People Were Upset That The Woman Who Interviewed Rihanna For Vogue Was Unprepared
Rihanna gave us plenty of delicious material to muse upon in her recent Vogue cover interview. For example, we learned that she did, in fact, tell the NFL to kiss her magnificent black ass in solidarity with Colin Kapernick. We also learned that she “literally smells like heaven” (per Lil Naz X), that she is working on a reggae album, proving that she’s actually from Jamaica, not Barbados like we thought (per Jamaicans on the internet who tried it). Abby Aguirre, the journalist who conducted the interview, was able to give us a lot of new information. Still, people of the internet and members of the Navy (Rihanna’s fandom, not the branch of the U.S. military) had beef with Abby because in her piece she admitted to being unprepared with a list of questions before her sit-down with Rihanna. Lock this treasonous scallywag up in the Navy jail (brig? stockade?)! Whatever its called, Davy Jones’s locker up!
In the Vogue interview, Abby was forthright in her unpreparedness. In the first few lines, she reported that Rihanna kept rescheduling the interview, and that when she finally got final confirmation, she had “just enough time to shower and get to the Hotel Bel-Air“. She followed that by saying, “Waiting for Rihanna is practically a journalistic genre all its own,” before admitting that RiRi was actually running ahead of schedule that day, surmising it’s due to “her new life as global fashion mogul”. Look, I don’t know if Rihanna used to roll up to interviews 3 hours late and high as a kite, I mean I hope so, but why put her on blast like that? Maybe the Navy was already looking at Abby sideways for snitching. But at least she told on herself too.
“Normally I bring a list of questions, but I didn’t have time to prepare one, which I make a split-second decision to confess. “I’m winging it, so you have to help me,” I say nervously. Rihanna flashes a grin that is somehow both reassuring and mischievous. “Aren’t we all?” she says.”
Of course Riahanna was unbothered. That is her brand. The internet on the other hand. Bothered is its lifeblood.
lord, may I one day have the confidence of a Vogue writer who arrives at an interview with RIHANNA without a list of questions they had pulled together and ordered and reordered after months and months of research. https://t.co/0LyXOHE10r
— Allison P Davis (@AllisonPDavis) October 9, 2019
You… didn’t have time… to come up with questions for Rihanna… for a Vogue cover story…. pic.twitter.com/mFZdCg1JQ9
— Lauren Chanel Allen (@MichelleHux) October 9, 2019
How does one not have, make or request the time to prepare questions for RIHANNA? As a WRITER? For VOGUE? https://t.co/7oPVXfNLtG
— AGD. (@TheLexGabrielle) October 9, 2019
Meanwhile…how many Black writers are given access to Rihanna like that, let alone a Vogue cover? I would have been prepping questions two weeks in advance
— Jharrel Jerome's Emmy-Winning Shimmy (@kelleent) October 9, 2019
that vogue writer who didn’t come up with questions for rihanna happened to spend “an excessive amount of ad hoc scholarship“ for her taylor swift story. imagine!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/pLTEfmHr36
— Nicole Silverberg (@nsilverberg) October 9, 2019
Good thing Abby has Twitter too, and was able to mount a defense against the Navy’s ad hoc court martial.
GUYS. I was driving to Trader Joe's in sweatpants when I got the call and literally had to flip a bitch. I research my subjects to death. *Especially* Rihanna. I appreciate the anger behind the reaction. But this is a misunderstanding, for which I take full responsibility.
— Abby Aguirre (@abby_aguirre) October 9, 2019
I see now. But people might consider the fact that Rihanna's whereabouts are fast-changing before leaping to this assumption. It's so far from actual reality, I don't even know where to begin. I am not confident! https://t.co/6X6eU0Zl79
— Abby Aguirre (@abby_aguirre) October 9, 2019
I had literally no notice. The point was to convey how nerve-wracking this was, given my deep, bordering-on-psychotic reverence for Rihanna.
— Abby Aguirre (@abby_aguirre) October 9, 2019
If you read the interview in its entirety, it’s clear Abby did a ton of research, at some point, before it was published. And I highly doubt Jamaica’s most beloved daughter was pressed about going with the flow or irritated when Abby didn’t pull out eleventy million note cards filled with questions like “how are you so cool?” and “will you marry me?”. The only grave error Abby made was not having the wherewithal to get Rihanna’s hot take on Aaron Carter’s face tattoo, and film it so we could get another platinum certified Rihanna reaction gif out of it!
Pic: Instagram