Global music and fashion icon Rihanna resists letting her superstar status confine her inside, preferring to savor life’s normalcies alongside her partner, Hip-Hop artist A$AP Rocky, on the bustling streets of New York City.
Despite the ever-present throngs of admirers and paparazzi, the couple navigates their high-profile lives intending to mix and mingle like ordinary people.
Rihanna shed light on why the Big Apple suits their lifestyle better.
“We like to eat with people. We like to shop with people. We like to walk the streets with people. I don’t like a private room. I don’t have them shut down stores,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.
“I don’t like the Rapunzel life. It’s very isolating. It’s very lonely. And what am I protecting myself from? I’m actually allowing people to dictate the robbery of the life that I could actually be living.”
Since their romantic journey began in 2020 after years of friendship, Rihanna and Rocky have embraced a philosophy of living in the moment—focused on experiences over material possessions.
This outlook became more pronounced with the arrival of their children, RZA and Riot, in 2022 and 2023.
“I’m even in the space of not even spending my money on things, but I’ll spend my money on an experience. Somebody could rob me right now of everything I have, (but) they will never take a memory, an experience, a feeling, a scent that reminded me of that moment. There’s just things that mean more when you grow up,” the billionaire musician/mogul said.
The couple’s urban escape is marked by excursions to restaurants and even karaoke bars, where they relish what Rihanna describes as living “like nobody’s watching.”
This shared value is also crucial for A$AP Rocky, who gently reminds her to cherish their past unheralded fun.
“That’s a big thing for us and actually a really big thing for him… ‘Remember when we were friends? Remember when we just used to have fun as friends?'” she reflected.