The-Dream says that "it's just music" and that he didn't get caught up in the controversy.
The Hip Hop world was shaken when Rihanna and Chris Brown reunited earlier this week on remixes to "Birthday Cake" 
and "Turn Up the Music," 
their first collaborations since their domestic violence incident in 2009. Speaking with Billboard.com, Terius Nash, who crafted "Birthday Cake," explained that the remixes were Ri's idea and that it wasn't about the controversy to him - it was about the product. "For me, it's just music -- two talented people doing a record together, doing two records together, and that's what it was," he said. "It wasn't about an incident that happened. The true thing really is to forgive, and… you want to believe in people."
The-Dream explained that Ri came up with the idea, and that the song was only completed a week ago. "It was Rih's idea," he said. "Not only do we work together, but [Rihanna] is a friend of mine. And it's like, 'You wanna do something? Then cool, let's do it.' I don't know how she got the logistics and how it happened -- maybe she'll talk about it one day. I showed up at the studio, and it was like, 'All right, cool, let's finish this record,' which we probably should have finished the first time we did it."
He continued by noting that the collaborations with Brown must have come about because of Ri's ability to forgive her ex-boyfriend for putting his hands on her in 2009. Because she was able to forgive him, The-Dream was fine with moving ahead with the collabos.
"I think [the topic] that should be more on the tongues is: how do we proclaim to be a nation of forgiving, and we go by all of these rules and everything, but we can't actually do it?... It actually makes you look weaker than your adversary -- if you don't have the power to forgive, but you lie and say that you did... Because this is about her... If she can forgive, that's where she is mentally. As a friend, it's like, 'Okay, cool. Let's roll.'"
