Many people, FACT included, have been more than a little disconcerted by the news that Rihanna and Chris Brown would be duetting.

Brown was convicted of assault in 2009 after brutally attacking then-girlfriend Rihanna after a Grammys party. After keeping their respective distance for two years, Rihanna announced last month that Brown would feature on her track ‘Birthday Cake’; in turn, Rihanna has cropped up on a remix of Brown’s ‘Turn Up The Music’.  Some, such as ‘Birthday Cake’ producer The-Dream, have defended Rihanna’s right to record with whomsoever she chooses. Others, including Annie Lennox, have questioned what message the collaboration sends out about the seriousness of domestic violence.

According to The Guardian, Rihanna has justified the collaboration in a radio interview, and there’s plenty to chew over. In her words, “there shouldn’t be a divide, you know? It’s music and it’s innocent. We did two records, one for my fans, one for his fans, and that way our fans can come together … I reached out to him about doing ‘Birthday Cake’ because that’s the only person that really … it made sense to do the record. Just as a musician, despite everything else, that was going to be the person. You know I thought about rappers, and I’ve done that so many times, and the hottest R&B artist out right now is Chris Brown. So I wanted him on the track, and then in turn he was like ‘Why don’t you do the remix to my track?’ and it was a trade-off.”

Some of Rihanna’s comments seem to come straight off of a PR rep’s flash card: her justification that Brown is simply “the hottest R&B artist out right now” would be fairly inadequate even if it were true. Whatever the motives behind the tie-ups, it’s hard to read the ‘we’re doing it for the fans’ argument as anything other than disingenuous. There is definitely a reasonable argument that Rihanna, as a professional individual, is entitled to make her own career choices – but we’re not sure this is the best expression of said rationale.