Rihanna can’t help but vibe to her 2016 masterpiece Anti – and she’s not shy about it anymore.
The pop queen spilled the tea in her latest Harper’s Bazaar cover interview about her feelings toward her eighth album.
“I listen to Anti from top to bottom with no shame,” she said. “I used to always have shame. I actually don’t like listening to my music, but Anti—I can listen to the album. It’s like it’s not me singing it, if I’m just listening to it.”
She added, “That’s the one album that I can have an out-of-body experience where it’s not like … You know when you hear your voice in a voicemail, and it’s like, ‘Ugh.'”
The superstar also revealed how jamming to Anti is helping shape her upcoming album R9.
“I think music is my freedom. I just came to that realization,” the singer explained. “I just cracked the code on what I really want to do for my next body of work. I am actually feeling really good about this. I know I kept saying this over the years.”
Rihanna shot down those reggae album rumors about R9 that started when she mentioned Bob Marley’s influence back in 2018.
“Way off! 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,'” she said. “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.
“I have to show them the worth in the wait,” she continued. “I cannot put up anything mediocre. After waiting eight years, you might as well just wait some more.”
Beyond the music talk, RiRi gushed about ASAP Rocky and what makes him such an amazing dad.
“His pureness. His charm. I’m annoyed because my sons sometimes just live for him more than they live for me,” she explained. “And I’m like, ‘Did you know who cooked you? Do you know who pushed you out?’ And they love him, but when I see it, oh, it’s the best.”
