Rihanna Called Anti Her Best Album — And Finally Teased New Music
Her next musical project will be “authentic” and “fun.”
Can you believe it’s been six years since Rihanna released Anti? Her eighth studio album dropped in January of 2016, and it resulted in a number of hits, like “Work,” “Needed Me,” and “Love on the Brain.” Her fans have clamored for new music in the subsequent years. In fact, the biggest modern mystery in the pop world might just be when Rihanna will drop her next album. To call it awaited is more than an understatement.
Fortunately, she’s provided an update in her latest interview with Vogue. On April 12, Rihanna told the publication she considers Anti to be her “best album to this day.” Although fans have high expectations for her follow-up record, the singer revealed she’s just having “fun” creating music right now.
“I’m looking at my next project completely differently from the way I had wanted to put it out before. I think this way suits me better, a lot better,” Rihanna told Vogue. “It’s authentic, it’ll be fun for me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off.”
Anti earned six Grammy nominations in 2017 and was named one of the best albums of the 2010s by Billboard. More recently, in 2020, Rolling Stone included the record in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Rihanna has previously teased new music many times. In March of last year, she posted on Instagram about Anti spending five years on the Billboard 200. This resulted in a fan saying she should honor the occasion with new music. “I think I should,” she responded and used a “soon” emoji.
It’s unclear when R9 will drop. Outside of music, Rihanna is busy running her cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, as well as her lingerie brand Savage X Fenty.
In January, the star also announced she and rapper A$AP Rocky are expecting their first child. When asked about how she’s learning to juggle so many things at once, Rihanna told Vogue, “Balance is one of my biggest challenges and always has been, and now there’s another human being coming into play. It changes what that means again.”
However, Rihanna being Rihanna means that she’s confident she’ll be able to do it all. “Still, I have businesses that aren’t going to run themselves,” she said. “My mom handled the three of us with not even close to the amount of resources that I have, so I can absolutely do it. What it looks like? I’m not sure.”
Considering she’s wearing many hats these days, I wouldn’t mind waiting just a little longer for R9. After all, you can’t rush perfection.
