Power. That exactly what EBONY magazine is celebrating a-front of their June 2014 issue.
A four-cover series, the latest edition of the popular publication features Beyonce, Jay Z, Kanye West and Rihanna – as a salute to their unprecedented impact on Black music.
Critically acclaimed writer Kevin Powell lends EBONY his pen and probes the connection between the ruling musical icons and how they compare with legends of the past.
“It was an honor to write the four cover stories for EBONY magazine’s Black Music Month special collector’s edition, and to also pen the additional four mini-features inside. Rarely do you see today’s unstoppable stars like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kanye West and Jay Z packaged with legends like Tina Turner, Donna Summer or Tupac Shakur, but we did it because when it comes to Black music, it is important to note the deep connection between the musicians of yesterday and today.”
Set to hit newsstands tomorrow (May 6th), Rihanna is the first of the quad to comment on the cover. Her words below…
Yea I’m talking Ye Yea I’m talking Rih Yea I’m talking B Nigga I’m talking me! Thank You @EBONYMag #BlackMusicMonth pic.twitter.com/d350JCN2ql
— Rihanna (@rihanna) May 5, 2014
Your thoughts?
Gratz to them all,they are on point with them headers so true.
Thats cool
SLAY RIHANNA AND YEEZY.
who are the other two? Lmao
The ones Ri and yeezy have admitted to look up to, thats who!
Stfu tryna to start shiit for no reason its tired .
B**** you try and drag Beyoncé every
Chance you get. Lmao sit down f*****
Bye I’ll clock a biitch when i need to but ill give her credit and not be messy when its not called for, Both Rih and Bey are winning so what’s the point on shading her? Guess its hard for a hater like you to give a compliment.
Too bad CIARAS not winning tho lmao kiii
She’s winning in life shes happy in her relationship and has a baby on the way. She’s not sitting on the internet miserable like yourself.
Dead at winning in life lmaooo
B**** bye.
You a walking contradiction
You wanna shade Bey and Rih when
The C squad is Around but by yourself
You wanna keep the peace. I hate a
B**** that can’t stand on her own two feet!
Could careless about how you feel about me.
F*** off my reply box you weak b****.
You’ve been slayed for the day.
Lol right..
Rihanna’s s**** masters…oops I mean the Carters
Two people who are SUPERIOR to those in your name
Well its nothing new for the Carters.
Congrats Happy for all four, They’ve all come a long way.
MY BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL!!!
BLACK POWER !!!
ALL WE MISSING IS MISS JANET JACKSON !!! WERE ARE YOU JANET!!!???
*Where*
#ROC family run this!
To Be Honest!
I’m ready for a BIG PRODUCTION Janet Jackson Tour!
I miss the Queen Of Dance/Whispers
Really?? A thumbs down! Janet Jackson needs to slay the wold at-least in touring ONE MORE TIME!
I think some people here just don’t like you because your comment wasn’t even shady.
Whisper is NOT shade. Janet has soft/whisper type of vocals. Damn!
Meh too bad they are nothing but sellouts media pro-agenda blunder Next….
The symbolism…… is too much for me to handle.
*Exists post*
Damn! Icons!
I only recognize Bey and Jay. Them other two lessors look like workers I saw in the drive thru window at BK.
I already did that stop trying to be me
I think that photo is so powerful those are our black icons and legends of today praise someone for their accomplishments instead of tryin to throw pointless shade.
Tho I disagree with Kanye The Poet. That’s Nas imo or Pac.
At what point do you embrace the NEW? I’m all for this cover. CONGRATS!
It’s not a new or old thing. It’s Kanye isn’t known for his words, more of his visuals, beats and productions. It’s the title, not the man. The should’ve used The Visionary.
Slay a bit! Im glad finally a black magazine is promoting their UNITY as power instead of putting them up against eachother. Its much more impressive that way and important for black popular culture to see it that way.
Rih + Bey <3<3
Wow I like them all!
