“Work” is a song by Barbadian singer Rihanna featuring Canadian rapper Drake, from Rihanna’s eighth studio album Anti (2016). It was released on January 27, 2016, by Westbury Road and Roc Nation as the lead single from the album. The song was written by Rihanna, Drake, Jahron Brathwaite, Monte Moir, Rupert Thomas, Allen Ritter, and Matthew “Boi-1da” Samuels, the latter of which produced the track while Kuk Harrell and Noah “40” Shebib were additional producers. Incorporating elements of dancehall, reggae, pop, and R&B, “Work” contains an interpolation of Alexander O’Neal‘s “If You Were Here Tonight” (1985). Written in the English-based creole languages of Jamaica and Barbados,[1][2] its lyrics are about fragile relationships and yearning for intimacy.
“Work” was accompanied by two music videos directed by Director X and Tim Erem, and both were released on February 22, 2016. The first depicts Rihanna and Drake dancing in a club, and the second shows them in a room alone. Rihanna performed the song live at the Brit Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards, both in 2016, and it was included on the set list of her Anti World Tour. The single spent nine weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 and helped Rihanna surpass Michael Jackson as the artist with the fourth-most US number-one hits. It peaked at number one in Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, and South Africa, and received many multi-platinum certifications, including a Diamond certification in France and the United States, as well as nine-times Platinum certification in Canada. “Work” had sold 32.5 million units worldwide by January 2021.
At the time of its release, critical response to “Work” was mixed; reviews that praised the song highlighted Rihanna’s return to the dancehall sound of her early career and embrace of Caribbean culture, while reviews that were less enthusiastic labeled its production as repetitive and the lyrics as insubstantial. However, critical opinion improved over time; the song was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 59th Grammy Awards, and publications such as NME and Pitchfork ranked it among the best songs of the 2010s decade. Some journalists credit “Work” with reinvigorating dancehall in mainstream popular music in the mid-2010s.
