The music video for the astronomical three-way collaboration between superstars Rihanna, Kanye West and Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney has landed, and it’s a surprisingly stripped-back affair. The clip for FourFiveSeconds, the debut single off Rihanna’s forthcoming as-yet-untitled LP, is all performance and no plot. But that’s probably a good thing.
The song FourFiveSeconds itself is an up-tempo acoustic number that rambles along like a campfire jam, and its clip is already crammed with so much star power that any extra OTT trappings would have done it a disservice/possibly broken the internet.
Instead, the bare-bones black and white clip features the three megastars performing in front of a white backdrop, while being decked out in matching denim. Which, according to RiRi in the clip’s making-of featurette, they’re not trying to make cool again, because it always has been.
“Kanye came up with the idea of just doing some real street, denim, all-American-type look,” the songstress said. “Denim never goes out of style. It’s classic, it’s iconic, just like the fucking Beatles.”
The song will score its live premiere at the 57th annual Grammy Awards, which takes place this Sunday, February 8th. And the Grammys stage will play host to “the biggest collaboration in the world right now”, with organisers confirming via Twitter that West and McCartney will both be joining Rihanna onstage for the performance.
FourFiveSeconds is also West and McCartney’s second musical collaboration in as many months, after they released the single Only One in January.
Watch: Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney – FourFiveSeconds
Watch: FourFiveSeconds behind-the-scenes
+ @PaulMcCartney will join @Rihanna and @KanyeWest for a world debut performance this Sunday on the #GRAMMYs! pic.twitter.com/gyjJIWPWKw
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) February 3, 2015
