"I like to be creative"
About this Quote
Rihanna’s “I like to be creative” reads almost comically small next to the scale of the brand she’s built, which is exactly why it lands. In a celebrity economy addicted to grand missions and trauma-as-marketing, she opts for a plainspoken preference. “Like” is doing quiet work here: it’s not a tortured calling, not a heroic destiny. It’s a choice. That understatement functions as a flex, the kind you can only pull off when your creativity is already self-evident.
The line also reframes creativity as appetite rather than mystique. Rihanna has spent her career treating pop stardom less like a single lane and more like a portfolio: music, fashion, beauty, performance, business. The subtext is control. She’s not waiting to be handed an “era” by labels, stylists, or trend cycles; she’s positioning herself as the author of the whole machine. When she says she likes to be creative, it’s shorthand for “I like to make decisions” and “I like to build worlds,” whether that’s the sound of a record or the shade range of a foundation line.
Context matters, too: Rihanna’s creativity has often been read through other people’s categories - provocative, risky, marketable, “crossover.” This sentence sidesteps all of that. It’s a refusal to litigate her legitimacy. No manifesto, no explanation, just a steady claim to the simplest right an artist can assert: pleasure in making.
The line also reframes creativity as appetite rather than mystique. Rihanna has spent her career treating pop stardom less like a single lane and more like a portfolio: music, fashion, beauty, performance, business. The subtext is control. She’s not waiting to be handed an “era” by labels, stylists, or trend cycles; she’s positioning herself as the author of the whole machine. When she says she likes to be creative, it’s shorthand for “I like to make decisions” and “I like to build worlds,” whether that’s the sound of a record or the shade range of a foundation line.
Context matters, too: Rihanna’s creativity has often been read through other people’s categories - provocative, risky, marketable, “crossover.” This sentence sidesteps all of that. It’s a refusal to litigate her legitimacy. No manifesto, no explanation, just a steady claim to the simplest right an artist can assert: pleasure in making.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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