Rihanna has been working tirelessly the past few months on her new album, and lately, she just dropped its title and new cover art. At the MAMA Gallery in Los Angeles, she released just this: her new album title is Anti and the album’s cover at. Upon revelation, we see a young, naked Rihanna with her eyes covered with a gold crown and smeared with dripping red liquid in an artwork by Roy Nachum. The art also contains an inscribed poem by Chloe Mitchell.
The photo of her in the artwork was in fact a five-year-old Rihanna during her first day in daycare. “[Roy] sees things beyond the surface which is why I decided to collaborate with him,” she tells The Guardian. “He really interpreted it in his own way, with exactly the message I wanted.”
The 27-year-old singer also gets more reflective through the poem inscribed into the artwork in Braille. “The whole idea behind the Braille is that people who have sight are sometimes the people who are [the] blindest,” she added.
The poem “If They Let Us” by Chloe, also Kanye West’s favorite, reads in part: “I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood / It is simply because what I want to say / (Won’t be) heard in a way I so rightfully deserve.”
The artist Roy referred to the singer as “a true artist and visionary.” Anti is Rihanna’s highly-anticipated eighth studio album since Unapologetic in 2012. No official date of release of the album has been announced yet.
Photo courtesy of The Rolling Stone
