Since kicking off the PR rollout for her forthcoming album Anti back in October of 2015, Rihanna has had fans wondering if the album is even finished and when the hell they can hear it.
So it was a bit of a tease when, on Monday morning, the artist shared a picture of herself “listening to ANTI” through a pair of really nice (Dolce & Gabbana, $9,000) headphones.
listening to ANTI 🎈 pic.twitter.com/AgqlhU0GEz
— Rihanna (@rihanna) January 25, 2016
At this point in the hype cycle, people had no choice but to turn their sense of anticipation into a meme. Because everything is meme-worthy, even a photo of a pop superstar promoting her new album while wearing a pair of headphones that’s more expensive than your car.
https://twitter.com/MashriqLands/status/691686994003406848
Listening to Anti #ANTIsTardeDoQueNunca pic.twitter.com/C1kSERA0Wj
— Anya Forger (@vcantiputa) January 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/falarafha/status/691694042816626689
Listening to ANTI 🎈 pic.twitter.com/mjPT9qMLro
— Tom (@tom_xd) January 25, 2016
listening to ANTI 🎈 pic.twitter.com/2Mh7F4kqXI
— Lex (@glitterstrands) January 25, 2016
Thread of people listening to ANTI 🎈 pic.twitter.com/tufgbGsEQY
— Vardaan Arora (@vardaanarora) January 25, 2016
"Listening to ANTi" pic.twitter.com/vSrfoPVeff
— • missy • (@widow0fsilence) January 25, 2016
"Listening to ANTI 🎈" pic.twitter.com/H3Mvw3tIaU
— Adri (@adrixfenty) January 25, 2016
Listening to ANTI like my parents. pic.twitter.com/lQIclX6PwX
— BlueWater 🌊 (@LegitRyanBlake) January 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/VinceMattucci/status/691717734862823426
Notice the #ANTIisTardeDoQueNunca in two of those tweets—“Anti is better late than never,” essentially—a hashtag that quickly came to be associated with the “listening to ANTI” meme.
Maybe Rihanna knew this was going to happen, and maybe she didn’t. Regardless, this will at least tide us over for another couple of hours—until we find ourselves once again impatiently wondering when exactly we’ll get the new album.
Listening to Rihanna's 'Anti' album when it finally drops pic.twitter.com/j9TLorEueC
— k (@kjfkid) January 2, 2016