Rihanna Shares Update on Album "R9"

Rihanna is opening up about the next chapter of her music career.

In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the singer and fashion mogul addressed the near-feverish desire for more information on her next album – a project that has been speculated about ever since her eighth album “Anti” came out back in 2016.

“Just cracked the code on what I really want to do for my next body of work. I am actually feeling really good about this.” She said. “I know I kept saying this over the years,” in reference to previous teases, including the (perhaps fan-fictionalized) possibility that her next record would be more reggae-leaning.

The “Diamonds” singer said this weekend that the idea is actually “way off!”.

“There’s no genre now. That’s why I waited. Every time, I was just like, ‘No, it’s not me. It’s not right. It’s not matching my growth. It’s not matching my evolution. I can’t do this. I can’t stand by this. I can’t perform this for a year on tour,’” she added.

Rihanna also said that all the time she spent away from music means that her next project “has to count. It has to matter. I have to show them the worth in the wait. I cannot put up anything mediocre. After waiting eight years, you might as well just wait some more.”

While she stopped short of providing a timeframe for when that wait might finally be over, the Grammy winner said that her new music “feels right. It feels like it digs right into where I need to be, and I want this. This body needs to come out, and I’m ready to go there.”

In spite of her absence from the spotlight with new music, Rihanna also said that she has, in fact, been in the studio all this time.

“This is becoming my new freedom, because when I’m in the studio, I know that my time away from my kids is to blossom something that hasn’t been watered in eight years. I’ve been in the studio the whole eight years,” she added. 

“But it didn’t hit me. I was searching for it. I went through phases of what I wanted to do. ‘This kind of album, not that album.’ I know it’s not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it’s not going to be commercial or radio digestible. It’s going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now,” Rihanna noted.

The “Work” hitmaker hasn’t only been in the recording studio over the last eight years – she also joined the billionaires’ club thanks to her Fenty fashion and beauty empire, along with performing at the Super Bowl in 2023. She’s also had two kids with her partner A$AP Rocky, whose felony assault trial she recently attended (he was found not guilty of all charges).