THE 
November 28, 2008 Rihanna & Jay-Z Rumors Were All Fake!
The publicist did it! Jonathan Hay confessed to spreading all kinds of lies and rumors to get Rihanna to become a household name, even if that meant destroying a relationship. I am glad Beyonce did not buy into all the hype, because that right there would make me want to ring the alram. After giving my man some of my “good good” and the next day I hear something about him getting seconds from someone else… Take me higher Lord! Read the interview after the jump –
You are credited for breaking Rihanna out into the media. Can you please go into detail about that?
Jonathan Hay: Yes. I met Vada Nobles [the producer of Rihanna's first single, "Pon De Replay"] at a Starbucks in Orlando, Florida. I’ll never forget that day. Vada told me about this young artist named Rihanna who looked similar to Beyonce and he’d just finished her first single, called “Pon De Replay.” We went back to his home studio where he was working on finishing up the remix for it with Elephant Man. Honestly, the first time I heard the song I didn’t think it was going to work at all because Will Smith had a song out ["Switch"] at that time with almost that exact same beat. But I was intrigued by the project, nevertheless. At first, nobody seemed to really feel the song, so I started a publicity campaign, single-handedly. The whole idea behind the campaign was to get Vada Nobles out there as a producer so that ultimately people would forget about his past lawsuit and conflict with Lauryn Hill on her album The Miseducation Of Lauyrn Hill.
Jonathan Hay: Anyway, I sent the song to Jennifer Vineyard, my contact at MTV. She did me a favor and broke the story on Rihanna, “Pon De Replay” and Vada Nobles. Along with one of my partners, I then began to fabricate stories of Rihanna and Jay-Z, leaking false rumors to tabloids, working internet message boards, etc. We started to get an insane amount of media coverage very fast. There are so many things we did that people don’t even know about, not even Rihanna herself. She was completely unknown and I was paid by Vada Nobles to generate publicity. The mega Island Def Jam deal rumor, we fluffed and fabricated. Rihanna and Vada had no idea what I was doing behind the scenes, but my whole agenda was to get media for the song.
Jonathan Hay: If you check out Rihanna’s Wikipedia Page for “Pon De Replay.” you’ll see that it was on March 17, 2005 [through MTV News] that I helped break Rihanna out into the world. There was a lot more involved but I want to save that detailed interesting chapter for the book.
What do you mean by starting Rihanna rumors?
Jonathan Hay: I mean leaking out sensational stories and spreading them around in the news — to tabloids such as the National Enquirer, music and gossip sites and whatnot. Like when the rumor surfaced that Jay-Z had a new love life and was cheating on Beyonce…that was just to get attention. Rihanna had nothing to do with ANY of that, nor did she know what we were doing. I was just trying to break the single and stay employed by Vada Nobles. Even Vada didn’t know half the stuff I was doing. I kept my strategy a secret at the time because, honestly, everyone would have been against it, the tactics that I used. But I was only thinking about the end result – and look what happened…gossip sells.
Jonathan Hay: I feel awful but, yes, I leaked some of those stories. Looking back, I am ashamed of that; there was zero integrity in that maneuver. But this is entertainment and I wanted to obtain publicity – so I came up with some crazy stories and it worked. Rihanna is one of the biggest stars in the world now, and look at how she stormed into the business! Not to take anything from her – she is a great artist – but every artist needs a launching pad and there is nothing better than a good scandal to get the public’s attention. (Laughing)
Visit Associated Content to read the full interview. Thoughts?
Youngin19
November 28, 2008 at 12:43 am
THe Industry is a DISGRACE!!
WALLEY
November 28, 2008 at 12:44 am
wow great. It Took making up rumors for her to become famous. So I guess hes saying that if There werent any rumors about her with jay then she wouldnt be famous. HAHA! Beyonce is so great. Got people using her just to make themselves famous. I bet Jay, Bey, or RiRi aint gon be too happy about this.
Margo
November 28, 2008 at 12:50 am
take me higher Lord indeed!!
thats not a good look Jonathan Hay!
princesstp
November 28, 2008 at 2:06 am
damn i need this guy as my publicist…b can u please give me his contact info lmfao..seriously
princesstp
November 28, 2008 at 2:08 am
oh and btw thats why people including celebrities shouldnt read into tabloids (ie;jessica simpson) cause the more u believe a lie the more it will become the truth honey
Tee
November 28, 2008 at 6:55 am
Beyonce knew the deal. It was all part of making Rihanna a brand name. Heck, Jay Z was her boss so it benefited his pockets also. I mean it is all part of the game…Beyonce knows this because she plays it herself. Half of what we see about these stars isn’t true it is just publicity…
Joy
November 28, 2008 at 8:28 am
LMAO I love that picture of them…
I knew those rumors were fake as soon as I heard them but Hay was right gossip sells.
