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Rihanna

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Rihanna has been keeping busy this year despite giving little to no updates on the status of her upcoming eighth studio album, but now she’s finally shedding some light on the project along with a few other topics in the first issue of NME Magazine.

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Serving up cover girl flawlessness as only she can, Rihanna is seen outfitted in simplistic, casual clothing that’s complimented by a short hairstyle and clean make up with a hint of red on her lips. In addition to bringing her signature style to the publication for their inaugural issue, Rih had also plenty to say about her music, her life and one of her most famous pop star peers: Taylor Swift.

Diving right in when asked about the delay of her tentatively titled “R8” album, which she says was a name created by the fans but never officially a title, Rihanna told NME in so many words that she’s enjoying the creative process while working hard to give her fans something great.

“It’s not done!” Rihanna chortles. By now she’s curled up on a sofa and draped in an oversized green bomber jacket. “To me it’s never done until it’s done. Until the final moment.”

So her eighth album proper doesn’t yet have a tracklisting (“I have so many songs I love – and they’re so different – that it’s hard to actually put them all on the same album”).

And there’s no title yet – Rihanna’s whittled it down to two, but acknowledges that fans will probably always call it ‘R8’, the name they’ve given it in the absence of concrete information. “No matter what I post online, within three comments there’s somebody saying, ‘Where is ‘R8’?’” She cackles. “I could post anything. Nothing else matters. They don’t care about anything but that.”

The problem here, NME proposes, is that 50m Twitter followers are on a hair-trigger waiting for an album,“I know!” she laughs. She seems to be enjoying this a little too much for NME’s liking. “But it makes me excited, because I can’t wait to give them something great.

“It’s easy to make an album full of great songs. But I want people to go for the ride. The songs have to make sense together.”

She also revealed that part of the delay is due to conflicting schedules between herself and the album’s executive producer Kanye West.

“Kanye definitely wanted to be involved in making the album,” she explains. “So he did start helping me make it. Now we just have to wait to get back in the studio together. His schedule and mine are totally opposite right now, but I think this month we’ll be back in the studio.”

Switching gears, Rihanna had this to say when the question came up of whether or not she could see herself performing alongside fellow pop princess Taylor Swift, who has had everyone from Kobe Bryant to Fetty Wap join her on stage during her latest tour. Despite that fact, Rihanna says it’s not a likely that the two will pair up.

“Er, I doubt it,” is Rihanna’s response when asked if she’d accept an invitation to become the latest in a long succession of artists to join Swift on stage. “I don’t think I would. I just don’t think it makes sense. I don’t think our brands are the same: I don’t think they match, I don’t think our audiences are the same. In my mind she’s a role model, I’m not.” She adds, with a smile.

You can check out the full interview and cover shoo with Rihanna and see what else she had to say, including her response to claims that her BBHMM video was anti-feminist, HERE.

Rihanna Finally Gives Details On Her New Album, Why She’d Never Perform With Taylor Swift & Feminist Backlash From #BBHMM  was originally published on theurbandaily.com