Rihanna Shows Her Tribal Side on Streets of New York

Rihanna usually grabs headlines for what she isn’t wearing, but such was not the case when the Bajan beauty left her New York City hotel last night (May 14) en route to perform at the Robin Hood Foundation benefit gala.

RiRi emerged in a full face of stage makeup, looking every inch the primitive, tribal, warrior princess, complete with war paint.

While we’re not accustomed to seeing her in her stage garb before she is actually on the stage, she did her elaborate makeup, consisting of white eye shadow and gold lip paint, in her hotel room and donned her snake-like headdress beforehand. Ri did take time out of her mad dash to the perf by stopping to sign autographs for fans, something that baffles us, since we don’t know how the ‘Where Have You Been’ singer can do anything with those claw-like nails she’s been favoring.

When Ri finally hit the stage (in the video below), she was wearing a gold, leaf-like bra and lots of leopard print. It was enough to make those leopard print-favorting stylistas known as LMFAO jealous.

Our favorite piece of RiRi’s attire? Those Wonder Woman-meets-Cleopatra gold cuffs.

Watch Rihanna Perform ‘We Found Love’ at the Robin Hood Foundation Benefit Gala