Rihanna says she is sitting on “at least 17 vaults” of unreleased music. She made the comment during a Fenty Beauty TikTok Shop livestream that V101.9 dates to Oct. 6, when a fan asked her to guess how many songs she has tucked away.

Rihanna answered with a product. She compared her catalog to the Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Vault, a 10 piece set, and said she had at least 17 of those. Fans did the math and landed on about 170 songs. She did not give an exact count, a release date, a title or a tracklist for her long awaited ninth album, which fans call R9.

How many unreleased songs does Rihanna have?

The honest answer is somewhere around 170, give or take. Rihanna offered a playful estimate, not a number pulled from a studio log. Still, it is the clearest sign yet that the decade since her last album has not been silent behind closed doors.

Her last studio album, Anti, arrived in January 2016. It spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and gave the world “Work,” “Needed Me” and “Love on the Brain.”

What has Rihanna released since Anti?

Not much. In 2022, she sang “Lift Me Up” for the Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever, earning an Oscar nomination. In 2025, she released “Friend of Mine” for the Smurfs movie.

In July, she made a surprise appearance at Jay-Z’s Yankee Stadium show, performing “Run This Town” and “BBHMM.” She joked with the crowd that she was rusty. It was her first live performance since her 2023 Super Bowl halftime show.

Rihanna hints she has over 100 unreleased songs during a Fenty Beauty livestream. https://t.co/3cOa0Mp3Yp

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 7, 2026

Is Rihanna working on R9 right now?

A$AP Rocky says she is. On “The Jason Lee Show,” he shut down the idea that their three children or her businesses were holding her back. He said she was in the studio and cooking, then joked that he would get in trouble for saying so.

Why has the new Rihanna album taken so long?

This is where the vault number tells a bigger story than most people realize. Rihanna does not have a shortage of songs. She has a filter.

She told Harper’s Bazaar in 2025 that she spent years in the studio but struggled to find music that matched who she had become. She has also said the next thing fans hear has to justify the wait, and that it will not be commercial or radio friendly. Read that way, 170 songs is not proof an album is close. It is proof of how many songs did not make the cut.

There is also the question of pressure, or the lack of it. Forbes named Rihanna a billionaire in 2021, largely thanks to Fenty Beauty. Most artists release music because they need the money or the label demands it. Rihanna can afford to wait until the work feels right, and that kind of control is rare for any artist, especially a Black woman in an industry that has long dictated timelines.

What is the overlooked part of the vault comment?

Look at where she said it. Rihanna measured her music in units of lip gloss during a livestream built to sell lip gloss. The Gloss Bomb Vault got a viral plug, and the Navy got a tease without a single commitment.

That is not a knock. It is a reminder that Rihanna has become one of the sharpest marketers in entertainment. Every music hint now travels through her business empire first.

How did fans react?

Fans flooded social media within hours. Some joked that R9 should be a double album. Others said they have heard promises before and will believe it when it hits streaming services.

Rihanna has the songs. Now the Navy waits to see which ones she trusts enough to let out of the vault.