Rihanna fans will have to remember that patience is a virtue as they wait for her next album. On Wednesday morning (Nov. 13), RiRi updated her Instagram followers on her current workload.
“To all my friends/family/coworkers who I have yet to get back to in the past months…please forgive me,” she wrote. “This year has been quite an overwhelming one, and I’m working on that ish called Balance. brb.”
This year has seen Rihanna continue to expand her impressive portfolio. In May, the “Umbrella” singer partnered her Fenty fashion brand with Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, making her the first woman and woman of color to head an LVMH line. That, combined with her Fenty Beauty brand, Savage X Fenty lingerie line and her recently released 504-page visual autobiography has kept the multi-talent very busy.
Still, some fans are having a harder time waiting than others.
“Where’s the album heaux?!!!” Rihanna’s stylist and Fenty Junior Creative Director Jahleel Weaver jokingly commented.
“I don’t need this kinda negativity in my life! BLOCKT,” Rihanna humorously clapped back.
Rihanna released her last full-length album, ANTI, in 2016. In an interview with Vogue, she revealed her follow-up project will be rooted in reggae.
“I like to look at it as a reggae-inspired or reggae-infused album,” she said. “It’s not gonna be typical of what you know as reggae. But you’re going to feel the elements in all of the tracks.”
“Reggae always feels right to me. It’s in my blood,” she continued. “It doesn’t matter how far or long removed I am from that culture, or my environment that I grew up in; it never leaves.”
During the interview, RiRi also touched on her ramped-up schedule, which has made the project’s arrival more challenging.
“I have been trying to get back into the studio. It’s not like I can lock myself in for an extended amount of time, like I had the luxury of doing before,” she said. “I know I have some very unhappy fans who don’t understand the inside bits of how it works.”
However, the 31-year-old singer is committed to delivering music to her fans.
“Music is, like, speaking in code to the world, where they get it. It’s the weird language that connects me to them,” she said. “Me the designer, me the woman who creates makeup and lingerie–it all started with music. It was my first pen pal-ship to the world. To cut that off is to cut my communication off. All of these other things flourish on top of that foundation.”