Pon de Replay

Rihanna recorded "Pon de Replay" in New York in 2004, one of three songs cut for a demo tape intended for record labels. She had been discovered in her home country of Barbados by producer Evan Rogers, who arranged for her to fly to the United States. The track was written and produced by Rogers, Carl Sturken and Vada Nobles, and Alisha "M'Jestie" Brooks also received writing and production credit. The first label to respond to the tape was Def Jam Recordings, where Jay-Z had recently been appointed president and CEO. Rihanna auditioned for him and executive L.A. Reid in his office, performing Whitney Houston's cover of the Isley Brothers' "For the Love of You" along with "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time". Jay-Z was initially skeptical, feeling the song was too big for a new artist to come back from, saying "I don't sign songs, I sign artists". She got the six-album deal anyway.

The song became Rihanna's debut single, released on May 24, 2005, through Def Jam and later via iTunes on July 26. A pop, dancehall and R&B track, it blended dance-pop, big-band jazz, reggae and reggaeton influences. The title is Bajan Creole for "play it again", and the lyrics ask a DJ to turn the music up louder. In an interview with Kidzworld, Rihanna explained it as simply the language spoken in Barbados, broken English telling the DJ to put her song on replay.

Commercially the single reached number one in New Zealand and the top five across much of Europe, including number two in the United Kingdom. In the United States it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, held off the top spot by Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together". The music video, directed by Little X, was filmed at the now-defunct Republik Nightclub in Toronto and showed Rihanna in a club with friends asking the DJ to play their favorite song repeatedly.