Rihanna put in her work for her latest Vogue cover, gracing the magazine's April issue in a sexy Tom Ford dress.
The 28-year-old singer has been busy, to say the least. She recently released her eighth studio album, "Anti," inked a rumored million-dollar deal to collaborate with Puma and launched a massive world tour in March. Somehow, amid the chaos, she found time to talk to Vogue about working with Drake and Paul McCartney and shut down rumors about her rumored feud with Beyoncé.
"Here the deal," Rihanna said, "They just get so excited to feast on something that’s negative. Something that's competitive. Something that’s, you know, a rivalry. And that’s just not what I wake up to. Because I can only do me. And nobody else is going to be able to do that."
Fans started grumbling about Bey attempting to steal Rih's thunder after "Anti" came out. Just one week after the release, Beyoncé released "Formation," a surprise single and video that she performed one day later at the Super Bowl.
The two singers were pitted against each other as soon as Rihanna stepped on the music scene. Rumors circulated that the young singer was cheating with Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z, and are still prevalent today ― and publicist Jonathan Hay has admitted to being the source of those rumors.
“The PR stunt that I did was out of desperation to help break ‘Pon de Replay,’” Hay told Inside Edition in October 2015. “It was reckless and I didn’t think it was going to work. I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick.”
That admission prompted Rihanna’s lawyer, Jordan Sieve, to tell Entertainment Tonight that Hay had never worked with or met the singer. Producer Vada Nobles, who co-wrote “Pon de Replay,” told the New York Post that he did not hire Hay to promote the singer or the song ― a claim that Hay disputes.
Rihanna also spoke to Vogue about others in the industry she’s been linked to, including her oft-rumored boyfriend, Drake. The rapper appears on Rihanna’s hit single, “Work,” and the subsequent video shows the two dancing and grinding on each other.
“Everything he does is so amazing,” Rih said of Drake, before dishing on another music genius, her “FourFiveSeconds” collaborator Paul McCartney. “It’s almost like no one ever told him about his success. It’s like, Aren’t you busy being a Beatle?”
To read more of Rihanna’s interview with Vogue, head here, or look for it on newsstands March 29.
This post has been updated with additional statements from Hay, Rihanna's lawyer and Nobles regarding their various claims regarding the promotion of "Pon de Replay."
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