Road to Rihanna's 'ANTI' Detailed Following Surprise TIDAL Release

It's been a long road to the release of Rihanna's eighth studio album ANTI, which finally was released on Wednesday (Jan. 27) after years of delays and rewrites. Now, three years after the release of Unapologetic, a new source has revealed why it's taken so long to get new music from one of pop's biggest stars out in to the world.

"It's a trend," a source who serves as a major-label executive says on unexpected releases to Billboard, "but one only marquee artists should follow. You're at a major label to take advantage of all their marketing and sales expertise, and you curtail a lot of that by just putting your album out and saying, 'Surprise."

It was unusual for Rihanna to wait so long to release an album, as she released one per year from the start of her career in 2009 to her last album in 2012. But, she's been busy making new music that entire time. According to the source, she was still tweaking ANTI just two weeks before the release of "Work."

She has reportedly been working on the album since 2014. Her two chart-topping hits "FourFiveSeconds" featuring Kanye West and Paul McCartney and "Bitch Better Have My Money," kept fans guessing as they waited for ANTI.

While reps for Rihanna, Samsung, Roc Nation, Def Jam and Live Nation refused to give commentary to Billboard, it has been reported that ANTI was initially supposed to be released through a Samsung and Live Nation deal in June 2015. The release was also reportedly supposed to be followed up with summer tour dates.

After the album art was released at an Los Angeles art gallery in October, rumors swirled that it would be released on Black Friday. She also reportedly pushed back a number of promotional appearances because she was unsatisfied with the album. Fans searched for clues as she posted links to her AntiDiary website as she also announced the Anti World Tour, sponsored by Samsung. But once "Work" was released, fans knew that the release date was closing in.

While ANTI was expected to be released before Friday, it is now out in full on TIDAL. TIDAL accidentally leaked the track list and music last night. While ANTI was only released for a few minutes online, there was enough anticipation behind it to spark the release of the entire album. It can be streamed on the TIDAL website.

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