Check The Credits: Rock City Speak on Writing for Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, & More

“Pour It Up” – Rihanna

Timothy: We did “We Can’t Stop” in Atlanta. The label loved it and had us and Mike Will come to LA to work on some ideas for Rihanna. We were working on some pop songs when Bu stopped by the studio. He told us Rihanna wanted something like a hard-hitting club banger to turn-up to. He said she was just in that place where she just wanted to have fun. We were in there writing a pop song, so I tell Bu that I’m a ratchet motherfucker and to not make me go ratchet and then tell me “Nah, you went too far” [Laughs]. He told us to go for it. Mike Will pulled up a beat and the first thing that came to mind was “Strip clubs and dollar bills! Still got more money!” It’s so funny, because we didn’t want to write verses. We wanted to make the whole song a chorus. That’s why the whole song is repetitive. The whole song sounds like it’s one big hook. We were. “like fuck a verse!” Let’s just make it extra catchy. The song was almost done, but we were a bit stuck. My brother then goes “Money on my mind, money, money on my mind!” We were like “Yep! We got it.”