Songfacts®:

• This is the first UK single by the British singer Rita Ora, which was written by the Canadian rapper Drake. He told UK radio station Kiss FM that the song was intended for Rihanna. "'R.I.P.' is a song that I originally wrote for Rihanna. Rihanna actually didn't take the song. I think it was for [Loud] and Rita expressed interest in it and anything I can do for Rita, I will do." The song was released on May 6, 2012.
• The song finds Ora telling the man she's taken a shine too that she's going to have him, "I wonder if you'll be able to handle me," she teases. "Mental pictures - no cameras, please." As for the other girl he's seeing? "Her days are over," she croons.
• This was produced by EDM production duo Chase & Status and features the English rapper Tinie Tempah.
• The in-your-face Emil Nava directed video was shot in Hackney, East London and also features Tinie Tempah.
• Ora describes this song in her official bio as, "such a woman anthem, it sent out a message to say: 'You're hot, tell your man that you're hot.'"
• Rita was in the studio with Drake when she first heard the song. "I just said 'I need this song,'" she told Billboard magazine. "I don't really sing a song on this album unless I write it or am in the writing process cause you have to be in it and be involved so it can be you. But as soon as I heard it I was like, 'This is me so I need to have it.'"
• This was the first solo #1 for Ora. She'd previously provided vocals for DJ Fresh's chart topper "Hot Right Now." "I really, really believed in this song," Ora told BBC Radio 1's chart show on being told of her ascension to the peak position. "It was the first track I had for my album when I started recording it, so I've been sitting on it for two-and-a-half years."