On what would have been Aaliyah’s 45th birthday (Jan. 16), the legendary singer’s label Blackground Records 2.0 has shared an update regarding her posthumous album.
In a social media post, Blackground wished Aaliyah a happy birthday and confirmed that Unstoppable is still in the works. “It’s coming,” the company wrote in an Instagram caption, along with a link to a landing page at unstoppableaaliyah.com.
On the website, which has a motion graphic that reads 2024 – Aaliyah – Unstoppable, fans can sign up “to be the first to access exclusive information about Aaliyah’s upcoming project.”
Unstoppable was initially slated to arrive in January 2022, following the release of the lead single “Poison” featuring The Weeknd in December 2021. “Poison” spent 22 weeks on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart, peaking at No. 21.
Barry Hankerson, the label’s founder and uncle to Aaliyah, told Geno Star of 99.7 that the album “will be out in January.” In a December 2021 interview with Billboard, Hankerson noted that Unstoppable would feature Drake, Future, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo and more.
“The body of work is pure hip-hop and R&B. I think it’s going to be big with urban and R&B stations,” Hankerson told Billboard’s Gail Mitchell. “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.”
Hankerson also teased a Timbaland-produced track featuring Brown. “It’s vintage R&B with strong vocals. I look for that one to also get a very special reaction from listeners,” he said.
Despite the previous details, the album was not released in January 2022. Blackground Records did not provide an official update to fans — until now.
At this time, it’s unclear if the album will include “Poison,” which has over 17 million streams on Spotify, or the aforementioned collaborators. (Rated R&B reached out to Blackground Records for more information.)
Unstoppable will mark Aaliyah’s first non-compilation album since her self-titled third album, which was released in July 2001, a month prior to her tragic death at age 22.
In a 2020 interview with Tank, the singer and songwriter shared the story behind creating “” Can Be,” a deep cut from Aaliyah.
“Aaliyah called me and said, ‘I need that edge, Tank. I’m a woman and people need to understand that. So, I want to shake ’em up a little bit with some of the things I say and kind of some of the things that I’m doing in my music,'” Tank told Rated R&B.
He continued, “I wrote from the perspective of people being surprised to hear that Aaliyah is the other woman. Like what? Aaliyah is supposed to be your main woman. Not only is she the other woman, but she’s saying, ‘It’s okay that I’m the other woman. I’m cool with that.”
See Blackground Records’ teaser announcement below.
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