We Finally Have Some Details About Rihanna’s Two (!!) New Albums
Back in April, reports surfaced that Rihanna was working on not one, but two new albums ― one dancehall, one pop ― and now, sources seem to have confirmed as much to Rolling Stone.
According to several producers with inside knowledge of the projects, Rihanna’s camp currently has eight songs planned for the reggae record, but are still looking for one, maybe two more tracks. In total, they have roughly 500 songs backlogged for the LP, an anonymous dancehall producer told the magazine.
“[Rihanna’s team] have, no lie, 500 records for this project [from] different producers and writers,” the source said. “They’re only choosing 10 records. They’ve been having writing camps and trying to keep them quiet for almost a year and a half now. I’ve been flying to Miami, flying to L.A., cutting records nonstop for this project.”
They've also recruited a stacked roster of contributors, including (reportedly) producer-writer duo R. City (Rihanna, Beyoncé), Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor (Vybz Kartel, Sean Paul), Linton “TJ Records” White (Serani, Vybz Kartel), producer-singer Ricky Blaze (Gyptian), and Top 40 names like Skrillex and Boi-1da (Drake, Beyoncé and Jay-Z). Supa Dups, the veteran dancehall producer behind recent hits like Drake’s “Controlla,” is also rumored to be involved, though he did not respond to Rolling Stone's email requests for comment.
The pop album, on the other hand, is still in development and has changed directions several times, said one producer.
"Rihanna is Bajan, so let’s make this a full project like that. To me, it hasn’t been going that way," the source explained. "They’re kind of mixing it up, putting in the pop. If the reggae artists and producers won’t get the chance on the pop album, at least let us survive on the dancehall album. They’re changing up the direction continuously.“