Rihanna Video Director Upset Over M.i.a. Link

The director who shot RIHANNA’s RUDE BOY video was upset after fans compared it to an M.I.A. promo - because she never intended to “rip anybody off”.

Melina Matsoukas helmed the colourful shoot, which immediately drew comparisons to Boyz by M.I.A. when it hit the internet earlier this month (Feb10).

Matsoukas admits drawing inspiration from 1980s culture and pop artist Andy Warhol, but maintains she didn’t mean to copy any one.

She tells MTV.com, “You know that the (M.I.A.) video lends from a lot of Rasta culture and ’80s Atari vibe and that’s what we went with too. And then afterward I was like, ‘Oh, this sucks. They tore down my video.’ And her (M.I.A.’s) video’s great too.

“It definitely wasn’t trying to rip anybody off at all - it was just our approach and the animation stuff, it had a similar vibe. We’ve seen that before with Grace Jones and Andy Warhol, so I don’t know if anybody can lay claim to anything. We’re all inspired by similar elements and it came together in that way.”

But Matsoukas hasn’t let the criticism hamper her experience, insisting she’d love to work with the Bajan beauty again: “Rihanna will try anything, which is always great because you have a lot of artists who won’t do what you need them to do. She’ll go there and I definitely wanted to bring that part of her out - that fun side… She goes with it and she really challenges you to take it a step further with the status quo.”