When Rihanna’s eighth studio album Anti was first unleashed to the public, it was met with mixed reviews. Those expecting an album brimming with upbeat pop bangers -- as it had always been in the past with Rihanna -- were left disappointed. The moody, atmospheric R&B of Anti is far removed from her previous musical efforts, and Rihanna is aware of this shift in sound and its divisive reception.

“I just gravitated toward the songs that were honest to where I’m at right now,” she said in an interview for Vogue’s April 2016 cover story. “It might not be some automatic record that will be Top 40. But I felt like I earned the right to do that now.”

Her blase attitude toward the album's success, then, comes from finally feeling secure as an artist, and it's a value that extends beyond Anti. When you take that into consideration, it’s easy to understand why Rihanna doesn’t see Beyonce as her rival, no matter how the press may try to pit the two against each other.

“Here’s the deal. They just get so excited to feast on something that’s negative,” she said. “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.”

It’s true, few people could probably handle a schedule as busy as Rihanna's. Aside from the long-awaited release of Anti and its follow-up Anti World Tour, she recently founded a styling agency called Fr8me and debuted Fenty, her fashion line with Puma, at New York Fashion Week. But Rihanna seems to have found her sweet spot in staying busy.

"I feel like I’m floating right now," she said, when all was said and done at NYFW. "I feel elated.”

Check out the full story over at Vogue.

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