A new Rihanna album is on the way!
According to a new report from Rolling Stone, Rih has been hard at work crafting the sound of her upcoming dancehall-inspired album and has amassed over 500 songs in the process.
A Vogue profile first mentioned that Rihanna was working on a dancehall album back in May.
via Rolling Stone:
It’s common for stars at Rihanna’s level to cull the best demos from reams of submissions when selecting songs for albums. “[Rihanna’s team] have, no lie, 500 records for this project [from] different producers and writers,” explains one dancehall producer who asked to remain anonymous. “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.”
“Every artist, every producer, every songwriter in Jamaica or of Jamaican descent has been working on [Rihanna’s album] and has little snippets of publishing or production credits on it,” another source close to the project says. “I think they’ve got eight songs,” he continues, “but her A&R is still asking for records.” “They’re looking for one more [song],” adds a third source with knowledge of the album-making process.
Through a rep, Rihanna declined to comment on the new album.
If Rihanna’s team likes a submission, they will do “some tweaking,” according to a second producer. “I didn’t even get the final [version of the song I turned in],” the producer adds. “I got the semi-final, and then I got the contracts. They ask my opinions, but you wouldn’t expect Rihanna to work with people that don’t do good work – they did some good work on it.”
But another producer who submitted material for the album worries the star is diluting the Caribbean aspects of the music. “Their whole thing was, ‘Yo, we’re gonna make this [album] real dancehall, [real] Caribbean,’” says the producer. “Rihanna is Bajan, so let’s make this a full project like that. To me, it hasn’t been going that way. 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.“
Our bodies are READY! You can read more about Rihanna’s album process here.
