Melissa Kacar

Anti  simultaneously marked the beginning and end of a creative era for Rihanna in many ways. She went into the creation of this album intentionally wanting to make the antithesis of all that had come before in her discography.  Rihanna's catalog is truly one of the strongest and most impactful in contemporary music, no one else has had the run of iconic hits that she had from the mid-2000s through the 2010s. It is truly incomparable, as she dominated the industry in a way very few artists ever have. With that being said, Rihanna was never really considered an "album artist", so to speak. She had countless incredible singles, but most of her full-length albums didn't carry the same strength all the way through. A lot of them were built around the singles and the tracklist didn't always match the level of those standalone hits. They were more of a sum of their parts. With this release, she wanted to step away from the polished, radio-friendly pop sound she'd be...

In May 2024, Rihanna officially set the record for the most diamond certified singles and diamond certified titles by any female artist in history. She now has seven songs that have reached this rare and prestigious honor in music. A song is certified diamond by the RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, when it sells over ten-million copies in the United States. "ain't no back n forth," Rihanna wrote on social media sharing her landmark achievement.  Although she hasn't released a new album since 2016 , Rihanna continues to be one of the highest-selling and most influential artists in the industry. In the past eight years, aside from releasing a couple of new songs and headlining the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023, she has otherwise taken a big step back from the music industry to focus on her family and working on other very successful business ventures . She has pretty much all but officially retired from music and I don't expect her to ever c...

It's the first Monday in May, which means it is fashion's biggest night out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Met Gala ! The theme this year is "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" celebrating the life and career of the late Karl Lagerfeld, best known for his 65 year career as a designer for some of the most renowned and iconic fashion houses in the world - Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi and his own eponymous label. However, he is best known for being the creative director of Chanel from 1983 to his death in 2019. During that time he completely transformed the brand into one of the most recognizable fashion houses in the world and influenced generations of designers to come.  The Met Gala is the opening night of the museum's exhibit, which the Metropolitan Museum of Art says; "...spotlights Lagerfeld’s unique working methodology, focusing on the late designer’s stylistic vocabulary as it was expressed in “through lines”—aesthetic and conceptual themes that ...