Rated R

Rated R is the fourth studio album by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, released in November 2009 by Def Jam Recordings. Recording sessions for the album began in April 2009 and took place at several recording studios throughout United States and Europe. Rihanna together with Antonio "L.A." Reid and The Carter Administration was the executive producer of the album and worked with many record producers, including Chase & Status, StarGate, The-Dream, Ne-Yo, and Brian Kennedy. The record featured several vocalists and instrumentalists, including Young Jeezy, will.i.am, Justin Timberlake and Slash who played the guitars in "Rockstar 101". Musically, the album represents a departure from her 2007 effort Good Girl Gone Bad, which contained up-tempo and ballad-oriented songs. Conceived after Rihanna's assault by her then-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, Rated R features a foreboding and atmospheric tone in terms of musical and lyrical direction. It incorporated elements of hip hop, rock, and dubstep. It also explores other genres, such as dancehall in "Rude Boy" and Latin in "Te Amo". Rated R received positive reviews from music critics, who commended Rihanna's mature performance and called the album her most layered and heartfelt effort. In the United States, the album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart and sold 181,000 copies in its first week. It also attained top ten positions in over twelve other countries.

The album produced six singles, including the international hits "Russian Roulette", "Rude Boy" and "Te Amo", and in addition the US release "Hard". "Russian Roulette" was released as the album's lead single and managed to reach top-ten in seventeen countries and topped the charts in Norway and Switzerland. "Hard" reached number nine in the United States and became her thirteenth top-ten single re-tying her with Beyoncé Knowles as the female artist with the most top-ten hit singles in the country. "Rude Boy" was a commercial success and became the only single from the album that topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks. To further promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her third worldwide concert tour entitled the "Last Girl on Earth Tour".