Songfacts®:

• Rihanna opens her eighth album, Anti, with this glitchy, dub-inspired track. The tune acts as a mission statement for the project as we hear the Bajan star declare her desire to be known as more than just a pop singer.
  
  I got to do things my own way darling
  Will you ever let me
  Will you ever respect me? No
  Do things my own way darling
  You should just let me
  Why you ain't ever let me grow?
  
  During a press conference in early 2014, Rihanna stated that she wanted to record songs that could be "timeless" and she could perform them in a span of 15 years, "Not any songs that were burnt out. I find that when I get on stage now, I don't want to perform a lot of my songs," she said. "They don't feel like me."
• The song also features the voice of SZA, who is the first R&B act on the Top Dawg Entertainment roster. The record label houses the rappers Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q plus their Black Hippy crew.
• The head bopping beat was supplied by long-time Rihanna collaborator Kuk Harrell, who has also collaborated with Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and Chris Brown. The co-producers, Carter Lang and Tyran "Scum" Donaldson, work with SZA.
  
  Lang recalled to Billboard: "It was being in the right place at the right time. Rihanna called on her to bring her some music and we had made 'Consideration' at that point -- pretty much the entire song. [Tyron Donaldson] was the drum guy and I was the music guy and then having the opportunity at night to put it all together with SZA, who wanted to create. It was a vibe, naturally."
• "Consideration" was intended for SZA's debut album, Ctrl, under the title "LouAnne Johnson," inspired by Michelle Pfeiffer's character in the 1995 movie Dangerous Minds.
  
  SZA had attended a writing camp hosted by Rihanna but failed to produce any new music for her. But after she performed "Consideration" to impress Pharrell Williams, the Bajan superstar expressed interest in including the song on Anti. SZA's label's decision to hand the song to Rihanna upset her because she planned to make "Consideration" the focal point of her debut album and had already made a video for it.
  
  "I cared so much, and I was so like... just frustrated," SZA admitted in a video segment for Variety. "I felt like, 'I'll never have anything this cool again.' And that was so crazy and so wrong 'cause it was like the centrepiece to my album at the time, and for her, it was just like part of her album, and I was like, 'Please no.'"
  
  "I had just shot a video for it, and I was about to drop it like in a couple of days," SZA continued. "It was already done. Whatever conversation label-wise was already done. It was just a matter of accepting and in hindsight, it was so hard to let go and accept."