Rihanna Signs With Jay-Z's Roc Nation

Jay-Z has added the biggest star yet to his Roc Nation Management company: Rihanna is parting ways with manager Marc Jordan to join up with Jigga's fledgling company. She told the Associated Press, that she is "so excited to take this next step in my career."

Jay-Z, who has teamed with Rihanna on hits like "Umbrella" and "Run This Town," initially signed the singer to Def Jam in 2005, when he was the company"s president.

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The singer will also launch her own company, Rihanna Entertainment, to "merge all of her businesses, including music, film, fragrance, fashion and book ventures." Rihanna joins Roc Nation artists like Wale, Mark Ronson, J. Cole, the Tings Tings and, most recently, Willow Smith of "Whip My Hair" fame.

Rihanna's next album, Loud, is due out November 16th.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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