with Julianne Escobedo Shepherd)
Pop Pantheon
DJ Louie XIV
4.7 • 630 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2021
⏱️ 98 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Former Editor-in-Chief of Jezebel and famed author of The Rihanna RihPort, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Is back with DJ Louie for part two of their discussion about the newly anointed Queen of Barbados, Rihanna. Louie and Julianne pick up with Rihanna's 5th album, 2010's Loud, her commercial pop peak and a celebration following the thornier, darker Rated R the previous year. They then analyze what made "We Found Love" the emblematic EDM-pop song and Rih's biggest hit to date, the way she drew from female rappers on salacious hits like "Cockiness (Lick It)" and "Birthday Cake", the alluring fatigue of 2012's sprawling Unapologetic, how she became the superlative celebrity Instagrammer, and her subversive choice to re-unite on record with Chris Brown. Rounding out her career, they consider Rihanna's artistic peak, 2016's startlingly insular Anti, how she's recently applied The Rihanna Thing in non-musical ventures like her lingerie and makeup lines, and her impact on contemporary pop stars, before each sharing their ranking of Rihanna albums. Finally, Louie and Julianne have a lengthy and heated debate about whether Rihanna has ascended to (*gasp*) Tier 1 in the official Pop Pantheon.
Ready Julianne's column, The Rihanna RihPort, in Jezebel
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Pop Pantheon, the podcast where we completely overanalyze the music, legacy, and cultural impact of all your favorite pop stars. |
| 0:19.4 | I'm your host, DJ Louis X. Louisth, and I'm a DJ, writer, |
| 0:23.1 | and all-around pop music fanatic. I've spent my entire life and career thinking about, |
| 0:27.9 | dissecting, and being obsessed with pop stars. Their music, their legacies, how they relate to one |
| 0:33.2 | another, to the larger pop musical landscape, and to culture more broadly. What separates an icon from a mere superstar? |
| 0:39.9 | Why does some careers become the soundtrack to our lives, and why do others flop? |
| 0:44.7 | Whose work in legacy transcends time and whose feel stuck in it? |
| 0:48.4 | Every episode of Pop Pantheon, we'll devote an entire episode to a pop icon, |
| 0:53.1 | from Titans of the Genre like Beyonce and all the |
| 0:55.4 | way down to lesser Titans, like Nicole Scherzinger. Each episode, you'll hear a little breakdown from |
| 1:02.5 | me, and then some distinguished guests and I will chop it up about their careers, discographies, |
| 1:07.5 | public personas, live performances, music videos, feuds, tweets, you name it. |
| 1:12.5 | And at the end, we'll turn pop into fantasy football, make our final judgment, and place them in the official Pop Pantheon. |
| 1:21.1 | What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Pop Pantheon. This is your host, DJ Louis. As always, couldn't be more thrilled that |
| 1:30.7 | you're here listening to the podcast today. This is actually going to be our last episode of 2021. |
| 1:39.4 | We will be back top of the year, first week of January January with new episodes and we'll be back on our |
| 1:46.4 | every other week schedule starting then and on the occasion of our final episode of the year |
| 1:53.0 | I just wanted to like share a quick earnest reflection which is you know I've been doing this for |
| 1:57.9 | about nine months now I'm absolutely gagged, floored with, like, |
| 2:02.8 | how incredible this has gone. It's been so incredible to get to make this show. It's been so |
| 2:08.1 | incredible to get to share it with all of you. I'm so, like, beyond my expectations in terms of |
| 2:14.6 | like, how many of you listen to this podcast and listen to me babble every |
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