The waiting times between Rihanna’s first handful of albums weren’t that long: Her first seven albums came out in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. However, four years passed between the release of 2012’s Unapologetic and Rihanna’s latest, 2016’s Anti. There has been no official word yet about when her next album might drop, but over the weekend, some fans had reason to believe that the Anti follow-up had arrived: An illegitimate album titled Angel by Fenty Fantasia featuring unreleased and leaked Rihanna songs, some of which were previously unheard, found its way onto Apple Music. The album reportedly debuted at No. 67 on the Worldwide iTunes Album chart, but it has since been taken down.
The new fanmade album of unreleased Rihanna songs/old leaks released under a random name has debuted at #67 on the Worldwide iTunes Albums Chart. pic.twitter.com/1mHecngU9U
— FentyStats (@FentyStats) March 2, 2019
Now, Rihanna has offered a response to the news. A fan DM’d the singer with a screenshot of the album on Apple Music and wrote, “What’s with this mess Rih? Get their *ss to jail asap.” To that, Rihanna responded simply, “Sh*ts crazy.”
.@Rihanna reacts to news of a fan-made album composed of her unreleased tracks being uploaded to Apple Music. pic.twitter.com/0QQL8sz4go
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) March 3, 2019
Although Rihanna’s next album has no confirmed release date, it appears that it will in fact be coming this year. In the comments of an Instagram post promoting Rihanna’s Fenty cosmetics line, a fan commented, “But when is the album dropping Robyn? Can we have a release date for that?” Rihanna answered, “2019.” In a May interview with Vogue, she also said that her next album would be heavily influenced by reggae music.
