Aaliyah and The Weeknd will officially join forces this week on a new single “Poison,” which Blackground Records 2.0 and Empire announced on Wednesday (Dec. 15).
“Poison” will be released Friday ahead of the late R&B singer’s posthumous album, which will be released at a later date.
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“Poison” by Aaliyah and The Weeknd is coming out THIS FRIDAY 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/SqzCLvYjAc
— Blackground Records 2.0 (@Blackground) December 15, 2021
AALIYAH
THE WEEKND
🥀”POISON”🥀FRIDAY 12/17 pic.twitter.com/sualWAZNbL
— EMPIRE (@EMPIRE) December 15, 2021
The Weeknd sampled Aaliyah’s 2001 Billboard Hot 100 top 20 hit “Rock the Boat” on his own “What You Need” from his 2012 compilation album Trilogy. The original Baby Girl sample was finally heard in the studio recording when The Weeknd finally released his debut 2011 House of Balloons mixtape on streaming services in March for its 10th anniversary.
And that’s not the only project between these two superstars that recently made its way on digital service providers (DSPs). Barry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s uncle and Blackground Records founder, explained in depth to Billboard this summer about how he and EMPIRE partnered together to put Aaliyah’s entire catalog on streaming for the first time ever. Much of Aaliyah’s music has been left off DSPs for more than a decade following her death in a plane accident on Aug. 25, 2001, when she was only 22 years old.
In the Billboard interview, Hankerson hinted that The Weeknd would not be alone when it comes to A-list artists added to the upcoming album of new Aaliyah music, suggesting that Drake, Future, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown and Snoop Dogg are also featured. “It has been really nice,” he said about working on the new recordings. “The only part that has been a little distasteful has been so many people being angry with me because the music didn’t come out when they wanted it. But I learned to live with that. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
Tagged: entertainment blog, music, music blog, Poison, Posthumous, R&B/Hip-Hop