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"Rihanna is ready to explain herself.\r\nThe world was shocked in February when the singer, 24, tapped abusive ex-boyfriend (and current secret lover) Chris Brown to sing on a sexually explicit remix of her song &amp;quot;Birthday Cake&amp;quot; -- and she, in turn, crooned on a remix of his own song &amp;quot;Turn Up the Music.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nRihanna addressed concerns over the collaboration chatting with Ryan Seacrest on his radio show Thursday.\r\n&amp;quot;I reached out to him about doing &amp;apos;Birthday Cake&amp;apos; because [he was] the only person that really made sense to do the record -- just as a musician. Despite everything else, that was gonna be the person.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nBrown, 22, violently assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna in February 2009; as Us Weekly has reported, the pair have been secretly hooking up for a year despite his ongoing relationship with girlfriend Karrueche Tran.\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;You know, I thought about rappers, [but] the hottest R&amp;amp;B artist out right now is Chris Brown. So I wanted him on the track,&amp;quot; she explained matter-of-factly.\r\n\r\nIn turn, she agreed to guest on his own remix. &amp;quot;It was a tradeoff,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;We did two records -- one for my fans, one for his fans. That way, our fans could come together. There shouldn&amp;apos;t be a divide. It&amp;apos;s music and it&amp;apos;s innocent.&amp;quot;\r\nTell Us: Is Rihanna&amp;apos;s explanation sufficient?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/rihanna-chris-brown-remixes-really-made-sense-2012153>