Baby Riot is just six weeks old, gracing the world with his presence on August 1, debuting at the early hour of 7:41 a.m. Things are already unrolling differently for Rih and Rocky this time around, publicity-wise: The world learned Riot’s name and birthday just a bit over a month after his birth, and of his less-specific existence a bit before, while RZA was just days shy of his first birthday before we even knew what his name was.
And forget about seeing his face: RZA didn’t make his public debut until he was seven months old, in a TikTok video of the baby giggling in his carseat that Rihanna jokingly captioned “hacked.”
The two pregnancy announcements also couldn’t be more different: In January 2022, the couple released cute photos of Rih with a baby bump and confirmed the news that they were expecting a baby. Pretty low-key.
Rocky and Rihanna’s second announcement, for the pending baby Riot, was an internationally televised, stadium-sized affair, with the singer brandishing her growing belly while she headlined the Super Bowl halftime show with a medley of her hits. Decidedly less low key.
The whole family is represented in the shots, with solo shots of the cute baby being a cute baby, and the cute toddler being a cute toddler, as well as posed and candid photos of the whole crew playing around and being photogenic.
In a February 2023 press conference ahead of the her Super Bowl performance, Rihanna discussed the emotional changes of motherhood, and why she was doing the show—which, in retrospect considering it was her pregnancy reveal for Riot, takes on a whole new meaning.
“When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world and do anything,” she said. “The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world. As scary as that was, because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all.”
“It’s important for me to do this, this year. It’s important for representation, it’s important for my son to see that.” Which son, the one in her belly, or the one outside at that point? Let’s just say both.
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