Rihanna Says Long-Awaited ‘R9’ Album Won’t Be “Commercial Or Radio Digestible”

February 26, 2025

Rihanna has offered some details on the long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Anti.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the singer dismissed claims of the project being a reggae album, saying, “There’s no genre now. That’s why I waited. 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 8 years, you might as well just wait some more.”

“I’ve been in the studio the whole eight years,” she added later. “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.’ 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!”

The “Kiss It Better” artist had previously talked about a new album in a 2022 Vogue interview, saying, “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. It’s authentic, it’ll be fun for me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off.”

It’s been almost 10 years since the release of Rihanna’s eighth album, Anti. The project, which featured singles like “Work,” “Needed Me” and “Love on the Brain,” is considered one of her best albums.

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