Before she became a star in her own right, Muni Long was a sought-after songwriter.

One of her best-known compositions was Rihanna’s 2010 hit  “California King Bed” which was written in 10 minutes because she wanted to go back to shopping for furniture online.

During an interview with Complex on Monday (March 11), Long, whose real name is Priscilla Renea, shared the backstory of how she composed one of Rihanna’s most beloved ballads with producer Jermaine Jackson of The Runners.

"They had the chords and everything. I listened, I went back into the room, and they gave me the file," Long recalled.

"At the time I was planning to move to L.A. I was actually online looking for furniture when Maine comes in the room, and he's like, 'What you got?' I didn’t have anything, because I had been messing around, and I looked at my computer,” she went on.

"I said 'California King Bed,' and he said, 'OK,' and then he left. So I was like, 'Oh, now I gotta write that,' Long recalled.

"I wrote the song in like 10 minutes. I was like, 'Turn it up, let me get this done real quick,' so I could go back to looking for my furniture."

Originally written for Kelly Clarkson, her publisher decided "they were going to cut it for Rihanna” which was a thrill for Long.

"I was super excited," she recalled. "She was on tour at the time, but she cut the song, and the rest is history. You wouldn't think that she would do something like that."

The success of the song catapulted Long from an “unknown” artist into an in-demand composer which was life-changing as she went on to write hits for Fifth Harmony, Ariana Grande, and many others.

 "After that, I did work with her in the studio many times, but that was my first entry point into my journey with Rih," Long said.

Despite all of the success, Long also explained the struggles that songwriters face in the industry.

“Songwriters get beat up a lot,” she said. “They take a lot of L’s in order to deliver this incredible product, which is really like the genesis of all the other things that come.” 

After grinding for years, 2023 was when Long stepped fully into her destiny as a star. She received three Grammy Award nominations, winning Best R&B Performance for her chart-topping hit “Hrs & Hrs Day”.