First Single

Prior to signing a record deal with Def Jam Recordings, Rihanna was discovered in her home country of Barbados by American record producer Evan Rogers, who made the necessary arrangements for her to fly to New York. There, she recorded a collection of demo's for a demo tape to be sent to record labels. One of the demo's recorded was that of "Pon de Replay", which was written and produced by Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers and Vada Nobles in 2004. The first to respond to the demo tape was Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed as president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, where Rihanna auditioned for him and music executive L.A. Reid, in his office. Looking back on the audition and meeting Jay-Z, Rihanna said she was so nervous and had butterflies whilst jay-z was sat across the table from her. During the audition, Rihanna performed Whitney Houston's cover of "For the Love of You", "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time", the latter two of which would go on to be included on her debut album, Music of the Sun. Initially, Jay-Z was sceptical about signing Rihanna, because he felt "Pon de Replay" was too big for her, saying "when a song is that big, it's hard for a new artist to come back from. I don't sign songs, I sign artists". It was soon released about became her number one single.