RIHANNA TO REUNITE WITH UMBRELLA PRODUCER TRICKY STEWART THIS MONTH!

Rihanna's voice and face are everywhere these days — owing to her guest spot on Jay-Z's hit "Run This Town" and multiple appearances out on the town, respectively — and she's been working on new material with Justin Timberlake, Norwegian hitmakers Stargate, All-American Rejects' Tyson Ritter and U.K. duo Chase & Status.
Later this month, she's slated to hit the studio with Tricky Stewart, who (with frequent collaborator The-Dream) helmed her 2007 breakthrough hit, "Umbrella." Now, the producer has revealed that he plans on working with the singer again on her forthcoming album. Although the pair have yet to hit the studio, he said that the songs he's been working on for the singer are ones he's "in love with" — and he hinted the singer might be releasing new music before the end of this year.

"I do believe it is [going to drop this year]," Stewart told Rap-Up.com. "We're actually just getting started. I just wrote some records that I'm in love with this past week.

"Rihanna and I will be getting in the studio sometime in the next two weeks, so we actually have not recorded anything for her new album yet."

At press time, reps for Rihanna had not responded to requests for comment on the status of her new recordings.

Stewart explained that despite the success of "Umbrella," they have no intention of trying to repeat that song's formula.

"Man, you know we can't do that. We come out with something that sounds like 'Umbrella,' they're gonna be saying that we tried to do something that sounded like 'Umbrella,' " he said. "That's not what the great artists do. They don't even allow you to do stuff like that. Every great artist always wants to hear something they've never heard before."

Stewart also said that Rihanna hasn't changed since they first started working together. "She's just a pleasure," he said. "She's a very sweet, down-to-earth person. You would never know how successful she is 'cause she's just so nice and warm. I guess maybe it's her background of being from the [Caribbean]. She's just a really sweet, warm person to be around."