Rihanna is speaking candidly about the creative process behind her next album.
While sitting down with Executive Digital Director of Harper's BAZAAR Lynette Nylander for a new cover story, Rihanna addressed the long delay of R9. After telling Nylander she listened to 2016's Anti from "top to bottom," she went into how the recent re-listening helped steer the direction of her next album.
“I think music is my freedom. I just came to that realization. I 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. I know I kept saying this over the years,” she says.
Rihanna then debunked the rumor that R9 was going to be a reggae album. Around 2018-2019, she spoke about the album being reggae-centric and influenced by Bob Marley. It would've featured the talents of producer Supa Dups, known for his work with Beenie Man and Sean Paul.
“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.’ After a while, I looked at it, and I was like, this much time away from music needs to count for the next thing everyone hears. It 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,” she says.
In 2024, she commented that she was "starting over" with her album. Her latest comments have her feeling "optimistic" about her artistry, and she tells fans to expect the unexpected.
"This 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. 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."
She continues, "I’ve been in the studio the whole eight years. 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. I feel like I’ve finally cracked it, girl!"
In the studio for a whole eight years? We can keep waiting RiRi.