Missy Elliott and Timbaland have become synonymous with Aaliyah’s music. So it came as a surprise when Missy revealed that she did not even know that a posthumous album was in the works.
When asked about her participation in the polarizing project, the “Get Ur Freak On” rapper told one fan that she was in the dark. “I had no clue there was one no 1 told me,” she tweeted.
This is contrary to a report issued earlier this week from Jomo Hankerson, an executive at Aaliyah’s label Blackground Records. “I can tell you that Timbaland will definitely be involved, Missy will definitely be involved,” Hankerson told Billboard.biz. “One of the records that we had that was never released was a Missy record that we obviously are going to be refreshing.”
It was also confirmed by Blackground that Drake and Noah “40” Shebib would executive produce the album. They plan to call on “contemporary artists” for the 13 to 14 new records, due by the end of this year.
In an interview with MuchMusic, Drake shared his desire to get others involved. “We’re gonna pull in some classic people, like anybody who used to work with Aaliyah or that was essential in her career, we definitely hope to have them involved,” he said.
The first offering from the album, the Drake-assisted “Enough Said,” was released last week to mixed reviews. It incited outrage from Aaliyah fans, who felt Missy and Timbaland should have been involved.
Timbaland weighed in with his thoughts. “The proper way for him to do that would be for me, him, and Missy to be all on the record,” he previously told Power 105.1.