Here is Rihanna’s Cosmopolitan cover for July. I like the shot in that I don’t find it particularly offensive, and they didn’t Photoshop Rihanna into oblivion. On the other side, it’s kind of boring. Rihanna’s photo shoots are usually pretty interesting, but maybe she and the editors just wanted to play it safe with this one. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Rihanna on Twitter: “I was so against Twitter. I couldn’t understand how people were supposed to care what I was doing at any given moment. Then I started to figure out you can treat it like a giant chat room: I can respond directly to people’s questions. It makes it easier to deal with the flak around you because now people have a sense of who you are.”

Rihanna feels sexiest when she is…. covered in chocolate body paint.

How Rihanna likes her men: “Hot and hung, but sweet will do!”

Turn-ons: “I’m turned on to a guy by different things. It could be the way he looks. It could be his intelligence. It’s really a spontaneous thing. I’m open to love but guys should have to earn it because the minute they get it, they want something else. Men are like hunters; they like the chase. So you have to keep them guessing. Actually, I’m like that too. I get bored very quickly. So if someone can make me laugh, that’s the best.”

[From Cosmo and OK! Magazine]

Hot, hung and maybe sweet. Rihanna and I are sisters, under the skin. Actually, my type is skeevy, dirty and hung. Sidenote: there’s a good reason I’m not married, right? Anyway, in addition to this Cosmo release, Rihanna’s new music video for “Man Down” has also just come out. Let’s watch it together:

The song is very budget Bob Marley. As for the video and the subject matter… I wasn’t really expecting that, honestly. I thought the rest of the video was just going to be Rihanna playing in the water, but that rape part was… an unusual choice for a pop music video. I hope Rihanna talks about the subject matter she brought up.

Cover courtesy of Cosmo. Additional photos courtesy of WENN.