Ladies and gentlemen, the time is almost upon us … we hope.
Rihanna has spoken at length about her next album – a project that has been speculated about, pored over, theorized on and dreamt up for nearly a decade, ever since her eighth album “Anti” came out all the way back in 2016.
In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar published on Saturday, the singer and fashion mogul addressed the near-feverish desire for more information on her new music, saying she “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 also hedged slightly, adding, “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 “Work” singer said this weekend that 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 continued.
She 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.”
And while she stopped short of providing a timeframe for when that wait might finally be over, Rihanna 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, the Grammy winner 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 said.
“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,” she added.
Of course, Rihanna 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. Oh, and 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).
Now seems like the perfect time to pivot back to music, RiRi.
