Rihanna has an update on R9!
During the launch of her new Fenty Beauty Soft’lit Foundation in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 27, the “Umbrella” artist, 36, opened up about the status of her long-awaited next album.
“It’s gonna be amazing,” she told EXTRA. “It has to be — that is the only reason it’s not out yet. If I’m not feeling it and I’m not feeling like it represents the evolution, the time I spent away. There should be a show of growth, right?”
Rihanna added: “I want to play, and I feel like music is a playground, and I want to have fun with it and show truly where I am at.”
The Fenty founder largely put any chatter around collaborations to rest, too.
“I’m not a big collaborator… It has to be very intentional, so I’ll know when I have the record,” Rihanna said.
The “We Found Love” singer also opened up about the status of her music at a London event honoring the release of her new Fenty x Puma Creeper Phatty Earth Tone sneaker on Wednesday, April 17.
In a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight, Rihanna touched on the new music she’s been working on. While she didn’t provide a ton of details about the highly anticipated new album that she’s been teasing for years, the pop superstar did say that she thinks it’ll be worth the wait — calling her new tracks “so good.”
Rihanna initially discussed her long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Anti when asked by ET whether she thinks her and her partner A$AP Rocky’s two sons — RZA, 23 months, and Riot, 8 months — might be musicians one day, or even appear on her new record.
“I mean, it’s up to them,” she responded.
Rihanna continued: “I already got stuff that I feel like I can make hits out of. Really.”
The nine-time Grammy winner said that the songs she’s worked on are “so good” that her rap superstar partner, 35, has discussed rapping over them for himself.
The “Work” musician also said she couldn’t offer any more details about the visuals she’s been conceiving, which she recently spoke about having “ideas” for in an Interview Magazine cover story.
When ET said fans were curious about the release date for R9, Rihanna confirmed that she has no idea when it would drop, joking, “I wanna know, too.”