Rihanna Confirms New Album – and Reveals Why She Kept Fans Waiting

After years of speculation, Rihanna has confirmed that her ninth studio album is finally underway.

via: Us Weekly

“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,” Rihanna, 37, told Harper’s Bazaar in a profile published Saturday, February 22. “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.”

She added, “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.”

Rihanna’s fans have been clamoring for an update on R9 — their nickname for the singer’s next album — for years. According to the pop star, she needed all the pieces of the LP to fall into place before proceeding.

“This feels right. It feels like it digs right into where I need to be, and I want this,” Rihanna stressed. “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.”

Rihanna, who shares sons RZA and Riot with partner ASAP Rocky, further confirmed that she’s “been in the studio the whole eight years” trying to brainstorm the album’s direction.

“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,” she recalled. “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!”

While Rihanna promises that R9 will eventually be released, her top priority is her family.

“Every decision I make revolves around them, but everything that I do that I love robs me from them,” the Fenty founder told Harper’s Bazaar of her young sons. “I have a weird resentment with the things that I love. You almost feel like something is always suffering for you to show up somewhere. And even when you show up there, it’s not 100 percent because there’s something else on the wheel. It’s actually given me a lot more self-guilt.”

She concluded, “I don’t like letting people down, but I also know that most of that is me letting myself down, which means something has to change, but everything is on the wheel at all times. I have to keep reminding myself that I asked for this, I love this. I try to figure out a balance so that I can feel fulfilled when I show up to something, so I can feel I don’t have any guilt.”

The “Work” hitmaker also reflected on her role as a mother, raising her two young sons — RZA and Riot — with A$AP Rocky. The Harlem rapper, 36, was recently found not guilty on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm in Los Angeles.

Here's what she had to say about A$AP’s role as a father. “His pureness. His charm. I’m annoyed because my sons sometimes just live for him more than they live for me,” RiRi said. “And I’m like, ‘Did you know who cooked for you? Do you know who pushed you out?’ And they love him, but when I see it, oh, it’s the best.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Rihanna emphasized the significance of her business empire, which includes Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty. “I care because my name is on it,” she said. “I don’t want my name to represent anything I don’t fully stand behind.”

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I will admit it's been quite a while since we've gotten some new music from Ms RiRi, and I know the Navy has been quite impatient. However, I feel her on why she took so long.

If you're an artist who has given her label everything they wanted by churning out eight albums in eight years (even when they didn't necessarily believe in you in the beginning), and the only album you felt you got to creatively express yourself to the fullest was ANTI, then after I opt to have a life for myself, I want to give my next album everything I have creatively.

I'm not going to give my fans some half-assed project. There's also rumors swirling that Rihanna may be headlining this year's Glastonbury festival, and may be also be looking to do a six-date residency at London Stadium (fka Olympic Stadium) this summer.

Check out more photos from her Harper's Bazaar shoot below...