The Untold Story Behind Rihanna's Forgotten Debut Mixtape
https://genius.com/a/the-untold-story-behind-rihanna-s-forgotten-debut-mixtape
This Is Rihanna was the brainchild of
Cipha Sounds, then senior vice president of
Jay Z's Roc-La-Familia label. Rihanna's manager at the time, Marc Jordan, called up Ciph in early '05 for some counsel—he wanted to make her debut single "
Pon de Replay" live up to its title. The Puerto Rican DJ who'd made his name on New York's Hot 97 radio station already had a rep for breaking Caribbean artists. As
Nina Sky's manager, Cipha helped the reggaeton duo's breakout single "
Move Ya Body" shoot to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2004. But he recognized a limitation of his group's quick success that also befell one-hit Wayne Wonders like
Lumidee and
Kevin Lyttle.
"I had the experience of having a song, it blowing up and then getting all these shows and having nothing else to do because you only have one song," Cipha Sounds tells Genius. "I was like, 'Let's make a mixtape of some freestyles, some covers, so when we get booked to do these clubs, we can have 15 to 20 minutes as opposed to just one song.' [Rihanna] was all for it."
