'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wgARCAAHAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUG/8QAFAEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP/aAAwDAQACEAMQAAAAkYAP/8QAHxAAAQQBBQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQIDBBEABRIUIjFB/9oACAEBAAE/AFvRozzXB00ybWCtp9/pVe+ZPZlCdIC421YcVYQ4KBv5n//EABQRAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD/2gAIAQIBAT8Af//EABQRAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD/2gAIAQMBAT8Af//Z'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Rihanna attended the FENTYxPUMA Creeper Phatty Earth Tone launch event in London on Wednesday, April 17, where she was asked by Entertainment Tonight about the possibility of her sons featuring on her next album.
Responding to the question, Rihanna said—
"I mean, it's up to them. I already got stuff that I feel like I can make hits out of."
While talking to Entertainment Tonight, the 36-year-old also mentioned that her boyfriend ASAP Rocky was working on the album with her. She further said—
"Me and Rocky are really trying to figure out who's gonna use what because it's so good."
Rihanna's ninth album has been in the talks since 2018
RiRi's last album - ANTI - was released back in January 2016, which produced blockbuster hits such as Love On The Brain, Needed Me, and Work featuring Drake.
Since then, RiRi launched her own brand line, started dating ASAP Rocky, gave birth to her sons - RZA and Riot Rose - and released 12 songs. Three of these were featured in movies, including Born Again for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Sledgehammer for promoting Star Trek Forever.
Some of her hits from this period are Loyalty, the 6th track on Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer Prize-winning album Damn, This Is What You Came For co-written by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift, and Selfish from Future's 2017 album, Hndrxx.
RiRi fans around the world are highly anticipating the drop of her ninth studio album after the phenomenal success of her magnum opus, ANTI. The ninth album - that her fans dubbed as #R9 - has been in the works for years now, with its first mention having taken place in 2018 when Rihanna confirmed that she was in the studio "working on new music" in her appearance on The Graham Norton Show.
Over a year later, when the Barbadian singer was asked by Entertainment Tonight for an update on her next album, she diverted the question by saying how, as a confident woman, everything she did was "goin' be confident," ultimately saying—
"Y'all gon' have to wait, Navy. I'm so sorry."
What the Grammy winner has revealed about her upcoming album is that it's going to be a reggae project in her Vogue cover story from June 2018, further sharing—
"Reggae always feels right to me. It's in my blood. It doesn't matter how far or long removed I am from that culture, or my environment that I grew up in; it never leaves."
She also talked about The Dream and Pharrell Williams being on her producer shortlist for the album. In the very same year, Rolling Stone reported that RiRi was considering dropping two albums at once - a pop and a reggae.
In her 2019 interview with The New York Times Style Magazine, Rihanna put an end to the rumors of her collaborations with Drake and Lady Gaga in the album, saying that she didn't see it happening "in this album, that's for sure."
When asked if motherhood was going to change her sound at the 2022 New York Fashion Week, Rihanna replied with a resounding no, further saying—
"My fans would kill me if they waited this long for a lullaby."
When asked why her album was taking so long to release in a 2019 interview, RiRi revealed that it was because she had to balance her brand lines alongside music. The singer also said that while she wanted it out, it made no sense to rush it.
