New Chris Brown Track Will Feature Aaliyah
Chris Brown has said his upcoming album combines the “classic essence of R&B and soul with the new age of music now,” and the singer has dipped into the past for a collaborative track featuring Aaliyah. “They Don’t Know” contains previously unheard vocals from the late singer, and Brown shot a video for the song in Los Angeles last weekend.
“I shot it in the hood. I went to 60th Street and Cedar Block,” Brown said at the BET Awards 2013 press conference yesterday, according to Rap-Up. “[I’m] bringing both worlds together and trying to uplift the poverty side of the community and show them where I’m from. I’m from Virginia, but everybody comes from a broken home or being broke – I remember when I was.”
Chris Brown Previews New Album ‘X’: ‘The Negativity Is in the Past’
“They Don’t Know” will be on Brown’s upcoming album, X, due out July 16th. It’ll feature guests like Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar, as well as production from Timbaland and Pharrell, among others. “Making X, I found out who I am,” Brown told Rolling Stone in March. “This album has a lot of substance, from the subject matter and the situations to how it deals with love. It’s really derived from personal experiences. Then again, I always like mixing reality with art.”
Brown isn’t the only artist reconnecting with Aaliyah – Drake, who infamously brawled with Brown at a New York nightclub last summer, said last August that he’s co-producing a posthumous Aaliyah album and posted a track, “Enough Said.” Aaliyah died in a 2001 plane crash in the Bahamas.