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Rihanna Just Saved Print Media

Rihanna has announced her first book, in the nick of time.

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Today, Rihanna (mogul, fashion designer, superstar, icon) announced that she's going to be releasing her first book.

For a long time, it's seemed like books and print media were on a downward spiral, but fortunately Rihanna has arrived just in time to fill the physical book industry with new vigor and promise. Only someone with her kind of star power could achieve such a feat.

Enter Rihanna, a new "visual autobiography" that contains over 1,000 photos across 504 pages. Its images will span the early years of her childhood in Barbados to her world tours and everything in between.

Weighing about 15 pounds and costing about $175, the book will be released on October 10th. Its release will coincide with a party at the Guggenheim, hosted by Rihanna herself.

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What is it about Rihanna that makes her so aesthetically pleasing to look at, which will ultimately make her photo book a surefire bestseller? It's possibly because she's beautiful inside and out—her company Fenty Beauty has made waves for its unprecedented diversity, and Rihanna herself has schooled Internet users on everything from trans rights to inclusivity. She's brashly sensual, super confident, entirely ageless, honest, and unashamed. She's given us eight exquisite pop albums. She continued to thrive after everything that happened with Chr*s Br*wn. She effortlessly avoids questions about her next album and remains unshaken by pregnancy rumors. She seems to exist in a slightly separate universe from the rest of us, evading most of the typical waves of controversy and shaming that surround most stars in our modern media landscape.

In many ways, Rihanna floats outside of our messy reality, shimmering in a dimension of her own and representing a sort of archetypal beauty, composure, and power that we all can't help but envy. It's kind of impossible to imagine her posting a mental health confession, as so many other celebrities have, or showing up anywhere looking less than angelic. (That's not an accident: She reportedly spends $38,000 a week on her beauty regime. Of course, she also operates several charities and hosts a multitude of benefit galas). She almost seems like a relic of the 2010s' vision of unattainable, impenetrable, perpetually camera-ready glamour, but her sway over our contemporary universe cannot be underestimated: Snapchat lost $800 million after she criticized an ad for making light of domestic violence. And have you seen her first selfie?

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Sure, she's milking capitalism and her own image for all they're worth to great success—with a net worth of $600 million, she's the world's richest female musician—but it's hard not to worship at her altar. She's Rihanna, after all.

Suge Knight Pleads No Contest to Manslaughter

The former rap mogul faces 28 years in prison for a hit-and-run

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According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Marion Knight — a.k.a Suge Knight — pleaded no contest to a voluntary manslaughter charge yesterday.

The charge came about in 2015 from a hit-and-run that led to the murder of Terry Carter in Compton.

As part of his plea deal, Suge Knight will serve 28 years in prison — 22 for voluntary manslaughter and six for the charge being a third strike violation. However, we all know that celebrities never do full time for any crime they commit so who knows when Knight will be getting out.

The formal sentencing will be on Oct. 4.

The 2015 incident itself took place right outside of Tam's Burgers in January. Knight was in an argument with Cle "Bone" Sloan — a consultant on Straight Outta Compton, a movie about rap group N.W.A. — due to the fact that he wasn't being paid for being portrayed in the movie.

Knight then started to become violent with Sloan outside the Compton burger joint and went back to his pickup truck. He proceeded to hit Sloan with his vehicle and ran over Terry Carter, another man at the scene who later died from the impact.

Being categorized as a hit-and-run, of course Knight fled the scene — however, the security cameras outside the restaurant captured the whole ordeal. He later turned himself in and has been in jail up until now — not from his legal team's lack of trying though. They originally pleaded not guilty and made up wild explanations — one, there were armed men threatening him in the lot and two, Dr. Dre hired a hitman to take him out.

Knight has been battling this case for three years now, going through a multitude of lawyers and even a court-appointed defense attorney. Probably anxious about the upcoming Sep. 24 court date, Knight's attorney Al DeBlanc finally set a plea deal with the L.A. County district attorney's office. If he hadn't reached out and Knight had been convicted of murder — that would've meant life in prison without parole.

It seems that the law finally caught up to Knight — he has also been accused of threatening F. Gray Gray, the director of Straight Outta Compton, and stealing a photographer's camera a year earlier. Hopefully this prison time will knock some sense into the former rap mogul.

Amber Wang is a freelancer for Popdust, Gearbrain and various other sites. She is also a student at NYU, a photographer and a marketing intern.

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