Earlier this week, we reported that Drake was rumored to produce the upcoming posthumous Aaliyah album. Yesterday, Billboard confirmed that Drake and his producer Noah “40″ Shebib will be co-producing the album and revealed a number of other details regarding the release.
Jomo Hankerson, Aaliyah’s cousin and co-head of Blackground Records, told Billboard that the album will feature 16 tracks of unreleased material, updated with fresh production and cameos by contemporary artists. “We didn’t want to make it a nostalgic project; we already did that with the I Care 4 U album,” he said. “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.”
Concerns that Aaliyah’s former collaborators Timbaland and Missy Elliot would not be involved with the project have been alleviated, as Hankerson confirmed that both artists will contribute to the album in some way. He mentioned that one of the tracks on the album will be an unreleased Missy Elliot track.
Pitchfork reports that Aaliyah’s brother posted on his Facebook earlier this week, stating that her immediate family does not support the release of this posthumous album.
Listen to the first single off the record, “Enough Said,” below.
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