Rihanna, in the new issue of Elle, has a message for all haters giving her a hard time about collaborating with Chris Brown again: She could give a flying ...

Yeah. Despite a shocking attack suffered at the hands of her then-boyfriend, Rihanna recorded new music - two remixes - with Brown earlier this year.

The backlash came hard and fast. But she does not care.

“The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently. It’s very hard for me to accept, but I get it," she said of the negative reaction to working with Chris.

"People end up wasting their time on the blogs or whatever, ranting away, and that’s all right. Because tomorrow I’m still going to be the same person."

"I’m still going to do what I want to do.”

Anyone at all surprised? Didn't think so.

Regarding the breakup with Chris and the media scrutiny that followed his arrest three years ago, Rihanna says it was terrible ... and yet empowering.

"They know more about me than I want them to know. It’s embarrassing. But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of 'bring it.' […] Now, you know that, so you can say what you want about it. I don’t have anything to hide.”

"It gave me guns."