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When The Dream found out that Rihanna wanted to reunite with Chris on “Cake,” the song he penned, he said he wasn’t sure which Chris she was talking about. During an interview with MTV’s Rapfix, he says “No, I didn’t know he would always be a feature on this song.”

“Eventually, I would; of course, I would have to know. This song came about and ended up being an interlude on the album because the last time that we had remaining – I think I was in Amsterdam, which we stopped over in Amsterdam for some reason– and I wrote this record. Everybody that knows me knows that I only write up until the first hook because I think you’re wasting your time if nobody likes it up until then. What’s the point in writing the whole song [because] you’re just wasting time. So I write up until the first hook and that’s all that was there and we ran out of time but she loved the song so much that she was like, “I have to record whatever is here and we’ll make it an interlude” with the thought that we think it may be a single but we wasn’t tripping.  Then she put it out and everybody got pissed off (because it was so short). That’s how the song part began and how she got to the Chris Brown part is probably…. all Ri … I remember her mentioning it. At the end of the day, she’s my friend, so whatever she wants to do is whatever she wants to do and we made it happen.

How did Rihanna tell you Chris Brown was going to be on the Birthday Cake Remix?

Very nonchalant.  I was in the car actually in Miami and driving. “What’s up? I think I’m going to put Chris on it,” [says Rihanna]. I don’t know which Chris you’re talkin’ about, [but] OK, cool, whatever you say. Then she didn’t say anything else about it and it happened.

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.