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(A photo of Rihanna’s actual “birthday cake”. Yes, she’s riding a spliff….)

Is the world ready for a Rihanna and Chris Brown reunion? Well, ready or not, it is happening.
Rihanna has recorded a remix to her song “Birthday Cake” featuring Chris Brown, her Grammy-winning ex-boyfriend who was also convicted of assaulting her 3 years ago this month.
Recently, the song’s co-producers, Da Internz, hinted to MTV News, that “the feature on [the remix] is gonna shock the world.” They didn’t exaggerate. Your girl Info confirmed with two independent sources that Rihanna has Chris Brown featured on the song. He recorded both a singing verse, and a rap verse. (We’ll see if both of those verses make the final song.)

UPDATE 2/17: Well, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised…but I’m guessing some fans will be disappointed to hear that  Rihanna is allegedly being pressured to shelf the “Birthday Cake (Remix)” completely. It’s possible that she recorded it with Chris without alerting label and management. But here’s the thing…burying this song, doesn’t really solve anything if these two continue to reunite in other ways. And by the looks of Rihanna’s twitter rant, the heart wants what the heart wants. Plus, are all parties ready to begin a lengthy period of lying about the duet’s existence? Seems like both Rihanna and Chris are pushing back…

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*Yes, Chris’ hint means Rihanna is on his remix.*

(Continuation of 2/16 post) As for rumors that Chris Brown attended Rihanna’s early birthday celebration after the Grammys this past weekend….Yes, that is also true. In fact, Chris arrived at the party with Rihanna. And stayed. It was not a drive-by appearance. And the energy between the two did not appear purely platonic. The party was a small intimate one. Family members, friends, and interestingly enough, management (Hov was not there, obviously). I imagine there were lots of mixed reactions in the room. (And no, everyone didn’t sign a confidentiality agreement)

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(Photo of Rihanna and Chris Brown, back when they were dating in 2009)

So…now that we’ve got the facts out…what kind of reaction will follow? I think you best brace yourselves for multiple waves of heated emotion. Crashing into each other from many directions.

More on that, and the state of Rihanna x Chris Brown in 2012…
After the jump

But also, be clear….this resolution between volatile exes, between aggressor and victim, between two huge pop stars…has been brewing for a while. But what’s also interesting is that…while time that has evidently healed the wounds from that horrible Lamborghini ride in Los Angeles in 2009 for Rihanna…it’s clear from the reaction to Chris Brown’s 2012 Grammy win, there are still strong feelings from both men and women about CB’s post-conviction post-probation place in pop culture.

And to be frank, Chris doesn’t exactly make it easier with some of his tweets, either.

Ever since Chris Brown performed (twice, actually) at the Grammys this past Sunday, a renewed sense of outrage has been flowing from the mainstream press. Some it has been fueled by a very disturbing twitter trend, young CB fans referencing his domestic violence conviction as a badge of fandom. These were collected by Buzzfeed (25 Extremely Upsetting Reactions To Chris Brown At The Grammys), and then discussed on sites like The Rumpus (Dear Young Ladies Who Love Chris Brown So Much They Would Let Him Beat Them). These were pieces that were shared up to 47,000 times, and tweeted thousands of times as well.

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*cringe*

Then there was country singer Miranda Lambert’s unsolicited reaction to Chris Brown’s appearance on the Grammys and his win (fyi: she references “Gunpowder and Lead,” a song she wrote about domestic abuse):

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Now, without condoning Brown’s terrible violence against Rihanna, I think Lambert’s suggest that there should be a Grammy penalty box is a bit unrealistic. If that were the case, how long would the probationary period be for legal offenders? Anything longer than a month would make it difficult for a whole lot of musicians. Not just rappers and R&B singers. And would Chris Brown’s “place” be the court-mandated chain-gang he was on in 2010? Should he volunteer for additional work detail in exchange for Grammy airtime? Or should the Grammy show producers do some garbage pick-up to earn the right to ask CB to dance and cartwheel. The whole thing is a slippery slope. And it’s made that much more slippery, when Chris himself gets to tweeting (and then deleting) things like:

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Ack! Move away from the blackberry, CB. It seems like Chris has earned the right to move professionally past constant apology. But is it unrealistic for him to think that his mistake will ever be not an issue for the general public? He has earned the music awards and accolades he’s gotten. So whose responsibility is it to restrict the amount of spotlight he gets moving forward?

Clearly Rihanna and Chris have been getting closer and working together for a little while now. You don’t record a song, shoot a video, and decide to show up together at a party overnight. And then, there is the fact that Chris is still publicly dating a stylist named Karrueche Tran. The couple left L.A. together the day after Rihanna’s birthday. So now we wait for the actual “Birthday Cake” reveal…and all the renewed debate that will follow. One music expert raised an interesting point: What about Rihanna’s mentors who have made it very clear that they aren’t letting Chris live that 2009 assault down? What were the conversations like to greenlight recording and video production?

Some debates are good ones. They move us forward even. Will a real “Rihanna Loves Chris Brown 2012” have the opposite effect? Does that make a difference to either of them? Nope.

Related:
2012 Grammy Award Performances: Rihanna and Coldplay, Chris Brown, Alicia Keys, and More
Chris Brown, Enraged by Rihanna Questions, Goes Hulk On Good Morning America Staff
Chris Brown Completes Domestic Violence Counseling
Rihanna on GMA: “It’s embarrassing that’s the kind of person I fell in love with…F. love. Because love is so blind.”
Chris Brown’s public apology: “I have told Rihanna countless times…that I am truly truly sorry”
Chris Brown on Larry King Live snippet: I don’t remember doing that…
Chris Brown pleads guilty, no jailtime, gets “hard labor”