If Rihanna is trying to pull a Beyonce, she's doing it all wrong.
I may strongly dislike Beyonce because she's satan incarnate, but I'll give credit where credit is due: the lead-up to BEYONCE was brilliant. She did a shit ton of high profile promo at the beginning of the year, then went radio silent without even a hint of anything about an album or even a single, then hit you with the album when literally NOBODY saw it coming. It was gimmicky, and she likely won't see the same level of success if she tried it a second time, but it was a fresh tactic and it worked.
Rihanna, on the other hand, has a big fucking mouth, and if she's going for suspense here she's killing it. All the on-again-off-again promo, dropping random ass singles that don't seem to belong to any sort of project, and she herself dangling hints over her fans like a carrot on a string is killing the hype. It won't be a surprise because everyone knows it's coming, and she's been teasing it for so long that people are getting fatigued. Hell, I went from super excited for the album and a new member of The NVAY to being sick of hearing about the damn album, and I haven't even heard it.
I'm reminded of the lead-up to ARTPOP and, well...we all know how that turned out.