Rihanna said in a new interview that her ninth studio album is coming and will show fans 'the worth in the wait.' The singer also said fans will have to keep waiting a bit longer, because she 'cannot put up with anything mediocre.

“I am actually feeling really good about this. I know I kept saying this over the years,” Rihanna tells Harper’s Bazaar, adding that she’s finally “cracked the code” for her next project. Music, which she describes as her “freedom,” is something the Barbadian artist has spent years refining to match her growth.

Rihanna knows we’re all waiting for her new music to drop—we’ve actually been waiting nearly nine years, since 2016’s Anti. But in her March 2025 cover story for Harper’s Bazaar, the superstar reveals she was waiting, too, for a sound that aligned to her new self and mirrored her growth. Now, she’s found it.