Rihanna just hit a milestone most artists never touch — and she did it with the same album fans have been begging her to follow up for almost a decade.
On Sunday (Nov. 30), Chart Data announced, “.@rihanna's 'ANTI' has now spent 500 weeks on the Billboard 200. First album by a Black female artist to reach this milestone in the chart's history.” A few hours later, the Fenty mogul hopped on X and kept her response short and very on-brand: “God ain’t forget ‘bout me!”
What Anti did differently starts with who was in charge. Rihanna stood at the center of the creative process as executive producer, shaping every detail instead of following the hit-chasing blueprint that defined her early career run. She pulled in collaborators like Drake on “Work,” SZA on the opener “Consideration,” and Travis Scott on “Woo,” while recruiting producers Jeff Bhasker, Timbaland, Hit-Boy, Boi-1da, Mustard, and more to build a sound that felt deliberately unrushed and unpolished.
The Barbadian singer’s eighth studio album leaned into bass-heavy experiments, lo-fi textures, distorted vocals, and moody R&B arrangements that challenged what a Rihanna album “should” sound like. That shift is a huge part of why Anti aged the way it did. Songs like “Work,” “Kiss It Better,” “Needed Me,” and “Love on the Brain” didn’t just become fan favorites; they became career touchstones.
And the numbers backed that up. Anti debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and earned six RIAA platinum certifications. Critics treated it the same way listeners did — with stamina. Billboard named it No. 7 on its list of “The 100 Greatest Albums of the 2010s,” and Rolling Stone placed it at No. 21 on “The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far.”
This fall, the 37-year-old also became the most-streamed Black female artist in Spotify history, crossing 100 million monthly listeners for the first time. As REVOLT previously reported, Chart Data confirmed the record and Roc Nation celebrated with, “That @Rihanna reign just won’t let up.”
How does Rihanna navigate self-doubt despite her record-breaking success?
And even with all this success, Rihanna recently admitted that self-doubt still creeps in — whether she’s developing products or making music. “Oh, we all have our doubts,” she said on the “Couch by Lena Situations” podcast in Paris. “Anything that you're creating, you get to a point where you're like, ‘Okay, we're about to go for it. Is it good enough?’”
She shared that the same fear shows up in the studio: “When I make my albums, I get to a point where I think, ‘Wow, I've lived with it for so long… Is it right? Is it right yet?’” Rihanna said she copes by stepping away and returning “with fresh ears or fresh eyes and just reappreciate it for what it is.”