Rihanna and ASAP Rocky have introduced their second child to the world this week in their first photo shoot as a family.
Riot Rose Mayers is seen swaddled in a blanket as Rihanna hugs her newborn son to her chest in photos obtained by multiple outlets. Another shot, posted to the photographer’s Instagram, shows ASAP Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers) holding the child, who is wearing light pink overalls, as they pose alongside Rihanna and their firstborn, RZA Athelson Mayers. “The Mayers Boys,” the Grammy winner and fashion magnate (real name Robyn Fenty) commented beneath the post by Miles Diggs.
Riot was born Aug. 3, according to TMZ, which was first to report the news. A month later, the newborn’s name was reported, revealing a connection to ASAP Rocky’s recent single “Riot (Rowdy Pipe’n),” which features lyrics that led fans to speculate he and Rihanna had tied the knot. “My wife is erotic, I’m smokin’ exotic,” he raps on the track.
Rihanna revealed she was pregnant with Riot during the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show in February, her first live performance in years, where she danced and belted out her hits in a red jumpsuit that revealed her growing baby bump.
After the birth of her first child with ASAP Rocky, Rihanna kept RZA out of the spotlight, sparingly posting videos of the child on social media.
“We just didn’t get around to it yet, really,” she told the Associated Press last year when asked about her decision not to share photos of her first child with the public. “We’ve just been living. But I guess there’s a certain freedom that comes with kind of just like getting it out there.”
Since stepping down as chief executive of her Savage X Fenty lingerie brand in June, the “Diamonds” performer has been more willing to share photos of her children. In August, before giving birth to Riot, Rihanna dropped a Savage X Fenty maternity line. To promote the line of nursing bralettes, she cradled and nursed RZA for a series of Vogue photos.
“I want to remind people that you can still channel sexiness and feel good while being a parent,” she said.
The singer has yet to reveal whether she’s working on new music, but she told Apple Music earlier this year that her live-music comeback was influenced by her experience with motherhood.
“When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world, you could do anything,” Rihanna said.
“As scary as [the Super Bowl] was because I haven’t been onstage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. And it’s important … for my son to see that.”
Times staff writers Christi Carras and Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
