Rihanna, Chris Brown: Singer Says Ex Is the ‘Hottest,’ Doesn’t Want a ‘Divide’

Rihanna is finally explaining why she chose to reunite with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown on the remix to 'Birthday Cake,' a song featured on her sixth studio album, 'Talk That Talk.'

The 24-year-old Barbados native spoke with Ryan Seacrest about the collaboration, which was the first track the pair recorded since the infamous domestic violence assault that occurred in 2009. Subsequently, the blonde-haired singer went in the booth to lay down vocals for the remix to Brown's 'Turn Up the Music.'

"The first song that came about was 'Birthday Cake,'" she revealed. "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."

While critics were perplexed over the union, the 'Where Have You Been' chanteuse disclosed that Chris Brown is the "hottest R&B artist" at the moment.

"Just as a musician despite everything else that was going to be the person," Rihanna shared. "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."

As a result, the Def Jam signee felt that both projects were a way for their respective fans to celebrate as a team rather than pick sides. "We did two records," she continued. "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."

'Birthday Cake' was co-produced by The-Dream and Da Internz. Read The BoomBox's exclusive interview with The-Dream here, where he speaks about his work on the song and why he chose to support Rihanna collaborating with Chris Brown.