Navy (Rihanna fans) have to wait a little more for R9 to drop because it appears that Rihanna is still working on her new music. But don’t worry because the pop phenomenon ensures it’ll be worth the wait.
In her recent chat with former stylist Mel Ottenberg for Interview Magazine’s spring 2024 issue, RiRi gave a rare update on her much-anticipated music and the creative process behind it. While not much has been revealed about what she was working on, the singer said that she has “a lot of visual ideas” for her new music.
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“I have a lot of visual ideas. It’s weird,” the “We Found Love” singer told the magazine outlet before revealing how her creative process in creating her much-anticipated music differs from before.
“My brain is working backward right now. I usually have the music first, and the music leads me into all of these visual opportunities, and now I’m having all of these visuals, and I don’t have the songs for them yet,” Rihanna explained.
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Despite not having the tracks on her mind right now, Rihanna expressed her optimism that her current creative process would soon come to fruition.
“Maybe that’s the key, this time. Maybe the visual ideas are leading me to the songs that I need to make,” she said.
When asked if the upcoming project will be her “rebirth,” the popstar-turned-business mogul said they’re just some “random ideas, quirky ideas, things that have nothing to do with me at all.”
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“I mean, I can’t tell you. The opps is watching,” she added.
This newest update from the Grammy Award-winning artist caused some excitement among her fans, with many of them expressing their enthusiasm at R9, while others continued to poke fun at her to already release the album.
Her gynaecologist needs to tell her to release an album. pic.twitter.com/5iXJU8l3k6
— paulie ⚓️ (@ratedpaulie) April 9, 2024
Rihanna in the meeting explaining music video concepts to her label with no music pic.twitter.com/WjW9UxXRGa
— WFL updates (@rihannalately) April 9, 2024
Almost a decade since we’ve had a Rihanna album. I’m sick.
— Sean Garrette (@seangarrette) April 10, 2024
RIHRIH WERE STARVING PLEASEEE
— JMaraj🤍🕷️ (@Onikasmyx1) April 9, 2024
seated & waiting…………. impatiently ☺️
— garrett (@GarrettMinaj) April 10, 2024
That album is coming in 2050 and the tour in 2076 but I'll wait for Queen Riri pic.twitter.com/X8OoAdLEji
— santreeago • TTPD for aoty (@santreeago) April 9, 2024
https://twitter.com/onikascumragg/status/1777738393654358084?t=JvQmPjuXgSz5OtVgxPBOVQ&s=19
Rihanna's approach to be shifting creatively, where her visual concepts are now guiding her music-making process rather than the other way around. This change could lead to a unique and innovative artistic direction for her future projects.
— AZ (@AzZaid) April 10, 2024
Rihanna having a vision for the music videos before the music is interesting. That combined with her exploring new things and describing this upcoming era as “different” and “weird” convinces me that R9 will definitely be more experimental than ANTI.
We love artistic growth.
— Manny (@FentySensei) April 9, 2024
This wasn’t the first time Rihanna had discussed the possibility of releasing new music. In the past, the singer’s fans have been asking her for an update on her new music as it has been eight years since she dropped an album, and that was her eighth studio album, “Anti.”
Rihanna first teased that she was working on new music in 2018 when she appeared on The Graham Norton Show, saying: “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
Then in 2019, the Barbados-bred star stayed mum about the details, citing that she had a lot on her plate at the time and her fans had to wait a little longer.
In the same year, Rihanna also shared that the new album might incorporate some elements of reggae as a nod to her roots.
“Reggae always feels right to me. It’s in my blood. It doesn’t matter how far or long removed I am from that culture, or my environment that I grew up in; it never leaves. It’s always the same high,” she told Vogue then. “Even though I’ve explored other genres of music, it was time to go back to something that I haven’t homed in on completely for a body of work.”
Back in February 2024, Rihanna’s partner A$AP Rocky teased that the “Work” singer is currently “working on” her new music after he was seen asking by fans on the streets of Paris.
ASAP Rocky to fans asking for Rihanna’s new album #R9:
“She’s working on it” https://t.co/vB0GIdaK5p
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) February 17, 2024
While we still don’t have any concrete updates on when the album is going to come out, at least we know that RiRi has something in store for her fans!
What we can only do for now is to sit tight, wait a little longer, and hope that it’ll come out really, really soon.
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