Aaliyah’s posthumous release, “Poison” featuring The Weeknd is here and the people have spoken.
“May everyone involved in the release of “Poison” with Aaliyah and The Weeknd never know peace! I hope she haunts y’all asses in your sleep with her swoop bang!” one user wrote.
Another fan chimed in, “I don’t wanna hear no Aaliyah collaborations with people she ain’t even know while she was here. Keep it!”
One of the singer’s fan pages mentioned Blackground Records directly, “Why does Aaliyah sound like she left The Weeknd a voicemail and he decided to record it himself ??? Fix it now !”
Why does Aaliyah sound like she left The Weeknd a voicemail and he decided to record it himself ??? Fix it now ! @Blackground
— AALIYAH LEGION (@AaliyahLegion) December 17, 2021
The sound mixing was a huge issue for many fans. “Aaliyah’s vocals in the song literally sounds like someone snuck in and plugged up one of her old hard drives but didn’t have time to copy the files so they recorded them in their voice notes,” one user tweeted.
The Weeknd was presumably honored to be a part of this posthumous project for the Princess of R&B, as he previously sampled “Rock The Boat” on his hit single “What You Need.”
Billboard described the “Poison” as “deceptively sweet” and serves as the lead single for her upcoming 20th-anniversary album which will contain “new music” and be released via Blackground Records 2.0 in partnership with Empire.
“I’m so excited to share this new song by Aaliyah and the very talented The Weeknd,” Barry Hankerson, founder of Blackground Records, said. “I wanted her adoring fans to get a special gift before the holidays and felt it was the perfect time to release a never-before-heard offering.”
Hankerson, who is also the late singer’s uncle, told Billboard fans can expect a mix of Hip Hop/R&B on this upcoming album and his goal is to get Aaliyah her first Grammy.
“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. Some of the people that Aaliyah liked are on the album,” he said. “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.”
Aaliyah’s “Poison” comes after her catalog became available on streaming platforms for the first time ever. Listen to the new song below:
