Drake and Aaliyah New Album Collaboration: Negative Reaction to Drake's Involvement Made Producer Quit
Drake and producer Noah "40" Shebib have been working on a posthumous Aaliyah album. 40 has recently announced, however, that the project has been terminated.
40 was approached by Aaliyah Haughton's cousin and uncle to work on the album.
"Aaliyah's label Blackground -- the Hankersons, her uncle and cousins, came to me and said, If she was around, she'd want you to do this project,'" 40 told Vibe. "... Drake said, 'Can I do it with you?' and I was like, 'Of course, we'll do it together.'"
In August 2012, Drake announced that he was working on an album with music from the late R&B singer. The rapper even released "Enough Said," a song that featured Aaliyah's vocals, but many people were not supportive of the concept.
"The world reacting to Drake's involvement so negatively, I just wanted nothing to do with it. That was a very sad experience for me," 40 explained. "I was naïve to the politics surrounding Aaliyah's legacy and a bit ignorant to Timbaland's relationship and everybody else involved and how they'd feel."
40 believed that Timbaland, who was very close to Aaliyah, took a position of "I'm not going to stop you. If you're not going to do it, that's your decision."
A few days after Drake announced the album, Aaliyah's brother stated that the Haughtons were not supporting the project.
"There is no official album being released and supported by the Haughton family," Rashah Haugton, Aaliyah's brother, said in 2012.
Despite this, 40 and Drake created "Enough Said," and 40 says he was already working on seven additional tracks. Someone very close to Aaliyah, however, made 40 step away from the album.
"... ultimately, I wasn't comfortable and didn't like the stigma," 40 said. "... [Aaliyah's] mother saying 'I don't want this out' was enough for me. I walked away very quickly."
Last month, Drake uploaded a video onto his Instagram page with a soulful Drake jam highlighted with the light vocals of Aaliyah playing in the background. This sparked speculation that the posthumous Aaliyah album would drop, but this is not so.
Blackground has yet to announce whether or not the project will be completed by another producer.
Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001. She was 22 years old.
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