Rihanna says she has 'at least' 170 songs in the vault, and the math is breaking her fans
During a Fenty Beauty TikTok livestream, Rihanna pulled out some product math to hint she's sitting on a genuinely enormous stockpile of unreleased music. Ten years since 'ANTI,' the Navy is losing it.
In brief
Rihanna says she has 'at least' 170 songs in the vault, and the math is breaking her fans
Wednesday night, Rihanna was doing a routine Fenty Beauty product push on TikTok Live. Promoting the Gloss Bomb Vault. Moving lip gloss. Normal mogul behavior. Then someone in the chat asked how much unreleased music she had stashed away, and she answered in the most Rihanna way imaginable.
The comment sent her fans into a frenzy over the latest update about her long-awaited R9 album. Rihanna did not explicitly confirm that she had 170 completed tracks, but her use of the phrase "at least" left open the possibility that the vault could contain even more material. None of that stopped the Navy from absolutely combusting.
Her last studio album, ANTI, arrived in January 2016, meaning 2026 marks a full decade without another Rihanna album. Ten years. The Weeknd put out five projects in that time. Beyonce had Lemonade, Renaissance, and Cowboy Carter. Rihanna? Fenty. Savage X. Three kids. A Super Bowl. A very busy life that did not include releasing a record.
The math, explained
During the Fenty Beauty TikTok Shop Livestream, Rihanna was quizzed about the amount of unreleased music she is sitting on, and found a way to answer using the product at hand. Referencing Fenty's Gloss Bomb Vault, which houses 10 products, she teased that if there are 10 products in a vault, she has "at least 17 vaults." Ten multiplied by 17 gives 170.
That "17 vaults" comment should not be interpreted as confirmation that 170 finished, release-ready songs exist. The singer was making a comparison during a beauty livestream, and some of the material in her archives could consist of demos, unfinished recordings, or discarded ideas. But the sheer scale of what she's implying is real. A decade of studio time with the resources she has? The number isn't crazy.
In a 2025 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Rihanna confirmed that the long break did not mean she had completely stopped recording. She appears willing to leave entire eras of recorded material behind instead of releasing songs simply because they exist. According to the magazine, she rejected previous musical directions because they no longer matched her growth.
That detail matters. It makes the size of Rihanna's vault less of a guarantee that R9 is coming and more evidence of how selective she has become.
But she's actually been in the studio
The vault tease would be easy to dismiss as a deflection if it weren't for what's been happening around it. Earlier this year, Rihanna revealed that she had finally "cracked the code" on her long-awaited album, while A$AP Rocky more recently let slip that she was back in the studio.
As recently as August 2026, Rocky said Rihanna was actively working. "She's in the studio right now," he revealed, before joking that he might get in trouble for sharing the update. Per Baller Alert, she was also photographed entering a recording studio in New York, and her surprise appearance at JAY-Z's final Yankee Stadium concert gave fans another reminder of how much anticipation still surrounds her return.
Rihanna has remained careful about revealing details surrounding the album. She has not confirmed its tracklist, release date, or the number of songs. Her most recent official release was "Friend of Mine," which appeared on the 2025 Smurfs soundtrack. That's the position her fans are in right now: a Smurfs credit and 17 vaults of mystery.
Why this moment hit different
Rihanna has teased R9 before. There have been producer credits spotted in databases, studio paparazzi shots, cryptic Instagram captions. None of it landed quite like this. The reason is probably the math itself. It's concrete. It's a number. Even a playful, product-math number carries more weight than "I'm working on it."
A source told Us Weekly earlier in 2026 that Rihanna had made substantial amounts of music but at one point decided to start fresh. Which tracks with everything else she's said. Billboard confirmed she revealed she has "at least" 170 songs in the vault during the TikTok Live on Wednesday, October 7, while promoting Fenty Beauty products and fielding the fan question directly.
The conversation blew up across social. "The Navy is not okay," one widely shared post read. Fan accounts lit up the timeline with clip compilations and countdowns. Hot 97 covered it straight. That Grape Juice called the moment fresh fuel on "the ever-burning R9 fire." Hard to argue with that.
Also this week: 50 Cent drops the BMF post-mortem nobody asked for
While Rihanna's vault dominated the conversation, a second TV drama played out in real time. In an Oct. 2 interview on Cam Newton's "Funky Friday" podcast, BMF star Da'Vinchi said he was "1,000 percent" sure the show would still be on the air if another actor had been cast as his co-star, instead of Demetrius "Lil Meech" Flenory Jr.
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson backed those comments on Instagram on October 6. The hip-hop mogul, who executive produced the show, shared a clip from Da'Vinchi's interview and added a caption making new allegations about Lil Meech, who played his father, Black Mafia Family co-founder Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory.
In that post, 50 claimed Lil Meech showed up to a weapons training session under the influence, got into repeated legal trouble, and that he personally had to bail him out of jail so filming could continue. 50 also accused Lil Meech of spending money trying to live like his father, Big Meech, off camera, and claimed those issues disrupted production. These are 50 Cent's allegations, stated on Instagram. Lil Meech did not respond publicly before deadline, and Yahoo Entertainment noted that Urban Hollywood 411 reached out to Lil Meech for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Starz officially canceled BMF in October 2025 after four seasons. The cancellation came after a public feud between Lil Meech and 50 Cent, as well as Lil Meech facing legal issues, and the series ending on a cliffhanger in the season 4 finale. Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch had hinted at trouble back in August 2025, pointing to "underperformance" during the network's quarterly earnings call and noting that the latest season contributed to "modest sequential declines in OTT subscribers and revenue."
Da'Vinchi told Newton on the podcast, "We could have done six, seven years. There was so much material in the story that we've never gotten to." He also expressed sympathy for his former co-star and mentioned the pressure Lil Meech faced playing his own father. "I got nothing but love for him, and I don't know what it's like to have that level of pressure," he added.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
