Follow the link for more information. Russian Roulette” received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising Rihanna’s vocal performance and the song’s lyrics. It reached the top-ten in over twenty countries worldwide including number one in Czech Republic, Israel, Luxembourg, Russian singles australia, Portugal, Slovakia, and Switzerland.

The song’s music video was shot by director Anthony Mandler, a frequent collaborator of Rihanna’s, and depicts Rihanna playing a game of the titular Russian roulette with her love interest played by American actor Jesse Williams. Whatever she came with, if she came out with ‘I still love you’ that would have been about Chris Brown. If she came out with ‘I hate your dog’ that would have been about Chris Brown, too. It’s just a natural reaction for people to associate ’cause she’s been so tight-lipped. In 2009, producer Chuck Harmony and singer-songwriter Ne-Yo convened together to conceptualize a song that would take Rihanna’s music to a further level.

According to Harmony, they didn’t wanted to re-work the previous efforts by Rihanna—something that according to him the fans expected. Following a domestic violence case between Rihanna and her boyfriend Chris Brown, media speculated as to whether any song featured on her fourth upcoming album would be about him. In an interview with the same publication, Ne-Yo explained how he wrote the lyrics, “I’m listening to the track, and all I can see is Rihanna and some random person sitting across from each other at the table with a gun sitting in the middle of the table and playing Russian roulette. Russian Roulette” was recorded during the summer 2009, at the Roc the Mic Studios in New York City by Marcos Tovar. On October 14, 2009, a black metal “R” along with a message saying “The Wait is Over” was placed on Rihanna’s official website. B ballad that features dark, haunting, morbid, and tense atmospheric elements in the composition.