Earlier this week during the BET hip-hop awards, a highly talked about cypher involving members of Shady Records took place that people are still discussing. For whatever reason, Detroit emcee Royce Da 5' 9" decided to coyly flirt with pop star Rihanna by saying "hi Rihanna" a couple of times during his verse and "bye Rihanna" before moving on to other subjects. He's good with words... it shouldn't have been a bid deal. A day later, it was a trending topic on Twitter for nearly 24 hours with everyone from ?uestlove of the Roots to Russell Simmons tweeting "Hi Rihanna" in jest.
The line worked and eventually, the Bajan singer went on Twitter and replied, “Hi, @RoyceDa59” to the rapper, resulting in a number of retweets of the salutation. Things got so big that Royce had to explain the line yesterday and how meeting Rihanna at the V Festival in London this year inspired him to write that verse.
“Like, I'm just a Detroit guy. Everybody is treating me like I'm famous now but I still feel regular,” said the refreshingly humble Nickel Nine. “She came up to me [At the V Festival] and told me that she likes one of my songs. So, I just felt like, 'If you tell me that again, we go together.' It has to happen. So, you know, I express myself through my music. I just thought it was a line I was going to say. I didn't know she was going to hear it or what, but I didn't know it was going to become this.”
Maybe it's a slow news week but I don't see the big deal. Then again, whenever Drake and Nicki Minaj flirt, people seem to like it so maybe Royce is just being smart. If you didn't see the cypher, check out the entire footage below with both Royce and fellow Detroit lyricist Eminem rapping and being silly. In a rare event, Eminem probably has the worse verse out of everyone.
Just how big is it. Even children are talking about "Hi Rihanna"
