By Ryan Steal
Rihanna has spoken at detail about her lengthy path to romance with 33-year-old rapper A$AP Rocky, whom she first met back in 2012, in a new Vogue cover story released Tuesday, telling the magazine that it takes her time to create a meaningful connection.
“People don’t get out of the friend zone very easily with me. And I certainly took a while to get over how much I know him and how much he knows me, because we also know how much trouble we can land each other in,” stated the 34-year-old superstar.
When they performed a remix of Rihanna’s “Cockiness” at the 2012 MTV VMAs, she recalls Rocky making an unexpected move at her during the performance. “He grabbed my ass on stage. That was not part of the rehearsal! … I was like, what are you doing!?,” said the Fenty CEO, stating she hastily brushed it off, which she wouldn’t normally do. “My manager was like, oh, God, she must like this guy a little bit. She never lets this s— slide.”
During their time together in COVID lockdown, the couple traveled on a summer 2020 tour bus road trip from Los Angeles to New York, and Rihanna revealed Rocky “became [her] family.” The singer spent her holiday cooking outside on a “little janky grill… from Walmart,” while her boyfriend tie-dyed t-shirts.
Later, the two proceded to Rihanna’s home in Barbados for a formal introduction between Rocky and Rihanna’s mother Monica Braithwaite, whom Rihanna stated is exceptionally difficult to win over.
“My mother has a really good read on people. She observes first and then she’ll move slowly. I guess I’m like that too,” she detailed. “There are some guys that I’ve dated that she won’t even look at to this day. But she was charmed by him from the jump.”
Even as she is busy in preparation to receive her first child, Rihanna reaffirmed that her eagerly awaited album is still on the way, albeit she’s taking a fresh approach to writing new content, free of any competition from her musician peers.
“I’m looking at my next project completely differently from the way I had wanted to put it out before. I think this way suits me better, a lot better,” she revealed. “It’s authentic, it’ll be fun for me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off.”
