Despite the back and forth of whether Aaliyah’s family approve or disapprove of an Aaliyah album, it seems that there has been secret discussions between Aaliyah’s family camp, Aaliyah estate holders [ the ones in charge of her music publishing rights], Timbland and Missy, and Drake’s camp which all parties will take part of in Aaliyah’s new album.
Blackground label records which is headed by Aaliayh’s uncle Barry Hankerson has confirmed to Billboard that Drake will be co-producing an Aaliyah album and Timbaland, and Missy will assist in the project as well.
Drake and his close collaborator, Noah “40” Shebib, will co-produce the LP using 16 unreleased tracks and “fragments” as source material. Blackground, run by Aaliyah’s cousin Jomo Hankerson and his father Barry, hopes to release the album by the end of the year.
Barry Hankerson released the following statement:
“We really felt like it was time. There’s a real new generation that doesn’t know her necessarily, and we wanted to continue her musical legacy with this new generation. That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to do very contemporary music,” said Hankerson. “We didn’t want to make it a nostalgic project; we already did that with the ‘I Care 4 U’ album. The idea was to release new music for her diehard fans, and also reintroduce her music to a new generation that doesn’t really understand how much influence she has in the music that they’re listening to today.”
Aaliyah’s new album will be her second posthumous album, following her 2002 hit album “I Care 4 U”.
Spotted: Rollingstone