When Rihanna agreed to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show, two questions arose. One: Does this mean new music is coming? Two: Didn’t she once turn down the Super Bowl in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick? A new interview with RiRi addresses both questions.
In the run-up to the performance, Rihanna made it clear her set would be a celebration of her catalog, not a showcase for new music. When she revealed during the show that she was pregnant with a second baby, it suggested no new music was coming any time soon. A profile in British Vogue, conducted in the middle of the night at her penthouse apartment in Los Angeles two days after the Golden Globes, suggests she does intend to make a new album soon.
Rihanna says the legacy of 2016’s career-best Anti created a sort of “toxic” pressure for her:
When you come off of an album like Anti… In hindsight, it really is my most brilliant album. 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. When you break it down and you realise this album goes from “Work” to “Kiss It Better” to “Needed Me” to “Love On The Brain” to “Sex With Me” to “Desperado.” And somehow it all fits and not for a second did you glitch?
She has recorded a lot in the interim, though she compares most of those songs to “almost like trying to dress like you used to dress. It’s like, ‘Ew, no. I would never wear those again.’ Your taste changes, your vibe changes.” However, rather than keep chasing an impossible standard, she says she’s ready to move forward with an album soon:
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. So I realized that if I keep waiting until this feels right and perfect and better, maybe it’s going to keep taking forever and maybe it’ll never come out and no, I’m not down to that. So I want to play. And by play, I mean I have my ideas in my head, but I can’t say them out loud yet.
As for a timetable:
I want it to be this year. Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos… And I need the right background music with the visuals. I can’t just go shoot a video to me talking.
According to interviewer Giles Hattersly, Rihanna did not yet realize she was pregnant when she made those remarks, so don’t hold her to the 2023 timetable. It would certainly be nice, though!
As for the Super Bowl switcheroo, Rihanna says she decided representation for Black performers with a stake in the rap and R&B world is more effective than withholding her presence in protest. “There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes, but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level.” Referencing last year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show with Dr. Dre and friends, she adds, “Two Super Bowls back-to-back, you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message.”
Make of that reasoning what you will, but also remember that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has taken over booking the Super Bowl since Rihanna made her comments in support of Kaepernick — that, too, was a controversial move at the time.
Anyway, here’s Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s firstborn:
