It's the question on any and every Rihanna fan's mind: what's going on with her new album and will we get to hear it soon? Well, while there is no concrete answer just yet, the star has definitely been working on the project, and talked about the progress she's made in a new interview with the Associated Press.
Rihanna has dropped info here and there about "R9" before, and to the AP, she confirmed that she's held "tons of writing camps." But, she's been asking herself a lot of questions about the music she wants to release into the world. She explained, "What do I feel personally? What do I want to put out, and as an artist, how do I want to play it with my art? How do I want to interpret that?" She added, “How do I want to reimagine it because it’s been so structured before."
So, what can fans expect from her new album? Two years ago, a Rolling Stone exclusive said that Rihanna was exploring her Caribbean roots in the form of a dancehall album. Rih told AP of having created music across a few different genres already, "You do pop, you did this genre, you do that, you do radio, but now it’s just like, what makes me happy? I just want to have fun with music. Everything is so heavy. The world that we live in is a lot. It’s overwhelming every single day. And with the music, I’m using that as my outlet."
Although fans don't exactly have a solid timeline of when they can hear this new music, the pandemic has certainly affected that part of her career. She said, "I want to go on tour but I can’t, so I’m stuck with music that I love, and now I’m trying to figure out how I can even create visuals to that. That’s a challenge as well. But I love challenges so, you know, I’m gonna get it done."
Rihanna last released an album four years ago via 2016's ANTI, and since then has stayed relatively quiet on the music front to focus on business endeavors like her lingerie line Savage X Fenty, makeup line Fenty Beauty, and most recently Fenty Skin. However, this year, she did team up with PARTYNEXTDOOR on their 2020 track "Believe It."
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