We may not know when Rihanna [1] plans to release her long-anticipated ninth studio album, but we do know that the "Love on the Brain" singer is shaking it up with a new reggae sound and some "experimental" twists. "I like to look at it as a reggae-inspired or reggae-infused album," Rihanna [2] said in a 2019 interview with Vogue [3]. "It's not going to be typical of what you know as reggae. But you're going to feel the elements in all of the tracks."

In an interview promoting her Savage x Fenty show [4] in September 2021, she added, "You're not gonna expect what you hear. Just put that in your mind. Whatever you know of Rihanna is not gonna be what you hear. I'm really experimenting and music is like fashion: you should be able to play. I should be able to wear whatever I want and I treat music the same way."

After announcing her first pregnancy on Jan. 31 [5], the singer promised that motherhood wasn't going to stop her from releasing a ninth studio album. "Yes, you're still going to get music from me," she told Entertainment Tonight [6]. "My fans would kill me if they waited this long for a lullaby."