Muni Long Is the Mastermind Behind Rihanna’s ‘California King Bed’
R&B artist Muni Long, a.k.a. Priscilla Renea Hamilton, revealed her songwriting credit for Rihanna’s iconic “California King Bed” in a recent interview.
On March 8, Long discussed her experience as both a songwriter and an R&B musician with Jordan Rose at Complex. She started as a writer in the industry, catapulting to notoriety after a viral YouTube video of her singing words from the dictionary in 2007. Three years later, working out of Miami, her colleagues approached her with the idea of “California King Bed.”
“Originally, they were trying to pitch it to Kelly Clarkson. Then I came back two months later, and my publisher Ryan Press said that they were going to cut it for Rihanna. I was super excited. She was on tour at the time, but she cut the song, and the rest is history,” Long stated. Her writing on the track worked wonders for her creative career. It also began a consistent collaboration between her and Rihanna.
When fans discovered Long’s involvement with “California King Bed,” they were not surprised. They appraised her talents as both a singer and a songwriter.
Muni is prolific. Keep writing.
— Darren Pearson (@DarrenPearson) March 12, 2024
I want to see a roundtable of black women who forged their own path via songwriting.
— Taylor Gray (@offtaylorgray) January 29, 2024
Muni Long
Ester Dean
Victoria Monét
Nija
Missy Elliott
However, Long also discussed the difficulties of being a songwriter with how they are treated in the industry. She states, “songwriters get beat up a lot. Like, they take a lot of L’s in order to deliver this incredible product, which is really the genesis of all the other things that come.” According to her, since so many higher-ups get involved in the process, the writers aren’t left with much after everyone’s been paid.
The “Made For Me” singer has been to Washington D.C. a few times to fight for songwriters’ rights. They’re not legally allowed to unionize, which makes it harder to bring about change in the industry. Therefore, Long has been campaigning to change that. Her consensus is that even though she’s mostly a singer now, she was a songwriter first.
“There’s a lot of conversation right now just around songwriters’ rights and people using their influence or positions of power to oppress others. I definitely am one who likes to shift the paradigm, and I would love to be able to be an artist that’s setting a new precedent,” she discussed with Complex. The future of songwriters’ rights is looking bright with artists like Muni Long leading the charge.
If you want to read her full interview with Complex, you can find it here.
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