Rihanna – Loud Album
Five years ago, if someone had told you that American hip hop and RnB would be riddled with thumping mid-90s Eurocheese in the not-too-distant future, it’s fairly likely you’d have assumed them a tad misguided. Yet here we are, with dance and urban charts largely interchangeable, and the man responsible – in some considerable part, at least – is David Guetta, who continues his evolution from DJ to headline artist via his fifth album, Nothing but the Beat.
But the peculiar fusion of genres is, somehow, no longer that peculiar. With Nothing but the Beat’s arrival already heralded by the triumphant meeting of Flo Rida’s booming rhymes and the zesty, madcap stutter of Nicki Minaj on Where Them Girls At, Guetta’s production wizardry has amassed some gravitas.