Rihanna Releases 8th Album Cover Named “Anti”

By: Antoinette Alston, contributing intern

Rihanna’s last album dropped back in 2012, the longest gap she has ever taken between projects. On Wednesday night (Oct. 7), Rihanna decided to unveil her eighth album cover and name, “Anti” at the Los Angeles’ Mama Gallery.

At a private viewing, profound Israeli New Yorker, Roy Nachum had the delight of designing the front and back covers with Rihanna, which also feature poetry in braille by Chloe Mitchell.

Sauntering into the gallery mobbed by fans and press alike, Rihanna said a few words and announced that the project officially has a title: Anti. “This is my favorite album cover I’ve ever done,” she said to screaming fans before a black sheet covering her album art was taken down (not by her, of course: “I’m not going to climb up that ladder in these heels“).

The cover features an image of a young Rihanna holding a black balloon, with a gold crown covering her eyes. Over the red-and-white canvas cover, a poem written by Chloe Mitchell is written in Braille. The Braille and sight-obscuring crown follows the theme of all the album art so far, which Nachum is making as a statement on vision and vision impairment. As Rihanna said after its unveiling, “Sometimes the ones who have sight are the blindest.”

There has been no news of a release date of the new album, but Rihanna has given us hit singles: “FourFiveSeconds,” which debuted on the Hot 100 list as No. 4, “Bitch Better Have My Money” at No. 15, and “American Oxygen” for No. 78.