Awesome cover! They all deserve the tribute! 🙂
So no one at Ebony wanted to use a picture of Beyonce from the Mrs. Carter Tour or something from 2013/2014?!?! That pic is from the I Am… World Tour
Yeah I’m talking Bey, yeah I’m talking me, yeah I’m talking Rih, yeah I’m talking Ye’. Ain’t nobody fresher than my mofucking clique..
#ROYALTY
Love all 3! But been a rebel since day 1 🙂
Awesome. Black power at its finest especially Beyonce and Jay Z
“Black music???” Riri makes s*** like “Where Have You Been” and “Only Girl In the World” that Britney or Katy could’ve made. How is THAT “black music.” She makes corny white girl music.
True
She’s still black dumb ass. Her music is pop with reggae, hip hop and R&B undertones. This is nothing new.
but there are artists that are “more black” than her in terms of music.
RIhanna doesnt make black music.
Do you ever wonder why Rihanna does go to BET awards ( not since 2008) but always does MTV awards
She knows she makes music for “those” people.
Agreed
I am one of the biggest supporters of music and I love soulful music just as I like other types of music. You point that rihanna doesn’t make “black music” just puts you one more foot in the box that we have put ourselves in for decades. We corner ourselves by trying to own something that has no loyalty to us. Example: two white artists took “our” music and sold it to the masses like no “black” person ever has. Adele (soul) and Eminem (rap) enjoyed those genres of music and sold it. Beyonce, usher, rihanna, michael, and a bunch of others found most of their success doing more of the poppier (made up that word) stuff and that is okay. Music is music and it won’t appeal to all of us. Whatever we gravitate towards that is for us. We all have struggles, pain, happiness, joy and however you express that is how you express it. We do not own or nor are we entitled to anything. S***, people of color are known to eat fried chicken, so should we always eat it all the time, naw we would be dead! Stop trying to box these artists in. Stop boxing yourself in.
not sure why Rihanna is on the cover of an urban magazine…
but kudos to the Roc Nation crew for supporting urban magazines.
Best URBAN CONTEMPORARY ALBUM
Unapologetic
those tittle are perfect … proud black ppl are on top all 4 earn it
Getting all sorts of life from that Wiggle wiggle Jason Derulo song.
Rihanna and Kanye’s cover are the only ones that matter because they’ve actually made contributions to music and black art expression.
“May 5, 2014 at 2:18 pm
Impact says:
Vote
“Black music???” Riri makes s*** like “Where Have You Been” and “Only Girl In the World” that Britney or Katy could’ve made. How is THAT “black music.” She makes corny white girl music.”
Rihanna also makes songs like Pon de replay, lovvvveee song, no love allowed, man down, roc me out, take a bow, we ride..etc (all black music).
Rihanna’s music DIVERSITY is unmatched, no one can touch her discography.
Ummm She PICKS great songs. She dont MAKE shitt…
Her writing credits all over Rated R, Talk That Talk and Unapologetic say otherwise.
Go buy you’re mine.
She is NOT a soul writer of NOTHING! She just gets credit for songs already presented to her. Bye. Go purchase Floplijah forgettable music…
@ luvbitch do u av sense?
congrats to all four! If you really think about it this 4’s power aint just limited to them being successful black artist they literally are the 4 biggest names in the current market.
everytime rihanna achieves something new, breaks record or sets a new record and you think about how the likly hood of a person like her doing…its mind blowing. Like how that black chick from barbados is the first black person to perform at the American Country Music Award…and now again only non-american in that cover…the journey alone
Chile please Rihanna is an American recording artist. She is signed to an AMERICAN label.
Love the titles to, could have used something fresher from kanye and bey feel like i have seen those pics a million times before but they fit the titles and thy look great…so…
Rihanna? Lol. She could never make an album R&B dominated album like 4 or Dangerously in Love that isn’t appealed to the white audience like Beyoncé. There’s always something there for the white pop in her music she’s transparent that’s why she does better in Europe. That’s why she always snubs the BET awards. She is hardly rebellious, safe more like! Im here for Bey, Jay and Kanye though.
