Rih, you better quit playing with our emotions!

After years of waiting (im)patiently for Rihanna's new album, there is now a true glimmer of hope that the pop star's ninth studio album is on the way. Maybe.

On Thursday (Dec. 26), Rihanna's record label, Def Jam Recordings, rather unceremoniously and suddenly posted a cryptic photo of Rihanna making a diamond shape with her hands, along with a diamond emoji—and nothing else—to caption the image.

The out-of-the-blue image has all the markings of an album teaser: vague emoji-only description, mysterious artist promo photo and the element of mystique!

So, could this mean that Rih is indeed readying her highly awaited ninth studio album—referred to lovingly as R9 by fans—for imminent release? Does the diamond motif have something to do with its title? See below:

But there's also other evidence to support a potential surprise album drop from Rihanna before the end of 2019.

In October 2019, the artist finally opened up about the sound of her forthcoming new record, telling Vogue that her new music is inspired by reggae.

"It’s not gonna be typical of what you know as reggae," she explained. "Reggae always feels right to me. It’s in my blood. It doesn’t matter how far or long removed I am from that culture or my environment that I grew up in; it never leaves."

Recently, Rih has been savagely (pun intended) teasing fans about the existence of R9 and her subsequent "refusal" to release the darn thing already.

This past week, she trolled fans on Instagram by sharing a meme of a dog frantically bobbing its head to music, captioning the clip, "update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it."

Plus, in December 2018, the pop star promised a fan on Instagram that her new album would definitely release in 2019. And, as of the publishing date of this article, it's still 2019 (with five more days left in the year, to be exact), so many are still holding out hope that the singer will stay true to her word.

Will Rihanna drop her album mere moments before the ball drops in Times Square on NYE? Here's hoping...

Rihanna released her last album, Anti, on Jan. 28, 2016.

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