Is Rihanna Really Releasing <em>R9</em> Soon? Breaking Down the Rumors

Jason Sargent Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Is Rihanna Really Releasing R9 Soon? Breaking Down the Rumors

Sabba Rahbar Wed, August 12, 2026 at 12:25 AM UTC

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Originally appeared on E! Online

Rihanna is ready to work, work, work, work, work on her new album.

Ten years after the release of Anti, the “We Found Love” singer’s partner A$AP Rocky confirmed that she is indeed working on a follow-up, which the fans have dubbed R9.

“She in the studio right now,” he revealed on The Jason Lee Show Aug. 5. “Yeah, I said it. Sorry, babe. Like, bro, she working. She cooking, no funny s--t.”

Although the 37-year-old likely regretted the omission, quipping, “Damn, I’ma get in trouble for this.”

Thankfully, the news from A$AP wasn’t entirely without merit, as Rihanna herself shared in February that she was spending some time in the music studio.

“I have to go to the studio after this,” the 38-year-old told her team in a video shared to Instagram at the time. “And I have to make a Mardi Gras costume for my son after the studio.”

More from E! Online

Oprah Winfrey, Stedman Graham Step Out for First Joint Appearance in Nearly 7 Years

Chicago Fire, Med & P.D. Stars Address Changes Amid Major Cast Shakeups

Julie Andrews Reveals She Won't Reprise Her Role in Princess Diaries 3

In the years since the release of Anti, Rihanna has kept her distance from the music world, instead focusing on her her lingerie line, Savage X Fenty, and beauty brand, Fenty Beauty, as well as her and A$AP’s kids: RZA, 4, Riot, 3, and Rocki, 10 months. But that’s not to say that working on a new album hasn’t been constantly on her mind.

“I was just like, ‘No, it’s not me. It’s not right,'” Rihanna told Harper’s Bazaar 2025 about where she was at with her musical ideation. “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,” she added. “It has to count. It has to matter.”

The Grammy winner also admitted that the scrutiny on R9 felt extra intense, especially because she was infinitely proud of the work she’d done on Anti.

“In hindsight, it really is my most brilliant album,” she shared with British Vogue in 2023. “I say that because in the moment, I didn’t realize it. But it always felt like the most cohesive album I’ve ever made.”

“There’s this pressure that I put on myself. That if it’s not better than that then it is not even worth it. It is toxic,” Rihanna explained. “It’s not the right way to look at music because music is an outlet and a space to create, and you can create whatever. It doesn’t have to even be on any scale. It just has to be something that feels good. It could just be a song that I like. It literally could be that simple.”

Aeon/GC Images

It was that realization that helped her move forward with the idea of a new album, noting she wanted “to play.”

And even though she hasn’t released an album in a decade, the “Diamonds” singer has still managed to make history, as earlier this year she became the first woman to surpass 200 million RIAA singles certifications with 200.5 million certified units.

For now it remains to be seen when exactly R9 will be released, but until then keep reading for more from Rihanna through the years.

2005