Will this be a musical match made in heaven? Chris Brown announced his plans to use never-before-heard vocals from late R&B singer Aaliyah on his new single "They Don't Know" at a BET Awards press conference on Tuesday, May 14, taking a cue from rival Drake, who did the same just last year, on track "Enough Said."
The "Fine China" singer, 24, told reporters that the song will be part of his sixth album X, due out on July 16, and will feature "all new stuff that's never been heard before."
Other guests on the record will include Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Timbaland, Pharrell and more.
The embattled crooner shot the music video for the Aaliyah tribute song in Compton, Calif. over the weekend, explaining to reporters that he had a very specific artistic concept he wanted to get across in the video.
"I shot it in the hood," he told reporters. "I went to 60th Street and Cedar Block. [I'm] bringing both worlds together and trying to uplift the poverty side of the community and show them where I'm from. I'm from Virginia, but everybody comes from a broken home or being broke — I remember when I was."
According to Complex magazine, the shoot involved about 20 extras dressed in baggy jeans and shorts in typical '90s West Coast wear, at times bopping to the beat on the sidewalk and at times appearing on a rooftop in South Central.
Last August, Billboard confirmed that a posthumous Aaliyah album was in the works, set for a release by the end of 2012. Drake, along with Aaliyah's mentors Timbaland and Missy Elliott, were to help spearhead the project.
The late "Are You That Somebody" singer's family took to Facebook shortly after rumors of the album began circulating, however, denying their support for the album.
"There is no official album being released and supported by the Haughton family," her brother Rashad Haughton wrote on Aaliyah's official Facebook page.
The "One in a Million" singer died tragically at age 22 on Aug. 25, 2001 after a plane transporting her and her team from the Bahamas back to the States crashed shortly after takeoff. The 90s R&B icon has been memorialized in numerous ways ever since, including as a back tattoo just below Drake's left shoulder blade.
