The internet is abuzz with shade and conjecture about Rihanna’s latest single, “Russian Roulette,” and what it all means. Written by Ne-Yo, the song has been argued as a metaphor for Rihanna’s abusive relationship with Chris Brown. This argument seems a wee bit of a stretch (are the rounds to represent how many times she went back until she got “shot?”). However, many people, including singer/songwriter Eric “Erro” Roberson, have taken the song for something more sinister, as a playbook for youth suicide.

The song is not the only thing about “Russian Roulette” that’s making noise. Several fans commented on Roberson’s page that they found the video offensive as well. The video is obscure in ways that the very direct song is not. On its face, the song presents an introspective, but detailed narrative about a woman playing Russian roulette for the first time with a man whose played it often and survived.

The video on the other hand is artsy, full of Saw imagery, some of which is ripped off from old Maxwell and Janet videos, but I digress. Anthony Mandler, the video’s director, told MTV News that the goal of the video is to be intentionally “not obvious” given the seemingly unending media drama about Rihanna and Brown’s fateful night of intimate partner violence.

Still, the suits ensured that the doomed couple’s media moneymaking drama somehow got tied in, even if the lyric doesn’t fit the situation. So Mandler positions Rihanna as imprisoned, drowning, and, of course, shot. That all of it presented as out of body for Rihanna and self-inflected, if coerced by the man in the video, should provide further fodder for armchair psychologist of the Rihanna situation. 

But is the song about suicide? Is she playing footloose and fancy free with a song that glorifies suicide? And as an artist doesn’t she have the right to cover a broad array of subjects, including the controversial?

For a young woman who told Diane Sawyer in her most recent interview, she’s just “become aware of how much impact she has on girls,” a suicide by numbers tune would be recklessly irresponsible. If the song is not intended to be a glorification of suicide, a buzz kill of a first single if I’ve ever heard of one, then a literal interpretation says that Ne-Yo’s song is about a woman who allows herself to be coerced by a mentally ill man to play a suicidal game. How’s that inspiring, enlightening, celebrating, encouraging, educating or any other manner of support one might want to offer young girls once you’ve been made aware of your “impact?”

However, Rihanna is first and foremost an artist, and artists are uncomfortably asked to hold up a mirror to ourselves. They are expected to push buttons and raise questions, but to do so intentionally and with clarity (even if only clear to themselves). Rihanna does not seem to be offering clarity about which buttons she wants to push with this cut or what this song is really about. She also shouldn’t bear the public burden of questions about it alone (a man named Ne-Yo did pen it, after all), the way Janet had to during Tittygate.

As an artist, Rihanna might be doing due diligence to her job. The reality is that the third leading cause of death among black youth is suicide. Suicide is also growing faster among blacks than whites (whites of all age groups still have an overwhelming lead on this health crisis). A song illuminating a taboo subject for public discourse is actually what an artist should do, even if a valid argument can be made about how they did it.

There also might be latent elements of sexism and racism going on here as well. Rihanna is a black woman who did not remain silent about her abuse and dares to still be sexual and strong in her image. Rather than come out with a girly ballad of woe, she chose to sing an aggressively dark song about an artistically “masculine” issue that makes Black people uncomfortable. In doing so, Rihanna again operated outside the bounds of “respectable black womanhood.” Finally, she joins Kelis in breaking taboos about what Black musicians can sing about (though Kelis covered suicide in 1999 with “Get Along With You,” without fanfare). Death metal, alternative rock, even blues and country have written songs about suicide over the years with only occasional peeps from the public.

Rihanna has every right to perform a song about suicide, or any other subject she chooses. She also has the responsibility of considering the impact of that choice. With so many young people grappling with depression and suicidal thoughts, particularly in these scorched earth times, Rihanna and Ne-Yo both should male clear their intention and encourage those who are struggling to seek help and hope. In gambling that the public will figure it out (or not), they may be playing “Russian Roulette” with more than a career, but a life.