In the words of Rihanna the wait is over, as she reveals the artwork and title for her new album. The album is called ‘Anti’ and the album artwork is very simple, yet very creative. She uses a real life picture of herself when she was younger and has a gold crown over her eyes, with the colour red splashed across the picture. Check out the pictures of the album art below.
She held an intimate gathering at MAMA Gallery in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, where she shared her album artwork with the rest of her guests. Guests were handed red blindfolds when they entered the venue and she had black curtains cover the artwork until she was ready to unveil the images to her guests. Guests included Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr and Nick Jonas.
The artist behind her artwork is Roy Nachum, who Jay Z, Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Timberlake are fond of. Rihanna met him through a mutual friend and she explained the reason she chose to work with him is because;”He sees things beyond the surface, which is why we even decided to collaborate, I fell in love with him because I felt like there was another spirit, there was another layer to the art. After we met, we talked about what I wanted visually, what would make me the happiest girl in the world.”
Poet Chloe Mitchell also contributed to the artwork as her words punctuate the album cover in braille. Rihanna explained why she wanted Chloe on the project as she said: “She got the spirit of what I wanted embodied in this into words, We just talked and we laughed and we drank, and this is the poem we came up with, which is If They Let Us.”
The poem – If They Let Us:
I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood.
It is simply because what I want to say,
what I need to say, won’t be heard.
Heard in a way I so rightfully deserve.
What I choose to say is of so much substance
That people just won’t understand the depth of my message.
So my voice is not my weakness,
It is the opposite of what others are afraid of.
My voice is my suit and armor,
My shield, and all that I am.
I will comfortably breath [sic] in it, until I find the moment to be silent.
I live loudly in my mind, so many hours of the day.
The world is pin drop sound compared to the boom
That thumps and bumps against the walls of my cranium.
I live it and love it and despise it and I am entrapped in it.
So being misunderstood, I am not offended by the gesture, but honored.
If they let us…
Below are pictures from Wednesday night at MAMA Gallery.
Rihanna with Chloe Mitchell and Roy Nachum below.
KRISHMA KUDHAIL 