TBlaze
November 28, 2008 at 11:13 am
Truthfully, who is shocked? This is the oldest trick in the book. We never know what’s real or fake in this industry. Celebrities have been doing this for ages.
WALLEY
November 28, 2008 at 11:50 am
did jay get his wisdom teeth out?
ms.glitterati
November 28, 2008 at 12:09 pm
wow…that is crazy. but i am not surprised the industry is crazy.
Butterpeacan
November 28, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Fuckery at its finest! You will never convince me this Rihanna didn’t know what was going on. They tried to package her as a MiniBeyonce and then when that didn’t get them results they wanted they jacked Fefe Dobson’s “image” and put these rumors out there. She played right into them. She was making backhanded comments in interviews, throwing up the Roc sign in concerts. WTF! She ain’t on that label so why was she repping Jay?
They made that rumor up and she knew it but they don’t want her to look bad. rotf
Well its to late the trick has already been exposed. I find it hilarious how now that Beyonce is back out and blowing everyone away with her TALENT, he they come with this B.S. Ain’t nobody talking about Riri other than what a mess she sounds live and how boring she is. Yeah, I went there and don’t give a dayum. I’m sick of this heffa’s name being attached to Beyonce and people acting like Beyonce fans owe Riri something when we don’t owe her shyt!
p.s the only person innocent in this is beyonce. beyonce would never put her credibility on the line for that gimmick
TiLingTiLingTing
November 28, 2008 at 3:52 pm
geez…i bet RiRi knew about it…she’d do anything to become famous
Viv
November 28, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Props to butterpeacan for knowing that they stole Fefe’s image to use on Rihanna. LOL. People think she’s SO original and fresh and all that other mess when Feefz has been out for a WHILE and ontop of all that her music’s better. How Rihanna went from w/e “pon de replay” was to ” disturbia ” is beyond me.
DrmKpr
November 28, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Damn did Rihanna steal someone’s lunch money and they can’t go… I read this article on a Rihanna website and I already knew what the reaction was going to be if it was posted on any other website. I’ve never seen so many folk intent on tearing someone down. When has Rihanna ever thrown up the Roc sign? If she did that story and pic would have been all over the net… the only other chick other than Beyonce I ever saw throwning up the Roc sign was Teiarra Mari which would make sense considering she was signed to the Roc and Rihanna was and has always been signed to Def Jam.
It’s sorta funny how folks on here are claiming no one is willing to say bad things about Rihanna… since when? There are more folks than none that are always talking sideways about the girl and the reasons behind her success. No matter what she acheives they come with comments about jacking Fe Fe Dobson/Kelis…. her stylist…. her “relationship” with Jay Z… any type of nonsense that reduces whatever she’s done. Ursula cut her hair. and Muriel styled her… but they didn’t bust their ass getting people to not only listen to but buy the cd. Yes the hair cut brought some attention to her because it set her apart from the blonde lacefront crew but the haircut or the clothes is not the reason Rihanna had 3 number one singles from GGGB. If that’s the case there would be alot more chicks out there walking around with bob haircuts and some fly ass clothes.
And as far as her music changing…. I loves it. I loved Pon De Replay when it came out but I loves Disturbia as well. Every artist should strive to grow and change their music as their career thrives. If an artist continually sings about the same subhect matter over and over again they will become rather stale rather fast. If after three years Rihanna’s music still sounded like Pon De Replay that would def be a problem.
I don’t know about anyone being innocent or not but to me the only thing these rumors ever did was give folks to down Rihanna and call her everything in the book and throw inuendos behind her name….
brand1beyonce2
November 28, 2008 at 6:00 pm
this is crazy this shows how much people will do to get attention…but people would have made some shit up about them to any way cus she so close to jay and shit…but riri could never be beyonce…and just like Jay said ” I KNOW THE DIFFRENCE BETWEEN A BITCH AND A BEE” taken from blackout tour…..
Michelle
November 28, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Vile. And that’s all I’ve got to say about the matter.
shana
November 28, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I want to laugh in the face of everyone who belived these stupid ass rumors like they came from the bible… so much shit is planned people just thrive off of negativity and drama it’s sad
azures
November 28, 2008 at 7:44 pm
i agree michelle. all that shit is foul.
budi
November 28, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I knew this was fake, and at first I thought the rumors where what made people fight over Rihanna and Beyonce but then I realized it’s just people. Everytime you hear Rihanna being said you hear beyonce’s name fly out of some crazy fan’s mouth. The two of them don’t even know you.
What’s wrong with liking both of them. I kill it to disturbia and be on top of the table singing ego and I’m pretty sure the both of them do the same thing lol. seriously people grow up because 1)you can hate on riri but the girl is fierce, just like bey and she making that money and talking about her only makes her more famous. 2)Everybody always thinks that some artist is copying off of some other artist. Get a life, nobody pays that much attention to stuff like that, rihanna doesn’t own the bob, and bey doesn’t own the way she dresses so keep it moving. 3)all ya’ll know good and well that more than half the stuff you say about theses ladies when you behind the computer, you wouldn’t dare say it to their faces. Ya’ll get on here talking about this bitch, and that bitch, and she aint got no talent, I’m sick of her but let her be walking down the street towards you, ya’ll asses turn into the biggest stans in the world. and you know it. You would be screaming talking about Rihanna/Beyonce, I love you!
Stop fronting because you think you big and bad because you know how to type and surf the internet.
And one more thing
Rihanna went from Pon de replay to disturbia just like beyonce went from Crazy in love to some of the songs on her I am….sasha fierce album. Some of those songs have a rock and even country sound to it. She tapped into rock, country, alternative, and folk, so before you talk about the transition from Pon de replay to disturbia get your facts right, thank you. Ya’ll hater needs to check what you say before you say it because I love me some beyonce and I love me some rihanna and it gets on my nerves when ya’ll compare the two and get mad at one from doing that same thing that the other one is doing.
Keep it moving because your broke down hating asses couldn’t even fathom being atleast 3 miles away from either one of them, you’d probably have a heartache from all the excitement yet you claim to “hate the bitch”
budi
November 28, 2008 at 11:46 pm
*heart attack*
Curvaceous
November 29, 2008 at 12:18 am
So is Chris Brown and RiRi real? Can we believe our eyes, or believe the denial?
Oh lawd, what’s real these days. Iyont even care about RiRi, but it makes one think.
B. are you for real? Where you at, so I can hold yo pony tail? Is yo pony tail real or is that a weave? Take me higher for real.
Biah
November 29, 2008 at 1:47 am
Umm @ “Rihanna who looked similar to Beyonce.”
Since when, all black people don’t look alike. I am glad I didn’t believe that. Humph
P00ka
November 29, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I really cannot believe this…well I can but…it makes you wonder..about Rihanna and Chris Brown..erything. I think they all knew about it. Its just a little too convienent for Beyonce to come out with Ring The Alarm as these rumors were circulating..and my sister said that Rihanna was stealing feFe Dobson’s image. Its ashame because Rihanna is now making millions and not many “black” people know that she is stealing her image from a punk rock artist. FeFe ought to be HOTTTTTTTT
malolm
November 29, 2008 at 11:03 pm
If the fefe and kelis image was so hot ,how come it did not do anything for them. how come they got drop by their record label and can’t even get a next contract. Fefe was not accepted by the crowd she was catering to with her music. fefe dress like a tom boy .Rhianna is a fashion. kelis need to fine a real job,because her music sucks
Lori
November 30, 2008 at 9:00 am
So Rihanna’s career is based on a lie?
What goes around, comes around.
anonymously_anonymous
November 30, 2008 at 11:29 am
rihanna bites off people from her music and image. It was fefe dobson who started the image, but def jam though she wasnt all that pretty so in the 2006 when rihanna introduced the world the black/rock girl they dropped fefe dobson and gave rihanna that image. Fefe dobson been doing that music 10x better and image since 2003..
gay_golddigger
November 30, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Love this picture of the couple…..But why the dude behind jay look like he just got into a fight w/ a bag of nickels???
tha truth
November 30, 2008 at 11:35 pm
the richest couple in tha game go bey and jay!!!
who cares about who copies from whom? everyone bites music,style,personality,dance ect from other artist,models,singers ect. rhi rhi is doing her thang and so are the carter’s leave them all alone!!!!
ADIA
December 1, 2008 at 1:42 am
Jay-z still probably tried to or did hit that at least once.. and like one of the comments above said beyonce had songs on ALL her albums that jay-z has cheated not once not twice but several times and her song “settle for u” she said he will probably brake her heart again and she would still settle for him… and even if nothin happened I’m pretty sure Beyonce had a hard time believing him since he has cheated in the past.. As far as people biting off others style/ look… ALL of them copy each other, if one become the “it gurl” that month then everyone follow suit in some form… NO ONE IS EXCLUDED FROM THAT and yes even BEYONCE is guilty of doing this.. believe or not celebrities do not have a say in what or how they are portrayed no matter how hard they work… THEY ARE ALL SLAVES TO THE ENTERTAINMENT WORLD…
the greek
May 15, 2009 at 11:55 am
yo jay is friends with her and was prob in on the whole think so I doubt it will be a shock to anyone help each other up yo.