Rihanna is finally shedding more light on her ninth studio album — a record she has confirmed is indeed a reggae album.
Reports of the reggae effort emerged last year, but so far, there have been few updates. Now, though, the singer gave fans a few morsels of added info in a new interview with New York Times' T Magazine, including what may end up being the album title.
"So far it's just been R9, thanks to the Navy," Rihanna revealed. "I'm about to call it that probably, 'cause they have haunted me with this 'R9, R9, when is R9 coming out?' How will I accept another name after that's been burned into my skull?"
And while the release date for the record remains painfully unclear, whenever it does arrive, it definitely won't feature a certain Canadian artist called Drake.
When quizzed about whether she would be doing a Drake collaboration, she replied, "Not anytime soon, I don't see it happening. Not on this album, that's for sure."
Last year, Rolling Stone named a lengthy list of producers and singers connected to R9, including Skrillex, Boi-1da, Supa Dups, R. City, Chronixx, Stephen "Di Genius" McGregor, Linton "TJ Records" White, Ricky Blaze and Tyshane "Beam" Thompson.
"[Rihanna's team] have, no lie, 500 records for this project [from] different producers and writers," a dancehall producer who asked to remain anonymous told Rolling Stone in 2018. "They're only choosing 10 records. They've been having writing camps and trying to keep them quiet for almost a year and a half now. I've been flying to Miami, flying to L.A., cutting records nonstop for this project."
Last year, it was also reported that she was working on a separate album of more pop-oriented material, but so far, there's been little revealed about that project.
At this point, Rihanna's last album remains 2016's ANTI.
Reports of the reggae effort emerged last year, but so far, there have been few updates. Now, though, the singer gave fans a few morsels of added info in a new interview with New York Times' T Magazine, including what may end up being the album title.
"So far it's just been R9, thanks to the Navy," Rihanna revealed. "I'm about to call it that probably, 'cause they have haunted me with this 'R9, R9, when is R9 coming out?' How will I accept another name after that's been burned into my skull?"
And while the release date for the record remains painfully unclear, whenever it does arrive, it definitely won't feature a certain Canadian artist called Drake.
When quizzed about whether she would be doing a Drake collaboration, she replied, "Not anytime soon, I don't see it happening. Not on this album, that's for sure."
Last year, Rolling Stone named a lengthy list of producers and singers connected to R9, including Skrillex, Boi-1da, Supa Dups, R. City, Chronixx, Stephen "Di Genius" McGregor, Linton "TJ Records" White, Ricky Blaze and Tyshane "Beam" Thompson.
"[Rihanna's team] have, no lie, 500 records for this project [from] different producers and writers," a dancehall producer who asked to remain anonymous told Rolling Stone in 2018. "They're only choosing 10 records. They've been having writing camps and trying to keep them quiet for almost a year and a half now. I've been flying to Miami, flying to L.A., cutting records nonstop for this project."
Last year, it was also reported that she was working on a separate album of more pop-oriented material, but so far, there's been little revealed about that project.
At this point, Rihanna's last album remains 2016's ANTI.
