Before we get to the meaning of “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna, a little RiRi background:
Videos by American Songwriter
Evan Rogers discovered Rihanna in Barbados while vacationing with his wife Jackie in 2003. His wife’s friend had a daughter in a girl group and arranged an audition. 15-year-old Rihanna, born Robyn Fenty, sang in the group, too. She impressed Rogers, and he invited her to the U.S. to record a demo. He told Entertainment Weekly, “The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist.”
Rihanna signed with Rogers’s production company and moved in with him and his wife in Connecticut. “Pon de Replay” is on the demo they cut, good enough to audition for Jay-Z, the president and CEO of Def Jam at the time.
Her breakout song almost didn’t make it. She didn’t want to sing it initially, thinking it sounded like a nursery rhyme. Some of history’s most remarkable songs nearly ended up on the cutting-room floor. The Supremes famously did not want to sing their first No. 1 single, “Where Did Our Love Go,” but Motown’s hit writing machine, Holland-Dozier-Holland, convinced them. Finally, the “no-hit” Supremes topped the charts and established Diana Ross as the group’s star.
Jay-Z knew “Pon de Replay” was a hit, maybe too big for Rihanna. He worried she wouldn’t come back from a song that big, saying he doesn’t sign songs; he signs artists. “Pon de Replay” is a massive song, but Rihanna towers above it.
It’s for Someone Else
Producer Vada Nobles initially wrote a dancehall track for the Jamaican artist Malica. Alisha Brooks received the track intended for a different artist, writing the lyrics and vocal melody. Nobles sent the new arrangement to Rihanna’s producers, Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken.
Locals in Barbados speak Bajan, an English-based Creole language. “Pon de Replay’s” creole translates to “on the replay.” Like Madonna’s “Music,” Rihanna asks the DJ to play her song again, and this time, play it louder.
Come, Mr. DJ, song pon di replay
Come, Mr. DJ, won’t you turn di music up?
All di gyal pon di dance floor wantin’ some more, what?
Come, Mr. DJ, won’t you turn di music up?
The song has a heavy Caribbean rhythm, sounding like the clubs in Rihanna’s home country. “Pon de Replay” is dancehall reggae driven by the sound of big-band jazz. It’s the sound of America and the Caribbean influencing one another with local roots music. “Pon de Replay” sent Rihanna’s 2005 debut, Music of the Sun, to the Billboard Top 10.
It goes one by one, even two by two
Everybody on di floor, let me show you how we do
Let’s go; dip it low, then you bring it up slow
Whine it up one time, whine it back once more
Rihanna’s singalong hook resembles Beyoncé’s 2003 hit “Baby Boy.” Both songs share a mix of dancehall and pop.
[RELATED: 5 Songs You Didn’t Know Rihanna Wrote for Other Artists]
Beetlejuice
A scene from Beetlejuice inspired Brooks. In Tim Burton’s film, Delia Deetz and her guests sing Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat (Day-O)” while dancing in choreography around the dining table before their plates of shrimp transformed into monstrous hands. Belafonte recorded the traditional Jamaican folk song for his 1956 album Calypso. It became his signature song.
Speaking with Gwen Ifill for PBS NewsHour, Belafonte said “Day-O” is the struggle of Black people living under colonization. He took the pain and turned it into an anthem.
Brooks said the Beetlejuice scene came to her when she listened to Noble’s repetitive track.
Drake, a Guy From the Restaurant
Little X directed the music video for “Pon de Replay” at Avocado, a restaurant in Toronto. In 2016, while presenting Rihanna with the MTV Video Vanguard Award, Drake recalled how he met Rihanna on the video shoot. Little X introduced Drake as “a kid who played background music at the restaurant as people ate their dinner.”
In the video, Rihanna walks into a sleepy club with her friends. They complain that the music is too low, and Rihanna vows to make the DJ turn it up. Rihanna’s performance wakes the DJ from his slumber, filling the dancefloor and fulfilling both Rihanna’s and the song’s requests.
Drake reunited with Rihanna and Little X on the video for her 2016 hit song, “Work.” Aubrey Drake Graham’s days of performing dinner music didn’t last long. Together, he and Rihanna are two of the world’s biggest-selling artists. A Canadian rapper and Barbadian singer landed in a new country and dominated its pop culture.
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
The nursery rhyme quality of “Pon de Replay” reappears on hits like “Umbrella” and “Work,” a signature part of Rihanna’s sing-song sound. What she almost walked away from defines her music. Even on the explicit “S&M,” she sings, Sticks and stones may break my bones / But chains and whips excite me.
From Barbados to America, Rated R or G, Rihanna’s sparkling pop is unforgettable.
Photo by Darren Gerrish/Getty Images
