Rihanna Posted Two New Pictures With Two New Albums In The Background And I'm Prematurely Losing My Mind

The devil is, quite literally, in the details.

Listen, I don't like to stir the pot without just cause but at this point, Rihanna is giving us no choice. I'm about to do some reaching so let me stretch and I'll be right with you.

Warner Bros. Pictures

So, as we all know, Rihanna is being the biggest troll of the 21st century and not giving us the album she promised she'd release in 2019.

Lindsey Parnaby / Getty Images

This is her laughing at us, by the way.

See here for the cold, hard evidence.

Instagram: @badgalriri

And yet it's 2020 and we're still albumless. But, when new pictures of Rihanna hit Twitter recently, something caught my eye.

VH1

The pictures in question were to promote Rih's upcoming Savage X Fenty lingerie collaboration with Adam Selman.

Savage X Fenty

Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary...and then I spotted this. Do my eyes deceive me or is that a vinyl record?

Savage X Fenty

From another angle, you can even see what looks like a "parental advisory" logo in the bottom corner. And, judging by other pictures from the same photoshoot, the vinyl was purposefully moved to appear next to Rihanna for this picture only.

Savage X Fenty

In fact, this picture on the Savage X Fenty site shows the record wrapped up and ready to go.

Savage X Fenty

Now, of course, I didn't want to jump to conclusions. But, based on Rihanna saying she was listening to the album but refusing to release it, we know that new music is ready to go.

instagram.com

Is it so out of the question that her next album might be called Savage and is hiding in plain sight?

Let's just acknowledge the fact that while her lingerie line is also called Savage, the word actually became synonymous with Rihanna when she released Anti back in 2016 and sang the lyric, "Didn't they tell you that I was a savage?" You have to admit, it makes for a great album name!

But that wasn't all I noticed. Back in 2018, Rolling Stone reported that Rihanna was working on two albums simultaneously — one was dancehall and reggae-orientated, while the other was said to be more pop-based.

Paras Griffin / Getty Images

Well, if we go back to the picture of Rihanna, above her is a record player and another vinyl, this one called X (using the same symbol featured on her lingerie label).

Savage X Fenty

You don't need me to tell you that X is the Roman numeral for 10. You also don't need me tell you that the next Rihanna album will be her ninth, and the one after that will be her tenth...

The Ellen Show

Two different vinyl records that haven't been seen before, just sitting right there next to Rihanna? Is she hinting that there are indeed two albums on the way? Could the first be called Savage and the following one called X to mark her tenth album? Or is she still trolling us and actually just promoting her lingerie line?

Both sound equally likely at this point.

Looking a little more closely, the word "September" can also be seen in the picture. Will that be the month one or both of these supposed albums are released?

Savage X Fenty

After extensive research — AKA googling variations of what I can see — I couldn't quite crack what word "niff" comes from. If you have any thoughts, feel free to shout on that!

It probably has nothing to do with the album, but the year 1969 is also written down too.

So, in short, we could be getting two albums. Or one album. Or no album! Who knows when it comes to Rihanna? But we'll be keeping our eyes peeled on what she does next.

MTV