New year, same Rihanna–well, at least when it comes to clapbacks.
Source: WWD / Getty
The Fenty founder took to Instagram on Wednesday, Jan. 1 to celebrate the new year with her followers, also making a big announcement.
Rihanna posted a video featuring her holding a phone while the New Year’s Eve countdown was happening, chanting the numbers along with her friends in the room. As soon as the clock struck midnight, everyone in the room yelled, “Happy New Year!” which was followed by Rih revealing that she stayed sober for the entirety of 2024.
“Y’all, I didn’t drink all year!” the singer said to the camera immediately after the countdown. “I didn’t drink all year!”
It should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that the comments section was filled with fans joking about the fact that Rihanna hasn’t released music in nearly a decade. She dropped her critically acclaimed project Anti in January of 2016, so with the start of 2025, that makes nine years without a Rihanna album.
“I thought it was the countdown for the album drop,” one fan wrote in the comments.
Another referenced her “New Year. New Me,” caption, commenting, “does this version drop music?”
One comment in particular, however, really caught Rihanna’s attention, leading to a classic clapback moment from the queen of petty responses. A user named Lorenzo commented on the star’s post with a demand, writing, “We want an album forehead.”
This clearly rubbed Rih the wrong way, leading to her replying: “Listen, Lorenzo! You ain’t cute enough to be calling me by my Black name, you dizzy f**k!”
Crying over a lack of new Rihanna music is all fun and games until someone like Lorenzo gets a lil too comfortable. RIH-gardless, it’s glorious to see that no matter what’s going on in the world, we can still count on Rihanna for an instant-classic clapback.
