Chris Brown and Rihanna did a lot more than just raise a few eyebrows this week when they released two songs together: the remixes to Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake” and Chris’ “Turn Up the Music.”
Many have questioned Rihanna and Chris’ decision to reunite on wax just three years after “the incident,” but songwriter The Dream, who wrote and produced “Birthday Cake,” says you shouldn’t judge the collaboration against what went down between them in 2009.
“For me, it’s just music — two talented people doing a record together, doing two records together, and that’s what it was,” The-Dream (real name: Terius Nash) told Billboard.com in a recent interview. “It wasn’t about an incident that happened. The true thing really is to forgive, and… you want to believe in people.”
He continued, “It was Rih’s idea. Not only do we work together, but [Rihanna] is a friend of mine. And it’s like, ‘You wanna do something? Then cool, let’s do it.’ I don’t know how she got the logistics and how it happened — maybe she’ll talk about it one day. I showed up at the studio, and it was like, ‘All right, cool, let’s finish this record,’ which we probably should have finished the first time we did it.”
The Dream also discussed the whole process of adding Chris Brown to “Birthday Cake” with MTV‘s Sway Calloway this week, recalling the first time Rihanna told him what she wanted to do with th song.
“I think I’m gonna put Chris on it,” The Dream said he remembers Rihanna saying nonchalantly to him over the phone. “I don’t know which Chris you talkin’ about, [but] OK, cool, whatever you say,” he remembers responding.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Watch The Dream’s interview with MTV below:
