Rihanna Explains Why She Teamed Up With Chris Brown

Everyone questioned Rihanna’s judgment when she picked ex-boyfriend Chris Brown to be featured on her “Birthday Cake” remix and in a recent interview with Ryan Seacrest, Rihanna explained why she chose to collaborate with Chris Brown.

“The first song that came about was ‘Birthday Cake.’ I mean we ended up recording them at the same time and executing them together, but I reached out to him about doing ‘Birthday Cake’ because that’s the only person that really–it made sense to do the record. Just as a musician despite everything else that was going to be the person. You know I thought about rappers, and I’ve done that so many times, and the hottest R&B artist out right now is Chris Brown. So I wanted him on the track, and then in turn he was like ‘Why don’t you do the remix to my track?’ and it was a trade off. We did two records. One for my fans. One for his fans, and that way our fans can come together. There shouldn’t be a divide. You know? It’s music, and it’s innocent.”

It’s a good thing Rihanna’s got other things going on like Vita Coco, a fashion campaign with Armani and a fierce diet and workout regimen–all of which she chats about in her interview with Ryan, but it’s her choice to reconnect (at least musically) with Chris Brown is far from “innocent.” When Chris starts his cameo with, “Girl I wanna f*ck you right now (right now). Been a long time, I’ve been missing your body,” innocence is the last thing you can label that.

Listen to the entire interview below:

Do you think Rihanna only collaborated with Chris because he’s the hottest R&B singer out right now? Let’s discuss on Twitter @Rhapsodani.