WELL RECUPERATED: Rihanna has put her past behind

She’s channelling all that vibe into her latest album Rated-R, which will be released nationwide today.

“You hear a lot more things in my album that might shock you. I talk a lot about things; I talk about sex. We use a lot of bad words and a lot of metaphors. We had some fun with words,” said Rihanna in a recent interview with Singapore Today.

Citing her single, Russian Roulette, as an example, Rihanna said that it might throw people off with the colourful language. Despite the warning, she insists that the album is really about love and the concept is a natural step from Good Girl Gone Bad.

Not wanting to repeat herself, Rihanna wanted to have a different sound on her new album, marking Rated-R a new chapter in her life, in terms of music and growing up. The 21-year-old, who recently celebrated her birthday, admitted that past events have lent a hand to this turning point of her life, where she has grown up to be an empowered woman.

Naturally, this leads our thoughts to Rihanna’s traumatic experience with ex-beau, Chris Brown.

Suffering an attack from Brown while in a car, Brown had hit, choked and bit her and at one point, tried to push her from the car. The attack resulted in Rihanna suffering from visible face injuries which included a black eye.

The attack was apparently triggered by Rihanna confronting Brown about a text message on his phone from another woman, which she claimed Brown lied about. At the time, Rihanna had refused to let the matter rest, which further aggravated him. Despite the vicious attack, it came as a shock when Rihanna decided to stick with Brown.

Admitting the decision to be a mistake on ABC’s Good Morning America, Rihanna regretted going back to Brown, saying it sent a wrong message to her fans. She also warned other women facing domestic violence to not let themselves become blinded by love.

Recounting her experience on the beating she suffered from Brown, the singer recalled looking into his eyes, and saw that there was no soul. She had no idea how it would end. “That’s all I kept thinking the whole time,

‘When is it going to stop? When is it going to stop?’”

“I don’t hate him at all,” she said. “I actually love and care about him and I’m concerned about him doing well. I want him to do well – have a great career, have a great life, and grow up. Just take this as something that you had to go through to grow up and learn.”

Too bad for Chris Brown, he will no longer enjoy any form of dirty talk from Rihanna, but for 10 lucky Malay Mail readers, you will stand a chance to win Rihanna’s Rated-R album and we’ll throw in a poster to boot, courtesy of Universal Music.

Just email umusic1@gmail.com your name, contact numbers and address with the header ‘Malay Mail / Universal Music Rihanna Rated-R contest’ and just name one of Rihanna’s singles. Send in your entries by tomorrow, 9am and be one of the first in Malaysia to own her album!