Rihanna's R8 is coming - it's called ANTI and here's the artwork

The album was launched last night (7 October) at Mama Gallery in Los Angeles' Arts District.

Rihanna has revealed the title, artwork, and some concepts surrounding the record. ANTI is defined by Rihanna as "a person opposed to a particular policy, activity or idea". The definition, written on a card on the entry wall to the gallery, went on to read: "In her collaboration with Roy Nachum, Rihanna has changed the history of album art. By continuing to follow her own instincts, her work strives to make an impact by doing the very antithesis of what the public expects."

As with the announcement of "Bitch Better Have My Money", braille features heavily - it's also something of a staple in Nachum's work - and fans who arrived were given red blindfolds to wear and encouraged to touch the art so as to leave their fingerprints.

Rihanna spoke at the event herself, explaining the art's origins: “It started with a random conversation in the studio at 4am when a friend brought up the artwork of Nachum,, and when we met, he just asked me ‘what would make me a happy girl?’”

She finished by saying "this is my favourite album artwork yet in my career."

The art itself is an image of Rihanna from her childhood, holding a black balloon, with a crown covering her eyes. A poem, in braille, accompanies the piece. It's called If They Let Us , and was penned by friend Chloë Mitchell (Mitchell also worked with Kanye West on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) and it reads:

I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood.
It is simply because what I want to say,
what I need to say, won’t be heard.
Heard in a way I so rightfully deserve.
What I choose to say is of so much substance
That people just won’t understand the depth of my message.
So my voice is not my weakness,
It is the opposite of what others are afraid of.
My voice is my suit and armor,
My shield, and all that I am.
I will comfortably breathe it in, until I find the moment to be silent.
I live loudly in my mind, so many hours of the day.
The world is pin drop sound compared to the boom
That thumps and bumps against the walls of my cranium.
I live it and love it and despise it and I am entrapped in it.
So being misunderstood, I am not offended by the gesture, but honored.
If they let us...

ANTI doesn't yet have a release date, but is expected in the near future.

Check out some shots of the new art below via The FADER.

Front and back album artwork for @rihanna's 8th studio album. #R8 pic.twitter.com/zsiYHZyWOF

— The FADER (@thefader) October 8, 2015

The title of @rihanna's 8th studio album is "Anti" pic.twitter.com/RTjeclX5PN

— The FADER (@thefader) October 8, 2015

There are Braille translations of the interior artwork for @rihanna's 8th studio album packaging #R8 pic.twitter.com/mX7Rdgru2D

— The FADER (@thefader) October 8, 2015

pic.twitter.com/EgEoTUD4Od

— The FADER (@thefader) October 8, 2015