It’s Official!!
In an exclusive interview with Billboard Biz, Aaliyah‘s cousin Jomo Hankerson, son of Aaliyah’s uncle and owner of Blackground Records Barry Hankerson, confirms that Aaliyah’s long time friends and music partners in crime, Timbaland and Missy Elliott, will be on the album.
“I can tell you that Timbaland will definitely be involved, Missy will definitely be involved. One of the records that we had that was never released was a Missy record that we obviously are going to be refreshing.”
Hankerson also explains why they decided to enlist the help of Drake and his best friend/producer Noah “40″ Shebib.
“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. 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.”
Hankerson goes on to say that Drake and 40′s “Enough Said” single did come faster than he expected, and that all the details for the album aren’t completely hashed out.
“This record ['Enough Said'] really kind of came sooner than we thought it was going to come, so it’s really the beginning of the creative process for us. We’ve got a record out while we’re still creating the project. A lot of that is still up in the air, but I can tell you that Timbaland will definitely be involved, Missy will definitely be involved.”
Hankerson also mentioned that he and his father Barry Hankerson will be executive producing the album and Drake will appear on “more records,” while 40 will be “heavily” involved as co-producer.
Aaliyah’s cousin says that a release date for Aaliyah’s posthumous album is “premature,” but the album is on the way. Aaliyah’s new dream team will be working with 16 unreleased tracks and a few unfinished vocals to create her new album.
We’re glad someone close to Aaliyah cleared up all the details! Can’t wait to hear the finished project.
How do you feel about the new Aaliyah project now that all the correct details are public?
- Billboard Biz, spotted at GlobalGrind
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