Rihanna is hard at work on her highly-anticipated album, but there's a reason why she hasn't released it yet.
The Bajan bombshell sat down for a candid conversation with Interview magazine's editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg. The discussion, which was released on Tuesday, April 9, allows Riri to reminisce about her life before and after she became a mother of two sons, RZA and Riot. Towards the end of their chat, Ottenberg asked her how feels about doing new music. That's when Rihanna admitted why the creative process behind her upcoming project is completely different from previous albums.
"I have a lot of visual ideas," she began. "It’s weird. 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, but maybe that’s the key, this time. Maybe the visual ideas are leading me to the songs that I need to make."
Rihana said she has "random" and "quirky" ideas that don't even involve her. She didn't elaborate further because "the opps is watching." Nonetheless, it's clear the Grammy award-winning singer is taking an uncharted direction when it comes to her next LP. Fans have been fiending for more clues about her ninth studio album for years. She managed to keep the navy at bay with songs like "Lift Me Up," which dropped in 2022 as part of the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Although she hasn't dropped music since then, Rihanna continued to blessed fans with performances at Super Bowl LVII and a recent Indian wedding.
See more shots from her latest cover story below.