By Adam S. Levy - Breaking Celebrity News Staff Writer

Confused how Rihanna could ever work with (let alone speak to) Chris Brown again, after he assaulted her during their now-infamous February 2009 incident?

The Caribbean Queen shed some light on the situation in an interview with On Air with Ryan Seacrest Thursday, explaining the rationale behind their puzzling pair of performances on each other’s new tracks, her Birthday Cake and Turn Up the Music, three years after he brutally pummeled her following a pre-Grammy party in Hancock Park, a suburb of Los Angeles.