Rihanna gives friend's baby 'first listen' of her album

Rihanna gave a friend's baby the "first listen" of her eagerly-awaited new album.

The 'California King Bed' singer took to Instagram to to tease her 68.8 million followers with a picture of her close pal Jennifer Rosales little boy Joshua sat on the mixing desk with ear defenders.

Alongside the studio snap, Rihanna wrote: "Thank you @jennnrosales and @the_aa for blessing my day a lil mo"

His mom Jennifer added: "When tia @badgalriri gives you the first listen. #newmusic"

The Bajan star has been dropping little hints about her record, but her producer The-Dream recently revealed that she is "super close" to finishing the long-awaited album.

The 30-year-old singer has kept fans waiting for new music for three years, since her last album 'Anti' in 2016, and according to The-Dream - who has worked with Rihanna since 2007 - her newest record is "about done".

He said: "She's cooking, she's about done. She's about done. Super close."

And although the versatile songwriter refused to give any more details about the 'Work' hitmaker's upcoming new music, he did also tease that Beyoncé is "doing something" in the studio too.

He said: "She's doing something. I actually haven't talked to her about it - I've talked to the team about it because it's kind of just being coordinated. But she's doing something."

For Rihanna, the news that her album is close to being finished comes after she recently teased her fans by joking that her Internet connection was poor when asked about the whereabouts of her new music.

The singer posted a video to her Instagram Stories that featured her waving a wad of cash, smiling and blowing a kiss to the camera and wrote: "'Where the album?'"

"Me: sorry my connection poor."

Meanwhile, Kuk Harrell - who worked with the star on 'Anti', as well as co-writing her hit songs 'Umbrella' and 'Only Girl (In the World)' - recently responded to one of the singer's fans who asked for an update on Rihanna's new music.

During an Instagram Live, they asked him: "How's R9?", to which he replied: "R9 is great. R9 is amazing. It's incredible, And that's all I'm going to say."

Although The-Dream believes her record is almost finished, there has been no official announcement from Rihanna about a release date for her ninth studio album.

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