Hate That I Love You
The Good Girl Gone Bad duet joins Rihanna to Ne-Yo's performance, writing and production.
Artist
Rihanna Ft. Ne-Yo
Why we feature this artist Ne-Yo inside the making of the duet Hate That I Love You places Ne-Yo beside Rihanna as a singer, writer and producer. The 2007 Good Girl Gone Bad recording gives the collaboration a measured setting in which frustration and attachme…
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- Barbados, United States
- Sound
- contemporary R&B
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The story of Rihanna Ft. Ne-Yo
Why we feature this artist
Ne-Yo inside the making of the duet
Hate That I Love You places Ne-Yo beside Rihanna as a singer, writer and producer. The 2007 Good Girl Gone Bad recording gives the collaboration a measured setting in which frustration and attachment can remain present at the same time.
The original Def Jam session
The credits name Stargate and Ne-Yo in production, with Shaffer Smith, Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen in the writing. Ne-Yo's part therefore reaches into the song's construction as well as the answering vocal. That connection helps the duet feel closely shaped around both performers.
The disagreement stays conversational
The singers can express different shades of irritation without turning each line into a confrontation. Their melodic responses keep suggesting an attachment that the words cannot quite dismiss. The arrangement leaves enough room for the contradiction to sound ordinary and recognisable. The record's charm is in that refusal to resolve too quickly: the voices remain drawn into the same tune even while describing the difficulty of being drawn together.