Rihanna Confirms Reggae Album In New Interview, Talks Drake Collaboration

Rihanna’s Reggae album is definitely happening!

The Bajan popstar confirmed that her ninth studio album will be released later this year. Speaking with T Magazine, Rih Rih said the the Reggae project could possibly be titled R9, “So far it’s just been R9, thanks to the Navy,” Rihanna said. “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?”

Rihanna also said that her “Work” collaborator, Drake who is heavily influenced by Dancehall and Reggae won’t be featured on the new album. “Not anytime soon, I don’t see it happening. Not on this album, that’s for sure,” she said.

R9 is a follow-up to Rihanna 2016’s “Anti”, sources revealed last year that Rihanna has 500 songs to choose from for the album.

Sources told Rolling Stone that Rihanna is working on two records – a dancehall album and a pop album. The dancehall record is said to have some of the biggest producers and singers in the genre attached to it, with the likes of R. City (Rihanna, Beyoncé), Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor (Vybz Kartel, Sean Paul), Linton “TJ Records” White (Serani, Vybz Kartel), Kranium, Chronixx, and more submitting material. One producer added Skrillex and Boi-1da had also been involved in sessions.

Producers said the star and her team had collected a large number of demos from Jamaican talent for consideration. One, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “[Rihanna’s team] have, no lie, 500 records for this project [from] different producers and writers. 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.”

Another source added: “Every artist, every producer, every songwriter in Jamaica or of Jamaican descent has been working on [Rihanna’s album] and has little snippets of publishing or production credits on it.” They said they thought her team had eight songs chosen “but her A&R is still asking for records.” A third source said they were looking for “one more [song].”