When Rihanna agreed to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show, two questions arose. One: Does this imply new music is coming? Two: Didn’t she as soon as flip down the Super Bowl in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick? A brand new interview with RiRi addresses each questions.
In the run-up to the efficiency, Rihanna made it clear her set can be a celebration of her catalog, not a showcase for brand new music. When she revealed in the course of the present that she was pregnant with a second child, it instructed no new music was coming any time quickly. A profile in British Vogue, performed in the midst of the evening at her penthouse condo in Los Angeles two days after the Golden Globes, suggests she does intend to make a brand new album quickly.
Rihanna says the legacy of 2016’s career-best Anti created a form of “toxic” strain for her:
When you come off of an album like Anti… In hindsight, it truly is my most good album. I say that as a result of within the second, I didn’t notice it. But it at all times felt like essentially the most cohesive album I’ve ever made. When you break it down and also 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 someway all of it matches and never for a second did you glitch?
She has recorded loads within the interim, although she compares most of these 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, somewhat than hold chasing an not possible normal, she says she’s prepared to maneuver ahead with an album quickly:
Music is an outlet and an area to create, and you’ll create no matter. It doesn’t should even be on any scale. It simply must be one thing that feels good. It may simply be a tune that I like. It actually might be that straightforward. So I spotted that if I hold ready till this feels proper and ideal and higher, possibly it’s going to maintain taking perpetually and possibly it’ll by no means come out and no, I’m not right down to that. So I need to play. And by play, I imply I’ve my concepts in my head, however I can’t say them out loud but.
As for a timetable:
I would like it to be this 12 months. Like, actually, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this 12 months. But I simply need to have enjoyable. I simply need to make music and make movies… And I would like the suitable background music with the visuals. I can’t simply go shoot a video to me speaking.
According to interviewer Giles Hattersly, Rihanna didn’t but notice she was pregnant when she made these remarks, so don’t maintain her to the 2023 timetable. It will surely be good, although!
As for the Super Bowl switcheroo, Rihanna says she determined illustration for Black performers with a stake within the rap and R&B world is more practical 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 final 12 months’s Super Bowl Halftime Show with Dr. Dre and associates, she provides, “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’ll, but additionally keep in mind that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has taken over reserving the Super Bowl since Rihanna made her feedback in help of Kaepernick — that, too, was a controversial transfer on the time.
Anyway, right here’s Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s firstborn: