When Rihanna asks you to to write an empowerment anthem, you do it. New York-based producer and DJ Nar Angel Rokh was barely intimidated by the task.
"I knew exactly how I wanted the beat to sound," he tells PAPER. "A simple but heavy kick, claps, and sirens. A jersey club kick pattern, and of course the bed squeak."
The result, "Saucy", made its debut alongside Fenty Beauty's Uninvited Stunna Lip Paint earlier this year, and drew immediate attention. Not least for introducing the commanding voice of Cheeky Ma, a multi-hyphenate artist and musician who also happens to be Nar's girlfriend of three years.
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"I needed strong vocals and I knew Cheeky had it in her," he recalls. "But we were both taken aback when she laid down the first take. [It] was the first time Cheeky had worked in a professional studio, laying down vocals to a track that Rihanna was going to hear!"
A new video for the song, premiering on PAPER today, gives "Saucy" a new life beyond lipstick. The clip, shot guerilla-style on the streets of New York City with Cheeky's two best friends acting as backup dancers, lives up to the song's title in more ways than one.
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Watch the PAPER premiere of "Saucy", below.
Photo courtesy