--- title: Rihanna Loves Howard Students Protesting Scandal With BBHMM description: Rihanna showed Howard University students some love online after they used her song to protest the school's alleged embezzlement scandal. canonical: https://time.com/5222600/rihanna-supports-howard-university-students-protesting-financial-aid-scam/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-30T18:22:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:45.966Z og:title: Rihanna Loves Howard Students Using Her Song to Protest Scandal og:description: Pay me what you owe me! og:url: https://time.com/5222600/rihanna-supports-howard-university-students-protesting-financial-aid-scam/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c974cc26c51d9f0/69892c77e76ad2533d6318cc/rihanna-howard-university-bitch-better-have-my-money.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: "Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets" European Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rihanna Loves Howard Students Using Her Song to Protest Scandal twitter:description: Pay me what you owe me! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c974cc26c51d9f0/69892c77e76ad2533d6318cc/rihanna-howard-university-bitch-better-have-my-money.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rihanna Loves Students Using Her Song to Protest Howard University's Alleged Financial Aid Scandal > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 30, 2018 6:22 PM UTC  LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 24: Rihanna attends the "Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets" European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on July 24, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 24: Rihanna attends the "Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets" European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on July 24, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images) Tim P. Whitby—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 30, 2018 6:22 PM UTC [Rihanna](http://time.com/5026366/rihanna-fenty-beauty-best-inventions-2017/) is showing support for [Howard University](http://time.com/4322109/president-obama-howard-university-graduation-speech/) students who used her song [“B-tch Better Have My Money”](http://time.com/3964518/miss-piggy-rihanna-bbhmm/) to protest a financial aid scandal at the school. A video shared on social media showed the students protesting in Howard’s administration building while singing Rihanna’s hit song, an apropos music choice when you consider that the school has been accused of scamming students over misappropriated grant money, according to [The Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/03/28/howard-university-fires-six-employees-after-investigation-into-misappropriated-funding/?utm%5Fterm=.510cf0328aa8). The video, which went viral on Twitter, earned a co-sign from the Bad Gal herself who showed her solidarity by retweeting the post along with the flexing muscle and praise hands emojis. > [](https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/979517736752525312) The protest follows the publication of a now-suspended Medium post ([cached here](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:khRdnAq1zwcJ:https://medium.com/%40veritas1867/howard-university-officials-stole-nearly-1-million-in-financial-aid-funds-records-show-65a3c7d1b08+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)) by an anonymous blogger who alleged that university officials misused funds. After the publication of the post, Howard University President Wayne Frederick confirmed in [a statement](https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/article/8131/howard-university-president-statement-university-grants) on the school’s website that six university employees were fired as a result of misappropriated financial aid funds. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5222600/rihanna-supports-howard-university-students-protesting-financial-aid-scam/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5222600/rihanna-supports-howard-university-students-protesting-financial-aid-scam/"},"headline":"Rihanna Loves Students Using Her Song to Protest Howard University's Alleged Financial Aid Scandal","datePublished":"2018-03-30T18:22:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:45.966Z","description":"Pay me what you owe me!","url":"https://time.com/5222600/rihanna-supports-howard-university-students-protesting-financial-aid-scam/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","viral","Rihanna"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c974cc26c51d9f0/69892c77e76ad2533d6318cc/rihanna-howard-university-bitch-better-have-my-money.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c974cc26c51d9f0/69892c77e76ad2533d6318cc/rihanna-howard-university-bitch-better-have-my-money.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets\" European Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals","caption":"\"Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets\" European Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals","creditText":"Tim P. 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