Recording and Composition
After Rihanna signed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings, she began working with various producers for the debut album and continued to work with Rogers and Sturken, who had previously written and produced "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time" for Rihanna's demo tape. Although Rihanna stated that when she first heard "Pon de Replay", she did not want to record it, expressing that she felt the song was "sing-songy", but grew to like the song at the end of the recording process. In an interview with Kidzworld, Rihanna explained how the pair helped her develop her song-writing abilities, saying Rogers and Sturken, who had worked with recording artists including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson.
Music of the Sun was inspired by caribbean music, including soca, dancehall, and reggae, as well as corporating dance-pop and R&B. The lead single "Pon de Replay" was written by Rogers, Sturken and Vada Nobles, and was produced by the first two. Musically, "Pon de Replay" draws influence from the musical genres of dance-pop, R&B and dancehall. Lyrically, the song is about asking the DJ to play the protagonist's favorite song, as well as the fulfillment of dancing in a club. "The Last Time", written and produced by Rogers and Sturken is an acoustic guitar driven ballad, while "Now That I Know" is a stripped down string driven song. In addition to working with Rogers and Sturken for the majority of the album, Rihanna worked with production teams Poke & Tone of Trackmasters and Stargate. The former wrote and produced the second single released from the album, "If It's Lovin' that You Want", which Rihanna described as a "fun song". An R&B song, "If It's Lovin' that You Want" is a song about a girl telling a boy that he should make her his girl, because she has what the boy wants. A remix of the song entitled "If It's Lovin' That You Want – Part 2", which features rap vocals by Cory Gunz, was included as a bonus track on Rihanna's sophomore album, A Girl Like Me (2006). Alongside Rogers and Sturken, Stargate co-wrote and co-produced "Let Me", which appears as the ninth song on the album. Music of the Sun contains a cover of Jamaican singer Dawn Penn's "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)", and features dancehall recording artist Vybz Kartel.
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