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I honestly felt someone was having me on when they were like, 'Drake wants you on this track.'

What first caught my eye about Rihanna was an interview she did with Diane Sawyer after the Chris Brown incident, where she was very articulate, very poised, obviously a smart girl who talked about a very traumatic experience.

Robyn is who I am. Rihanna - that's an idea of who I am.

For a rapper as well-known as Drake, there remains an essential element of mystery about him. For one so open, there's a distance, and he prefers it that way. But then there's something beneath the exterior that reveals itself with urgency in conversation: Drake's raw ambition.

Rihanna has guts and she always seems to be singing from someplace honest, dark and fierce.

When I first got into the entertainment industry, I would always watch Rihanna and all those people, so I was like, 'Ooh, I have to be this.' So my mom was like, 'Just be yourself.'

I admire Rihanna.

The pleasure of hanging with Drake is that there isn't a question he won't try to answer openly and honestly, shifting easily and unselfconsciously between talk of the rap game, money, family, and love.

I was a Versace perfume girl at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Rihanna actually came up to the counter and asked for something. And she wouldn't even take her sunglasses off! She was so mean to me. Not mean, but, like, guarded. I don't blame her, though.

At one of my old schools, I didn't tell anyone I was doing my first album because I was worried they'd be like, 'Who does she think she is?' So I just let them find out for themselves.