Ke$ha Gets 'Raw' On Warrior -- Without Rihanna

If you're like us and you can't get Ke$ha's new single "Die Young" out of your head, with its thumping beat and catchy chorus co-written by fun. frontman Nate Ruess, the December 4 release date for her new album Warrior can't come soon enough.

MTV News is happy to make that wait a little less painful via a few more enticing details about the record, straight from the singer's Grammy-nominated superproducer Dr. Luke.

"I'm really anxious to see what the song ['Die Young'] does. We definitely put our heart and souls into it, so hopefully it works," Luke told on Tuesday (September 25). "This song was kind of one of the songs we were working with as we were doing the whole record. It wasn't like, 'OK, let's set out to do this.' We first had a different chorus on it, and it was pretty good," he revealed. "Then we did another one with Nate, and we liked the vibe of it better. I felt like what he brought to it, his world mixed in with production was an interesting sound, all the guitars and stuff. Ke$ha hadn't really done guitars before really in songs. On her last record it was a strict no-guitar rule."

Luke said Warrior will have a little less Auto-Tune and a little more natural vocals.

"There's a lot of uptempo music there, but there are definitely some very raw songs in there with not a whole lot of production," he explained. "She's singing songs with no doubles on it from the beginning to the end of the song, which you never hear in music anymore. She has a stellar voice, and it's funny that a lot of people haven't realized that, but they will now, for sure."

Another something to be excited about is the impressive list of collaborators Luke and Ke$ha assembled to work on Warrior, many of whom have been confirmed and some rumored. Speaking to the rumors, Luke was happy to put one of the wilder ones to rest.

"I'm going to tell you right now: There's no Rihanna. I don't know where that came from. I've seen it all over the place, but there's definitely not a Rihanna song on it," he said. "Iggy Pop is on the record, Patrick [Carney] from the Black Keys is on it, another sick drummer we have is Fabrizio Moretti from the Strokes on it and [frontman] Julian Casablancas plays on some stuff and Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips did a song."

It is an awesome list of collaborators, indeed. Luke teased that Iggy Pop's contribution was particularly memorable.

"He's a legend, so that was pretty cool," he said. "And Ke$ha knows Patrick from Nashville. They've been homeys for a while. For me, it was just a pleasure to work with him."

And while Luke admitted that he's not a "hype man," you could hear the excitement and cautious optimism about the album in his voice.

"I can't wait for people to hear the whole Ke$ha record. I feel like it has legs," he said. "I'm finishing songs right now."