Rihanna touches down on several genres on most of her albums
Hip hop
RnB
Pop
Dance
Reggae
She doesn’t want to be put in a box or confined to one genre
That’s not point, my point is, she always pushes the white pop side to the forefront or ensures she caters to a white audience on each album.
How is man down white pop or white audience?? Rihanna fuses a lot of her music, which is why she has certain producers she works with ALL THE TIME (e.g STARGATE); because they get her sound.
She wouldn’t make an RnB dominated album because that is not her culture, she has made an island/reggae/ragga dominated album and that sold well.
She just took it a step further and started fusing a lot of it.
You tried to hate, but you failed.
What ‘reggae’ dominated album is this you speak of?
And you still missed my point.
Mots and aglm were mainly reggae if not all reggae.
That watered down s*** is not reggae. Bye. Its reggae influenced.
“That watered down s*** is not reggae. Bye. Its reggae influenced.”
Hahahaha, you’ve just proven you have not listened to the two albums (Music of the sun, A girl like me).
I have darling. There only 3 or 4 songs on music of the sun which are reggae INSPIRED. The majority of the record is contemporary R&B ballads, just like a AGLM.
I actually own AGLM. I’m sorry but how is that album even close to reggae? NONE of Rihanna’s albums are classed as reggae.
No lies detected tho
YASS slay queens and kings
I want to know whats rebellious about hopping underground up and coming trends in music like trap, dub step etc and then allowing your fans to think you started the trend? Rebellious is more like what Beyoncé did with this surprise album.
And b**** I wanna know y you’re so pressed u keep commenting over and over!? And I wanna know y Monica is irrelevant and a flop ghetto hoodrat!?!
Fool pressed is ur username+avatar
What’s up with the old pics though
You go queen bey and king jay I can’t wait to buy my copies
imagine a roc nation tour with all four of them…….
that would be so dope and epic,but i am sure the tickets price would be out of this world in terms of price,look at how much jay and bey are charging for on the run tour.
Congratz to dem all esp bey n jay
Werk hunties , the gurls are setting.
Giving the kids FACE lol
Why is it ‘DIVA’ when it should be ‘GRANDMA’ and Hippos pet needs to stop screwing his face like that
Dunce b**ch get a life
OMG Cher Lloyd’s Bind your love is giving me all sorts of life.
Don’t care. Btw, who is that chick in your avi looking like Chewbacca’s long lost sister?
this s*** better learn to adress Beyoncé as ” Queen Bey”
only Jay , Ye and legends are allowed to call her B
the Beygency must teach het a lesson, lessor h**
Gurl bye! Rih can address Floponce however she pleases. If anyone needs to learn a lesson it’s your dusty looking ass.
Stfu all 4>pigriah
Beyonce’s should of said The Queen instead of The Diva. Both scream power and untouchable status though.
She ain’t no diva nor is she a queen.
Yet is more relevant than mooriah
Don’t forget how pissed off Aretha Franklin got when Beyonce called Tina Turner the queen. LOL
Rih and Kanye are the only relevant ones there.
The Diva and Mogul! These prestigious titles they must be used to.
I love all 4 covers. And a Roc Nation tour would be everything. Rita Ora as the opening act
Lol Rita would be lowkey pissed!!!!!! I would liive!
RIHANNA>>>>>>the rest
Glad to see them being praised together instead of being “dragged” down
Beyoncé and Jay Z>>>>> The other two lessers.
LLLAAAWWWDDDD HHHAAVVVEEEE MEERRCCCYYYY Rihanna’s look at the MET GALA is slaying lives; LORD HAVE MERCY that girl can rock any look.
Beyonce looks ridiculous #noshade
*MET BALL
Yasss Mzz Naomi Campbell served too, come through bittch
But not ms Ariana grande slaying all of them
With those problem sales!!! 400k I live
Looks like this two old bags bought this and had two drag Rih into it…no wonder she is leaving that mess. They are so overrated and exposed.
Like how old r u? Or r u just mentally challenged all ur comments on tgj Neva Make sense
Like how old r u? Or r u just mentally challenged all ur comments on tgj Neva Make sense
R****** <<<<<<<<<<<<< d rest u know it n d world knows it