Is Pharrell Working on Rihanna's Upcoming Album? See What Some Fans Think Is a Hint

Could there be a Pharrell Williams and Rihanna collaboration in the works?

After the pop star trolled her followers with a reference to a possible new album earlier this week, eagle-eyed fans noticed one famous face in the comments section of her post.

“They ain’t ready,” Williams, 46, wrote on Rihanna‘s post, potentially teasing an upcoming collaboration. The musician also added a globe emoji in a separate comment.

Last Thursday, Rihanna, 31, shared an Instagram video of a clip from Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, which shows Karlie Redd reading the results of a lie detector test.

“Guys, it was all a lie,” Redd says in the clip.

“Nobody: ___ Me: Album coming in 2019 Navy in July: ___,” Rihanna captioned the post, referencing her yet unfulfilled promise to her fanbase (often called the “Navy”) that she would release new music this year.

Rihanna previously worked with Williams’ band N.E.R.D for the 2017 track “Lemon.”

Rihanna’s last album, titled Anti, was released in 2016, and her fans have been pleading for new music ever since.

During her time off from her recording artist career, Rihanna — whom Forbes recently named the world’s richest female musician — has stayed busy. She launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, and unveiled her Savage x Fenty lingerie line last year. She also recently announced the Fenty Maison line under French luxury goods conglomerate LVHM Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Thanks to her jam-packed schedule, the star told Sarah Paulson in Interview magazine last month that she’s lost the ability to pour all of her focus and energy into creating new music with the same speed as before.

“It’s the reason why an album isn’t being spat out like it used to,” she explained in the interview. “I used to be in the studio, only the studio, for three months straight, and an album would come out. Now, it’s like a carousel. I do fashion one day, lingerie the next, beauty the next, then music the next. It’s like having a bunch of kids and you need to take care of them all.”

Rihanna was unable to offer a timeline as for when fans can expect her ninth album, telling Paulson she “wish[ed] [she] knew” when it would be ready, but did tease that it would be “really fun.”

“It really does suck that it can’t just come out, because I’m working on a really fun one right now. I’m really happy with a lot of the material we have so far, but I am not going to put it out until it’s complete,” she said to Paulson. “It makes no sense to rush it, but I want it out.”

In May, the singer confirmed to The New York Times’ T Style magazine that she’s hard at work on a reggae album and said fans should not expect a collaboration with Lady Gaga or Drake, contrary to rumors.

“Not anytime soon, I don’t see it happening,” she said of working again with frequent collaborator and on-again, off-again fling Drake. “Not on this album, that’s for sure.”