Rihanna has finally shared some information with fans about her upcoming ninth album — her first since 2016’s Anti.
While no title or release date was revealed, Rih dropped some hints as to the project’s content in an interview with Harper’s BAZAAR published on Saturday (February 22).
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“I think music is my freedom. I just came to that realization,” she told the outlet.
“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.”
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She denied rumors that the project, nicknamed R9 by fans, would be a reggae album.
“Way off! There’s no genre now. That’s why I waited,” she said.
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“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.”
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The singer and fashion icon said she was “optimistic” about the music she was making.
“This feels right. It feels like it digs right into where I need to be, and I want this,” she explained.
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“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. 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.’”
She finished by saying: “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!”
Earlier this month, it was announced that Rih will share her first song in almost three years, courtesy of the new Smurfs movie.
RiRi, who is among the film’s voice cast — she’ll play the role of Smurfette — is also set to contribute in a significant way to the soundtrack.
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The announcement came at the end of the first trailer for the movie, with a title card reading: “The Smurfs Soundtrack featuring new music from Rihanna.”
It is not yet known how many songs the Bajan singer has contributed to the film’s accompanying album.
