1988年2月20日，蕾哈娜出生于加勒比海地区巴巴多斯岛的St. Michael教区。15岁时，她通过朋友和美国音乐制作人伊万·罗杰斯结识，在罗杰斯面前，她表演了前美国演唱组合天命真女的《Emotions》和歌手玛丽亚·凯莉的《Hero》，之后罗杰斯将她带到纽约录制了多支Demo并投往各个唱片公司，后受到美国歌手Jay-Z的赏识，得到了一张来自Def Jam的六张专辑的唱片合约。

half of me

rihanna

You saw me on a television

Setting fire to all the buildings

Yeah I guess you saw me stealing

But you've no idea what I've been needing

Talk about when we were children

Not the kinda kid that you believe in

You saw me on a television

Saw me on a television

 

That's just the half of it

Yeah you saw the half of it

This is the life I live

And that's just the half of it

 

You saw me on a television

Hanging on my dirty linen

You're entitled to your own opinion

Said you shake your head in my decision

I guess the kinda songs that I been singing

Make it seem as if I'm always winning

But you saw me on a television

Yeah you saw on a television

 

But that's just the half of it

You saw the half of it, yeah

This is the life I live

And that's just the half of it

 

Oh you know me, I'm the life of the party

Beautiful people surround me

Everybody falling in love

Oh you know me, everybody knows that I'm crazy

Sticks and stones, they never break me

And I'm the type that don't give a fuck

 

And that's just the half of it

 

You saw the half of it

Yeah this the life I live

And that's just the half of it

 

Yeah you saw the half of it

And this is the life I live

You saw the half of it

Only the half of it, hey, no...

 

You saw me on a television

Saw me on a television