Rihanna wrote the song in collaboration with the producers The-Dream and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart; vocal production was carried out by Makeba Riddick.

She wears custom made jewelry designed by Fannie Schiavoni in some parts of the video, while Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker makes a cameo appearance.

[1] The song features a guitar performance by Slash, the British-American musician, songwriter and lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses.

[11] Rihanna uses her lower register and "heavy" modulation to perform most of the song, and she "growls" the lyric "The only thing I'm missing is a black guitar".

[10] Sean Fennessey for Spin thought that when Rihanna sings the line "Got my middle finger up, I don't give a fuck", it sounded as though she had never sworn before due to how she preciously mewls the word 'fuck'.

[13] Emily Tartanella of PopMatters defined "Rockstar 101" as a "brilliant bit of bravado" during her review of Rated R,[14] while Ailbhe Malone for NME wrote that Rihanna sings with "swagger" on the track, which was something that she has Hova to thank for.

[16] Neil McCormick for The Daily Telegraph thought that "Rockstar 101" was one of the few songs on the album to retain the "vaguest leftover hints of her warm Caribbean vocal flavouring".

[9] Pitchfork's Ryan Dombell felt that "Rockstar 101", alike "Russian Roulette" and "The Last Song", were "instantly-dated missteps from a bygone era when a Slash feature was cool".

[29] According to Jayson Rodriguez of MTV, the video is "a mix of goth bondage-esque voyeurism, complete with Rihanna's gyrating moves and a raging band that features Travis Barker on the drums".

[33] She wore a black PVC catsuit and was accompanied on stage by guitarist Nuno Bettencourt; the set design included flame throwers and a video screen which showed guitars, lightning bolts and skulls.

[33] A reviewer for MTV UK agreed with Carroll, writing that "halfway through the performance [Rihanna] donned a 'black flying v guitar' although we're not sure you could say she 'played' it!

"[36] Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone praised Rihanna's performance, writing "if the introductory rules of rock stardom are 'teach thyself to pick slide,' 'tight clod' and 'pyro!'

[37] While he wrote that the "intensely chilly, distant feel of the song works" within the context of Rated R, Lamb was unsure of whether or not it would appeal to the masses on radio.

Clay Cane for BET wrote that Rihanna "deserves a round of applause for doing something different, straying away from being a standard pop tart".