Rihanna Says She’s “Not Retired” From Music & Is “Starting Over” With ‘R9’: “I’m Prepared To Go Back In The Studio”

deadline.com:

One question Rihanna gets asked repeatedly is when she will drop a new album. The singer is teasing, and she continues to work on new music.

She clarified that she has not retired, despite what her t-shirts say. “People got triggered with that retired word,” Rihanna told Entertainment Tonight in an interview explaining the photo where she is seen wearing a t-shirt with the phrase, “I’m Retired.” She continued, “They were like ‘We’re never getting an album now.’ No one read the other line, it was something about, ‘This is as dressed up as I get.'” Rihanna also noted that she is ready to return to the studio as she rediscovers music. “I think that music, for me, is a new discovery,” she said. “I’m rediscovering things.

I have been working on the album for so long that I kinda put all that stuff aside and now I’m prepared to go back in the studio.

I’m gonna start — give me a second!” Rihanna has been teasing a new album for years. In 2023, she talked about wanting to release it that same year and even said she had recorded new songs.