Drake Says New Aaliyah Album Has Her Family’s Blessing, Despite Reports To The Contrary

Days after Drake unveiled “Enough Said”, a new track that acts as a collaboration between he and Aaliyah, there are conflicting reports over the involvement of the late R&B-pop songstress’ family in the project. Regardless, a new album featuring unreleased material by Aaliyah is definitely in the works, according to Drake.

“People should be really excited. People thought it was my single; it’s not my single,” Drizzy told MuchMusic following Sunday’s OVO Fest in Toronto. “It’s all off of an Aaliyah project that me and [producer Noah] 40 [Shebib] are commanding and 40’s just doing some incredible…music right now.”

Drake continued:

“And the people around her, everybody from her family to her old management and label, were like, ‘If there’s anyone out that can do it right now, it’s [you] and 40.’ And that was an honor and we’re going to pull in some classic people, anybody who used to work with Aaliyah that was essential in her career we definitely hope to have them involved. So it’s great. You get a new Aaliyah album this year on top of everything.”

Indeed, UK paper the Guardian reports that Drake contacted Aaliyah’s “Try Again” and “More Than A Woman” collaborator Timbaland about working on the project,  and the producer now appears to be working on two tracks for the upcoming album.

But the paper notes that Aaliyah’s brother Rashad Haughton and, by default, her entire family, are not co-signing — a fact that contradicts Drake’s sentiments above. “There is no official album being released and supported by the Haughton family,” Haughton said via a statement, according to the Guardian.

Whatever the case may be, Drake seems upbeat about the album: “To get 13, 14 new Aaliyah songs, everybody should be excited. It’s not about me. It’s not about 40. It’s about her and her fans and us just getting the opportunity to give you something that we feel is great.”

Do you think Drake should be so heavily involved in reworking Aaliyah’s unfinished demos for an official release? Let us know your thoughts below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter.

[Via MTV News]