Source: CHRIS DELMAS / Getty
There is new Aaliyah music on the way, but her fans are pretty upset at who will be featured on the tracks and have sounded off about it.
The late singer/actress’ uncle, Barry Hankerson, who helped her found the label Blackground Records, announced in an interview a new posthumous Aaliyah album, Unstoppable. Fans of Aaliyah have been enjoying her music lately, thanks in large part to the release of her music catalog on streaming services during the spring and summer.
In an interview, Hankerson announced the project revealing significant details like who will be featured on the album and when fans can expect to hear it. “We’re thinking Ne-Yo, Snoop Dogg, Future and Drake, one of her biggest fans…those are the features that will be on the record, and that will be out in January,” Hankerson revealed.
Before dropping the news of this posthumous project, a new song, “Poison,” featuring The Weeknd, arrived, and Hankerson revealed the success of that song is what led them to speed up the release of this album. “One of the songs that’s out now is doing incredibly well…so because of that success, we’re thinking it will only get better,” he explained.
Hankerson also spoke with Billboard about Unstoppable dropping even more details about the album that he claims is “pure Hip-Hop and R&B.”
“The body of work is pure hip-hop and R&B,” he explained. “I think it’s going to be big with urban and R&B stations. Some of the people that Aaliyah liked are on the album. She loved Snoop Dogg, who’s done a great record in collaboration with Future. They’re going in now to refreshen their vocals. Ne-Yo gave us an excellent song; also Drake. Timbaland produced the track that Chris Brown did. It’s vintage R&B with strong vocals. I look for that one to also get a very special reaction from listeners. We’ll probably release one more single before the album comes out.”
The announcement of new music from the iconic singer would normally make fans extremely happy. Many are not pleased about some of the people they have chosen to contribute to the project. Many Twitter users are pointing out that artists named have a history of abuse of misogyny, making them poor choices to collaborate with Aaliyah, a victim of abuse at the hands of a now-convicted sexual predator R.Kelly.
One Twitter user wrote, “not seeing the pearly gates. they put abusers/misogynists on this album when she was largely affected by abusers/misogynists when she was alive. they could have gone to the many black girls that cite aaliyah as their inspiration for their artistry but we got dingy ass men instead.”
That Twitter user was not alone, there were more reactions, and you can peep them all in the gallery below.
Photo: CHRIS DELMAS / Getty
