The icon graces the March 2023 cover of British Vogue with A$AP Rocky and their son in their first family photo shoot, just days after slaying the Super Bowl. She discusses motherhood and her long-awaited album with the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful.
She revealed she is pregnant with her second child during Sunday’s halftime show, which was the second-most-watched in Super Bowl history, leaving fans wondering if they will ever get a new album. Rihanna’s last project was seven years ago, but she assures fans that music is still on the way, and she wants it to happen sooner rather than later.
“I’d like to do it this year,” she says. “Honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it wasn’t this year. But I just want to have fun. “All I want to do is make music and videos.”
The Oscar nominee admits to feeling “toxic” pressure to outdo her previous album, Anti, which she considers to be her best work.
“However, there’s this pressure I put on myself. “If it’s not better than that, it’s not worth it,” she says. “It’s poisonous. You are correct. It’s not the right way to look at music because it’s an outlet and a space to create whatever you want. It doesn’t even have to be on any scale. It simply must be something that feels good. It could simply be a song that I enjoy. It could literally be that simple.”
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She discusses her 2016 album. “Coming off an album like Anti… “In retrospect, it’s my most brilliant album,” she says. “I say that because I didn’t realize it at the time. But it was always the most cohesive album I’d ever made. When you break it down, this album goes from “Work” to “Kiss It Better” to “Needed Me” to “Love on the Brain” to “Sex with Me” to “Desperado.” And it all fits, and you didn’t glitch for a second.”
Rihanna has never stopped recording, but she has fallen in and out of love with music over the years. Listening to an unreleased song is “almost like trying to dress like you used to dress,” she says. ‘Ew, no,’ it says. I’d never wear them again.’ “Your taste changes, and so does your vibe.”
“So I realized that if I keep waiting until this feels right, perfect, and better, it might take forever and it might never come out, and no, I’m not down with that,” she continues. “So I’d like to play. And by play, I mean that I have ideas in my head but can’t yet express them aloud.”
#Rihanna, #AsapRocky and their son cover the March 2023 issue of @britishvogue
She talks to @GilesHattersley about her new confidence, new music and her new life as a parent alongside A$AP Rocky.
Credits:
Photographed by @InezAndVinoodh Styled by @Edward_Enninful pic.twitter.com/0PFmKxL2G9
— Blinkscoop (@Blinkscoop1) February 15, 2023
She also discusses her new life as a mother in other places. “Oh my gosh, it’s legendary,” she exclaims. “Everything is involved. You have no recollection of your previous existence, which is the most bizarre thing ever. You literally try to remember it – and there are photos of my life before – but the feelings, desires, things you enjoy, everything, you just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself to get that far mentally, because it doesn’t matter.”
She also explains why she decided to do the Super Bowl after previously declining the NFL’s offer to perform in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.
“There’s still a lot of mending to do in my eyes,” she says, “but it’s powerful to break those doors and have representation at such a high, high level and consistency.”
She mentions Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar as last year’s headliners. “Two Super Bowls back-to-back,” she says, “you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is extremely effective. It conveys a very strong message.”
Her decision was also influenced by her motherhood. “Of course, raising a young Black man is one of life’s most terrifying responsibilities,” she says. “You’re thinking, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? Is this the planet they’ll be living on?’ All of those things start to hit you differently.”
