Songfacts®:

• This melancholic R&B ballad is from Rihanna's fourth studio album, Rated R. A bruised tale of agonized love, it was co-written and produced by the Norwegian production team Stargate - Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen. The Scandinavian hitmakers previously worked with Rihanna on "Unfaithful" and "Take A Bow." R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo, who also co-penned "Russian Roulette," was the other co-writer.
• Lyrically the song appears to have been inspired by Rihanna's relationship with the R&B singer Chris Brown, and his much publicized assault on her in February in 2009. During an appearance on On-Air with Ryan Seacrest, Rihanna disclosed that at first she didn't want to sing about love or about her relationship with Brown, but after a while, she couldn't help it - the emotions came out in her music. She explained: "We went into the studio and first thing we did was figure out the sound. I was having mixed emotions about what I wanted to talk about. I did not want to talk about love at all, because it was sort of expected and I didn't really believe in love at that point, so I tried to go the other way. But when I went into the studio, it was my peace and my way to vent, so all these real emotions started to come out, so it's really raw. The album is a roller coaster of emotions. It's a really personal album and I wouldn't have made it any other way."