The award winning pop artist Rihanna has bare that her 2009 assault at the hands of Chris Brown helped give her music a new edge.
Rihanna split with Brown after the fight, and told Vogue magazine that the experience did have one positive outcome. "It actually gave me a lot of liberation," The singer said. "I was able to tap into the personal part of my music. I started to tell stories through my music that were actually my stories. "My album before that, there was still a little bit of protection, there was still an innocence to me. And what that time in my life did was kind of wake people up - it's not all a bed of roses. My life is like yours. "It made me look at the world in a much bigger way because my life was suddenly superduper magnified - all eyes were on me. I needed that in my life to know how to say, 'F**k off!' To know how to keep my head high even in the worst of situations. I keep using the word unapologetic, but there's a freedom that has come with all of that. Where you feel like you don't have to make an excuse for being yourself.".