The world can't stop talking about Rihanna and Chris Brown's musical reunion this week but, from the perspective of their producer, the collaboration was really no big deal. The-Dream, who co-produced the controversial track, "Birthday Cake (Remix)," with Da Internz, revealed his thoughts on the situation to Billboard.com.
"For me, it's just music — two talented people doing a record together, doing two records together, and that's what it was," The-Dream said, speaking on "Birthday Cake" and Chris Brown's own remix with Rihanna, "Turn Up the Music." "It wasn't about an incident that happened. The true thing really is to forgive, and … you want to believe in people."
The two young pop stars and ex-lovers set off a firestorm on Monday (February 20) when they released the collaborations simultaneously, confirming weeks of rumors that they had reunited in one form or another. Prior to that point, there had been much public hand-wringing over whether Brown, who performed twice at this month's Grammy Awards and won Best R&B Album, was truly deserving of being welcomed back into the spotlight after being convicted of felony assault against Rihanna in 2009.
The-Dream said that the idea to do the "Birthday Cake" remix with Chris Brown came from Rihanna herself.
"It was Rih's idea. Not only do we work together, but [Rihanna] is a friend of mine. And it's like, 'You wanna do something? Then cool, let's do it.'"
From The-Dream's perspective, when it comes to forgiveness, people have to be willing to walk the walk.
"I think [the topic] that should be more on the tongues is: How do we proclaim to be a nation of forgiving, and we go by all of these rules and everything, but we can't actually do it?" he said. "It actually makes you look weaker than your adversary — if you don't have the power to forgive, but you lie and say that you did ... If [Rihanna] can forgive, that's where she is mentally. As a friend, it's like, 'Okay, cool. Let's roll.'"

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