Birthday Cake

In late 2011, a 1:18 snippet of an unfinished Rihanna track leaked online, and within days it became one of the most talked-about clips in pop fandom. The song, "Birthday Cake," was a skeletal, beat-driven come-on with lyrics that left little to the imagination. The demand was so intense that Rihanna's label, Def Jam, rushed the interlude onto her sixth studio album, Talk That Talk, released on November 21, 2011. It fit right into the album's playful, sexually charged pop and R&B vibe, sitting between the dancehall of "You da One" and the synth-heavy "Watch n' Learn."

The story took a dramatic turn on February 20, 2012, Rihanna's 24th birthday, when she released a full-length remix featuring her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. The pairing was explosive, given Brown's 2009 assault on Rihanna, and it dominated headlines for weeks. Critics were split: some praised the raw, unfiltered energy of the collaboration; others found it too explicit or troubling. Commercially, the remix climbed to number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the original interlude and remix together earned a Double Platinum certification from the RIAA. The track's legacy is tied to that controversy, yet it remains a testament to the power of a fan-driven demand. [edit]