Rihanna Scraps Highly-Anticipated ‘R8’ Album For A Totally Different Sound

Remember the singles that Rihanna released earlier this year? The three singles that were going to be on her upcoming R8 album? Well, those singles are just promo singles, until she releases three actual singles off her actual new album. Whenever that’s happening.

After critics slammed RiRi for the lackluster sales of “FourFiveSeconds,” “B***h Betta Have My Money,” and “American Oxygen,” the singer may change her mind and declare those songs to be promo singles. That means those singles won’t be listed on Rihanna’s highly anticipated R8 album. They’re just promotional singles for the actual singles she’ll choose for her forthcoming album.

A press release from Chile recently shared the details of Rihanna’s actual upcoming album.

“Rihanna comes to our country to promote his eighth album, tentatively unpublished and ‘R8’, which should go on sale this year and which has generated high expectations and good reviews thanks to three promotional singles would be called: ‘American Oxygen’, ‘B***h Better Have My Money’ and ‘FourFiveSeconds’, the latter in collaboration with Kanye West and Sir Paul McCartney.”

Apparently, RiRi has scrapped her previous R8 album, which she claimed she worked on for almost two years. She wants to go in a different direction, yet again! The performer is desperately searching for musicians and producers to work with. Maybe she should ask disco and EDM icon Girgio Mordoer who just released his new album titled, Déjà Vu.

The legendary hitmaker, 75, spoke to US Weekly about his thoughts on working with Rihanna. No, he’s not collaborating with the sizzling performer yet, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to! Moroder believes that Ri could pull of an extremely sexy song like Beyonce’s “Blow,” “Partition,” and “Rocket.”

“Beyonce did a short version of it in ‘Naughty Girl,’ but I think the girl who could REALLY deliver it is Rihanna. She is SO sexy and if she ever asks me to write a sex song that may be different, maybe not with moaning but a different style, I am more than happy to do it. She’d be perfect for a REAL sex song.”

That might not mesh well with Ri’s dancehall sound. Rihanna is working hard to create some catchy music on her new R8 album. She’s hoping to work with Mavado, Popcaan and Vybz Kartel, according to a report via Urban Islandz. Sources told the hip-hop site that RiRi’s management has reached out to both Popcaan and his mentor Vybyz Kartel.

“I know for sure that [Rihanna’s] people have reached out to Popcaan and Vybz Kartel people to record some music, and I’ve been told that she might be flying down to GeeJam studio during the summer.”

Sources also say that Rihanna has reached out to a large number of dancehall artists, such as Busy Signal and Mavado.

“Maybe they are just vetting to see which dancehall artists she want to work with or maybe she want to record more than one dancehall flavored singles.”

As the Inquisitr previously reported, RiRi wants to make more reggae hits like “Pon De Replay” and “Man Down.” She didn’t originally like the idea – she wanted to create more classic and “timeless” music. But after having flop after flop with her past three singles, it looks like Rihanna is heading back to her Barbadian roots. It sounds like the singer should stick to what works for her.

What are your thoughts on Rihanna scrapping her R8 album? Are you looking forward to her new sound? Do you think she’ll top the charts like she once did? Are you just dying for new Rih music? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.

[Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia]