PARTYNEXTDOOR’s highly anticipated single, “Believe It” with Rihanna dropped on Thursday, March 26, making it Rihanna’s first piece of music since 2017. Rihanna fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment at the makeup mogul for not dropping her own album. Regardless, fans will take what they can get with the official audio already hitting 2.5 million views on YouTube and over five million plays on Spotify as of Sunday, March 29.
The single preceded PARTYNEXTDOOR’s new album “PARTYMOBILE,” which was released on Thursday, March 27 and was his fourth single leading up to the release of the album. The song starts off with Rihanna singing “Best make me believe it, best make me believe it, believe you won’t deceive me.” She echoes PARTYNEXTDOOR during the end of the first verse, but the majority of Rihanna’s vocals are made up in the chorus.
The sprinkle of Rihanna’s vocals played out through “Believe It” has fans like myself hungry for more. Rihanna’s last album, “ANTI” was released on Jan. 28, 2016 and included top singles “Needed Me,” “Work” and “Love On The Brain.” Shortly following her album release, Rihanna was featured in Calvin Harris’ song, “This Is What You Came For,” which was also a major success. Throughout 2017, she released several collaborations including Future’s “Selfish” and DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts,” as well as Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty,” which won her a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Performance. Since then, Rihanna has been silent in the music world.
In the fall of 2017, Rihanna launched her cosmetic brand, Fenty Beauty, which has been highly successful, making its appearance on Sephora’s shelves across the nation as well as opening up shade ranges to customers that major makeup brands tend to ignore. She also launched a lingerie brand named Savage X Fenty a year later in 2018. Ever since Rihanna has become focused on her brand Fenty, fans have been left in the dark on when or if she will release new music.
It’s rumored that Rihanna’s ninth album is complete, but she has not announced an official release date. She hinted at releasing it in 2019, but it never happened. It is an understatement to say R9 is Rihanna’s most highly anticipated album yet. Fans have been waiting long enough considering it has been almost four years since her last album release.
“Believe It” isn’t a failure of a song or a bust; fans simply aren’t satisfied with the minuscule amount of Rihanna’s vocals in the song and the small amount of music she has released in recent years. The song “Believe It” had too much pressure to be something it is not. After all, it isn’t even her own album, so while fans are validated in their frustration, it is what it is — another Rihanna collaboration.
