Rihanna is used to making people look. This week, she and her partner A$AP Rocky appeared on the cover of British Vogue, along with their nine-month-old son.
Rihanna, who turns 35 on February 20, is coming off a successful Super Bowl LVII halftime performance. After viewers noticed her fuller stomach the "Lift Me Up" singer and beauty entrepreneur confirmed that she and A$AP, born Rakim Mayers, were expecting again.
The performance boosted her streaming numbers by 640% even without a new album release. Her last album Anti, came out in 2015, and while fans have been clamoring for the unofficially titled R9 album, Rihanna has been cagey about its release.
"I want it to be this year," she told British Vogue. At the time, Rihanna did not know she was expecting again. "Like, honestly, it'd be ridiculous if it's not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos." She added, "And I need the right background music with the visuals. I can't just go shoot a video to me talking."
The Vogue shoot, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh and styled by British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, was released on Wednesday and had been a secret to the public up until then.
The cover shows Rihanna, Mayers, and their son, whose name the couple has not yet revealed. Rihanna is standing just ahead in a black dress with free-flowing hair, while Mayers is holding and kissing the baby.
"I'm just sitting on the sidelines when they're together," she said. "I'm literally the girl trying to get into the boys club, waiting for my turn. He is obsessed with his father. And I'm like, 'Didn't I give birth to you? What is going on?'"
Rihanna told Vogue it has made her realize how important it is for fathers to be present in their children's lives, especially when they have sons.
"Their connection is undeniable. The second Rocky makes eye contact with him he is on fire. The whole thing they say about sons and moms, it's a myth. Sons and fathers is crazy. I realized that the validation that you really need as a boy is from your father."
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The interview was done prior to Rihanna's Super Bowl LVII halftime show. On her social media accounts introducing the British Vogue cover, she wrote, "How crazy both of my babies were in these photos were there and Mommy had no clue."
But apparently, Rihanna did tell Vogue in 2020 that she was hoping to have "three or four" kids, something the Vogue writer reminded her of during their interview.
"Oh [expletive]," she said. "You really gotta be careful with your mouth." But she said she's OK with more.
"Listen, I'm down for whatever. My wish would be I would like to have more kids but whatever God wants for me, I'm here."
Now that her desire has been granted, fans hoping for a new album may have to wait. Rihanna says some of the delays have been about trying to top her previous success, especially coming after an album that was received so well by the public and by critics.
"In hindsight, it really is my most brilliant album," she says. "I say that because in the moment, I didn't realize it. But it always felt like the most cohesive album I've ever made. When you break it down and you realize this album goes from 'Work' to 'Kiss It Better' 'Needed Me' to 'Love on the Brain' to 'Sex with Me' to 'Desperado'. And somehow it all fits and not for a second did you glitch?"
While the R9 release date remains unknown, Rihanna's next public appearance is likely to be at the Oscars on March 12 where she's nominated with Afrobeats star Tems for Best Original Song. "Lift Me Up" from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack was Rihanna's first single in many years.
"We knew [Rihanna] was at a point in her life as well where she was focusing on different things - focused on business, motherhood, which is a big theme in our film," Black Panther director Ryan Coogler told the BBC. "We were holding out hope that maybe it could work out and boy did it for this song."