Since its release, Rihanna’s newest song, “Russian Roulette,” has had people up in arms with both good and bad reviews. Singer Tiffany Evans blasted her via Twitter for what she saw as glorification of suicide and devil worship. Ne-Yo, who penned the song, defended RiRi for doing “something a little different.” And now, Evans former label mate Omarion has spoken to The BoomBox about the “dark side” of the industry. Read what he had to say below:
NEW MUSIC: Rihanna’s “Russian Roulette”
“I don’t personally know Rihanna’s beliefs but I think there’s a very dark and very sinister part of the entertainment business and I think it’s very visible,” he said. “This is something that a lot of people don’t look at [but for example] Michael Jackson used to be a Jehovah’s Witness and I remember hearing that he wanted to separate from the religion – and this was during the time that he was doing ‘Thriller’ [which ended up being] his biggest album.”
Fast forward to now [and] it really made me think that there is a [time as an artist] where there’s going to be a choice. The[entertainment] world [dictates] that you have to be with three or four women, or do this in order to get that [and] I think it’s really interesting. With God and the industry, it’s really dark. The dark side is having to get in, there’s a certain submission you need to have. Just like a gang [initiation], so to speak. You might have to do something against your moral code. I’m not saying that it’s always this way, but when you’re someone that is young and you’re coming up in the industry and you really don’t have a grip on your morals it can be very dark. The game is just about over saturation.
I don’t know if Rihanna [has fallen victim to those pressures]. I’ve never really heard her speak about it. I hope that she doesn’t believe in that stuff and I don’t think that she does, but I don’t know. It’s not just been a Rihanna thing, [there's has been religious speculation] about a lot of artists.”
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