Yesterday, ish hit the fan when it was confirmed by Miss Info that Rihanna would be releasing the remix to her album favorite, ‘Birthday Cake’ on her birthday (Feb 20th) and it would feature Chris Brown. Now, it seems as though Rihanna has a message for anyone that has issues with her putting Breezy on her remix. And I’m sure that includes her boss Jay-z as well as Roc Nation who worked hard to help her rebuild her career after the 2009 incident involving Chris. It will be interesting to see whether the label will stop it’s release or if she’ll drop the remix as planned on Monday…
Get the alleged backstory plus more tweets from Rihanna below
Last year, this tidbit made it’s way onto the internet as a blind item (around the time it was rumored that she had left Roc Nation) and was later revealed:
When Rihanna started making some noise about leaving JayZ’s RocNation last year, everyone thought that it was because JayZ was forcing her to take a break so all the focus would be on Beyonce’s baby and Beyonce’s new album. Nope.Besides what may be going on behind the scenes with her label, Jay-z and her management, Rihanna’s tweet vent was more than likely provoked by an open letter posted on Billboard Magazine’s website. In it, Assistant Editor Jason Lipshultz writes:
It was actually because Rihanna didn’t like JayZ trying to control her love life. JayZ had spent several years taking Rihanna’s career to the next level (you might recall that her first big commercial hit was Umbrella with JayZ). He managed her to stardom, only to watch everything get thrown into turmoil when Chris Brown started beating on her. He helped to get her away from Chris Brown, get her healthy, and get her career back on track again.
Understandably, when JayZ found out that Rihanna was creeping around with Chris Brown again, he was furious. he asked her to stop, and she refused. Then she threatened to leave. Reports started popping up that she had fired JayZ. Lots of arguments and threats back and forth. As of today, she’s still at RocNation, but as long as she insists on seeing Chris Brown, this power struggle isn’t over yet. – BG
..The news about CB dropping by your “Birthday Cake” remix… damn. Three years and nine days later, it is officially implied that, no matter if you two are “single” or “in a relationship” or “it’s complicated,” a token of forgiveness has been earned by Brown. And that’s not cool, to a whole lot of people.
Look, you could do this one song with Brown and never work with him again, or go record “Watch The Pop Throne” with him. You two could become a couple again and get married in Vegas next week. Maybe you want none of those things, or all of those things; you certainly have the right to do any of those things. In your words, “there’s only one you, so just be that.” Do you, Rihanna!
But, in all honesty… you can’t do you, Rihanna. Not here. Not with Chris Brown. Because like it or not, millions of people are paying attention to you, trying to be as cool as you, attempting to find love in a hopeless place and wondering if it’s okay to walk down the same dark alleyway twice. Young girls look up to people like you to guide them through circumstances too complex for them to tackle on their own, and by granting Chris Brown an iota of tolerance, you implicitly encourage others to consider doing the same. [...]
If you continue letting Chris Brown slither into your work or personal life, nothing tremendous will happen – bloggers will blog and a backlash will form, but you’ll no doubt continue ruling the Hot 100 and the world will keep spinning. Yet if you grit your teeth, sacrifice instinct and decide to inspire… even three years removed from that horrific incident, that “f-ck yourself” moment, that public banishment of the man who physically attacked you, will still resonate with so many people looking for their own morsel of strength. As essential as your voice has become in the pop landscape, you have the opportunity to deliver a message that transcends any lyric you could ever sing, to stand for something that lasts much longer than any three-minute piece of radio fodder. We, like you, all want to let our individuality shine – to know who we are, and just be ourselves – but in this one instance, we need your message to be perfect.
Personally, I get why she’s doing it and I know it seems like a slap in the face to a lot of people but it’s obvious that Rihanna is attempting to send the message that ‘if I can forgive him for what he’s done to me, then you should be able to forgive him to’. When she invited him to her birthday party, she made it clear that she was tired of creeping around and she wants to live her life the way she wants to live it, no matter what people may say.
Meanwhile, it seems like the media and fans of both artists have become invested in the drama between the two over the past few years, (especially with the release of the court documents which ironically popped up again this week after his Grammy win, the photos of her bruised face that leaked after the incident and her sit down with Diane Sawyer). It’s gonna be very hard for people to digest the possibility of her getting back together with Chris, let alone release a song with him, and even more interesting to see the reaction from the public and the media after the song and video is released. [If, of course, it is released as planned]
