Entertainment Music Rihanna Teases 'Amazing' R9 and Says It Needs to Represent Her 'Evolution': 'I Want to Have Fun with It' The pop star addressed the status of her next album during a Fenty Beauty event on Saturday, April 27 By Ilana Kaplan Ilana Kaplan Ilana Kaplan is a Senior Digital Writer/Editor at PEOPLE. They have been working at PEOPLE since 2023. Their work has previously appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Vogue and more. People Editorial Guidelines Published on April 29, 2024 04:20PM EDT Close Rihanna attends the FENTY x PUMA Creeper Phatty Earth Tone Launch Party at Tobacco Dock on April 17, 2024 in London. Photo: Neil Mockford/WireImage Rihanna has an update on R9! During the launch of her new Fenty Beauty Soft’lit Foundation in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 27, the "Umbrella" artist, 36, opened up about the status of her long-awaited next album. "It's gonna be amazing," she told EXTRA. "It has to be — that is the only reason it's not out yet. If I'm not feeling it and I'm not feeling like it represents the evolution, the time I spent away. There should be a show of growth, right?" Rihanna attends the FENTY x PUMA Creeper Phatty Earth Tone Launch Party at Tobacco Dock on April 17, 2024 in London. Neil Mockford/WireImage Rihanna Says the New Songs She's Been Working on for R9 Are 'So Good' Rihanna added: "I want to play, and I feel like music is a playground, and I want to have fun with it and show truly where I am at." The Fenty founder largely put any chatter around collaborations to rest, too. "I'm not a big collaborator... It has to be very intentional, so I'll know when I have the record," Rihanna said. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Rihanna celebrates new Fenty Beauty Soft'Lit Foundation at 7th Street Studios on April 26, 2024 in Los Angeles. Kevin Mazur/Getty The "We Found Love" singer also opened up about the status of her music at a London event honoring the release of her new Fenty x Puma Creeper Phatty Earth Tone sneaker on Wednesday, April 17. In a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight, Rihanna touched on the new music she's been working on. While she didn't provide a ton of details about the highly anticipated new album that she's been teasing for years, the pop superstar did say that she thinks it'll be worth the wait — calling her new tracks "so good." Rihanna initially discussed her long-awaited follow-up to 2016's Anti when asked by ET whether she thinks her and her partner A$AP Rocky's two sons — RZA, 23 months, and Riot, 8 months — might be musicians one day, or even appear on her new record. "I mean, it's up to them," she responded. Rihanna continued: "I already got stuff that I feel like I can make hits out of. Really." The nine-time Grammy winner said that the songs she's worked on are "so good" that her rap superstar partner, 35, has discussed rapping over them for himself. Rihanna Says She Has a 'Lot of Visual Ideas' for New Music — but Doesn't 'Have the Songs' Yet "Me and Rocky are really trying to figure out who is going to use what," Rihanna said. The "Work" musician also said she couldn't offer any more details about the visuals she's been conceiving, which she recently spoke about having "ideas" for in an Interview Magazine cover story. When ET said fans were curious about the release date for R9, Rihanna confirmed that she has no idea when it would drop, joking, "I wanna know, too."