Rihanna reveals video for ‘American Oxygen’

Rihanna’s latest single ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’ was a return to her most wonderfully obnoxious setting. Money-grabbing, and unapologetic, the song finally seemed to make sense when Rihanna gave an indulgent, overblown performance at the iHeartRadio awards. She even brought along her own helicopter, for goodness sake.

In stark contrast ‘American Oxygen’ is a far more sincere effort, and makes more sense when paired with the new visuals that Rihanna has shared today. Yes, RiRi might be dressed as a US Paratrooper for no apparent reason in certain segments, but spliced with American archive footage, it picks up on the touches of irony in ‘American Oxygen’, and amps it up tenfold.

Half of the ‘America Oxygen’ video centres on space missions, all-out patriotism and the Statue of Liberty, along with historic Black Civil Rights figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. Despite the blanket optimism in the lyrics - “this is the American Dream - the video soon begins to move towards the darker moments of American history; 9/11, mushroom clouds over Hirosima, and protests for the unarmed black teenager Mike Brown, who was shot dead by police in Ferguson last year.

Watch the video for ‘American Oxygen’ below: