Timbaland, Missy Elliott Not Part of Drake’s New Aaliyah Album
It turns out Drake‘s new album of posthumous Aaliyah songs won’t involve Timbaland and Missy Elliott after all, Billboard reports. Although Blackguard Records, Aaliyah’s label, claimed last week that the two producers most responsible for Aaliyah’s sound would “definitely be involved,” a rep for Elliott says that’s not true.
“Although Missy and Timbaland always strive to keep the memory of their close friend alive, we have not been contacted about the project nor are there any plans at this time to participate,” said Mona Scott-Young, Elliott’s manager. “We’ve seen the reports surfacing that they have been confirmed to participate but that is not the case. Both Missy and Timbaland are very sensitive to the loss still being felt by the family so we wanted to clear up any misinformation being circulated.”
Drake sparked a round of will-they, won’t-they speculation over the involvement of Timbaland and Elliott when he posted the new song “Enough Said,” featuring a previously unreleased Aaliyah vocal, on his blog earlier this month. Aaliyah’s family promptly announced that they were neither consulted about, nor supportive of, the project. Blackguard countered by confirming Drake’s role as executive co-producer for the album, with involvement from Elliott and Timbaland, who wrote and produced most of Aaliyah’s 1996 album One in a Million.
The Drake-led album would be the second posthumous release for Aaliyah, who died August 25th, 2001, in a plane crash.