Rihanna says Her new Long-Awaited Album Will Be Worth It

Rihanna knows the world has been waiting—impatiently, at that—for her ninth studio album. And after nearly a decade, she’s making one thing clear: this next project will be nothing short of iconic.

In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the nine-time Grammy winner got real about her musical hiatus, teasing that when she finally drops R9, it’ll be worth every second of the wait.

Rihanna Says “There’s No Genre Now”

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Is R9 a reggae album? Not at all, according to RiRi.

“Way off!” she told the magazine. “There’s no genre now. That’s why I waited.”

She’s been working through different sounds for years, but nothing ever felt quite right—until now. “Every time I approached it, 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.'”

And after all this time, she knew one thing for sure: this album had to mean something.

“This much time away from music needs to count for the next thing everyone hears,” Rihanna said. “It has to count. It has to matter. I have to show them the worth in the wait.

“You Might As Well Just Wait Some More”

If you thought she felt pressured to rush the project, think again. Rihanna is setting her own pace—just like she always has.

“I cannot put up anything mediocre,” she stated firmly. “After waiting eight years, you might as well just wait some more.”

That doesn’t mean she’s been sitting on the sidelines. The “Diamonds” singer has been spotted hitting the studio, and while she’s keeping most details under wraps, she did reveal one crucial update: she’s finally cracked the code.

“This feels right,” she said of the project. “It feels like it digs right into where I need to be, and I want this. This body [of work] needs to come out, and I’m ready to go there.”

Rihanna’s Music is Her “New Freedom”

These days, Rihanna has more than just music on her plate—she’s also a mother of two, raising her sons, RZA and Riot, with A$AP Rocky. But instead of music feeling like an obligation, it’s becoming an escape.

“Working on this album is becoming my new freedom,” she explained.

“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.”

That doesn’t mean she wasn’t creating during that time—she was. But nothing felt like the one.

“I’ve been in the studio the whole eight years. But it didn’t hit me. I was searching for it,” she admitted. “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 if you’re hoping for an easy radio hit, don’t count on it.

“It’s not going to be commercial or radio digestible,” she added. “It’s going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now. I feel like I’ve finally cracked it, girl!”

The Only Rihanna Album She Can Listen To

Looking back, Rihanna admits that she hasn’t always loved revisiting her own music. There’s only one album in her discography that she can listen to from start to finish without cringing: Anti.

“I used to always have shame. I actually don’t like listening to my music, but Anti—I can listen to the album,” she shared. “It’s like it’s not me singing it, if I’m just listening to it.”

“That’s the one album,” she continued, “that I can have an out-of-body experience with where it’s not like… You know when you hear your voice in a voicemail, and it’s like, ‘Ugh.'”

Despite not dropping a full album in nearly nine years, Rihanna never fully stepped away from music. She released two songs, Lift Me Up and Born Again, for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack in 2022 and triumphantly returned to the stage with a career-spanning Super Bowl halftime performance in 2023.

But now, it’s time.

Rihanna’s next era is coming—on her terms. And if she says it’s worth the wait, we believe her.