The Bitch Better Have My Money video was directed by Rihanna and Megaforce and was filmed in April 2015 in Los Angeles, with the boat scene being filmed at Marina Del Rey. The official trailer for the music video was released on June 28, 2015, at the BET Awards. The trailer captured a cryptic storyline: a rich woman, identity unknown, gets herself ready in her lavish apartment, clothes on and purse gathered in her arms, kisses her partner goodbye, and enters a dimly-lit elevator. As this occurs, Rihanna, wearing dark makeup, pulls up to the apartment complex at night. She opens up her car’s trunk and pulls out a large suitcase. Struggling with the suitcase, she too enters the elevator. In one scene, the elevator doors close on the two standing women. In the next, the doors open and Rihanna struts out, alone, except for her heavy suitcase. The full video, which is seven minutes long, was released on Thursday, July 2, 2015 and was rated MA for violence, nudity, and adult language.
The video starts with a woman’s legs peeking out of a huge box. Then the video switches to an elegant woman (played by Canadian model Rachel Roberts) who is prepping herself to go out for the night while Rihanna, dressed in punk-rocky clothes and dark makeup pulls up on a driveway dragging a suitcase with her. The woman goes outside of her apartment with her dog, and approaches the elevator with Rihanna inside. The elevator door closes and the music starts. The rest of the video is Rihanna and her friends, played by Spanish model Sita Abellán and instagram-cast model, Sanam, torturing, intoxicating and making fun of the woman. By the end of the video, it was revealed that the woman was actually the wife of Rihanna’s cheating accountant (played by Mads Mikkelsen). We can see that he used up her credit card to spend money on girls and parties.
The next scene shows Rihanna and her two friends going back to the apartment along with the wife back in the suitcase. Rihanna then picks a knife from her weapon collection and slowly approaches the shirtless and tied up accountant. After the music fades, the video brings us back to the first scene, where we can see the legs peeking outside of a big box. The video zooms in on the box and we can see that it was Rihanna covered in blood, lying in the box filled with money, casually smoking a cigarette. Immediately after, the track’s initials (BBHMM) flash on the screen before revealing a close-up of Rihanna’s bloody face accompanied by tense, ambient sounds. The music video was inspired by Rihanna’s real life experience with an accountant who cheated her of her money.
On November 18, 2016, it surpassed the 100 million views mark, making it the 1st ever age-restricted Vevo Certified video.