Music
Savor Rihanna’s Fenty Ketchup — Because New Music May Still Take A While
It’s not a ninth album. But it is... something!
In case you lost track, it’s been six (nearly seven!) years since Rihanna dropped ANTI — and while the “Love on the Brain” singer has had fun teasing what her next project might sound like, her comments usually dance around the small matter of a release date. “Whatever you know of Rihanna is not going to be what you hear,” she told the Associated Press last year. “I’m really experimenting.”
She echoed those comments in an April interview with Vogue, telling the magazine that she is still, indeed, making music — though she’s not exactly in a hurry to follow up her “best album to this day,” ANTI. “I’m looking at my next project completely differently from the way I had wanted to put it out before,” she said. “I think this way suits me better, a lot better. It’s authentic, it’ll be fun for me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off.”
Then, on Aug. 22, the new mom announced her next project — it’s just not her next musical project. Rather, it’s apparently Fenty’s first condiment offering? As announced through a series of social posts from both Fenty and art collective MSCHF (of Lil Nas X “Satan Shoes” fame), you can now purchase branded ketchup packets on ketchupormakeup.com.
And to answer the question posed by the URL, the product for sale is ketchup and makeup (??). Confusing, yes — but according to the website, this is how it works. You buy a $25 kit that includes “six packets that each contain either ketchup or lip gloss” — specifically, Fenty Beauty’s Gloss Bomb. It seems that you won’t know which is which until it’s literally coming out of the packet (see the Fenty photo below), so this isn’t the kind of makeup product you’ll want to depend on for an important occasion. You might, however, throw it in your purse and save it for fast food and/or gloss emergencies on the go — and at least you’ll have a 50% chance of getting exactly what you need. (It’s worth noting that the packets say “DO NOT EAT,” though. Again, confusing!)
According to iHeart, the ketchup kits were also being sold at a pop-up hot dog stand in New York City.
It’s a fun novelty gift for the avid Rihanna merch lover, of course — but many fans were hoping (as ever) for an album announcement instead, and took their reactions to Twitter.