When we wrote the song, it was kind of a freestyle. I liked the West Indian influence that the music had, and, I just went in the booth, they were already jotting down some ideas and, that came to me, I just ran in there with the, one of the writers and started coming up with this in the studio and now when people read it back to me like that, ‘Come here Rude Boy, is you big enough’?, it does sound so disgusting!"

Via Alan Carr: Chatty Man

Tor Erik Hermansen:

This was probably the first session we did with Ester Dean [the Pitch Perfect actress who’s written for Nicki Minaj, Mary J. Blige, Britney Spears, and others]. Rihanna came up with the title — she said she wanted to do a song called “Rude Boy” and gave that idea to Ester. We made this beat with a guy called Rob Swire, who used to be in the electronic group Pendulum. This was right when we started experimenting with the combination of trancier EDM sounds and slower hip-hop beats. “Rude Boy” was one of the earliest examples of those sounds coming together. Rihanna left for an hour or two, came back, and then when we played it for her, she was just blown away: “Did you guys just do this?” She was the one who really fought for that record and knew what it was. I don’t think even we knew what it was. There are some records everyone believes in, like, “Oh, this is a big single!” But nobody talked about “Rude Boy” until the album came out. We were worried “Rude Boy” wasn’t going to make the cut [because 2009’s Rated R was so dark], but to Rihanna’s credit, she was the one who wanted to keep it."

Mikkel Storleer Eriksen:

We didn’t believe that it would be the biggest record from the album. We just liked it. We thought it was a hot record.

Via EW

“Rude Boy” peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the chart week of March 27, 2010. It became Rihanna’s sixth chart-topper and stayed at the #1 position for six weeks. The song remained on the chart for 22 weeks in total.