Blackground Records 2.0 is back with a new Aaliyah song. On Friday (May 2), the AI-assisted track “Gone” featuring Tank was released exclusively on the company’s streaming platform BLKStream.

A teaser shared on social media revealed the “When We” crooner started off the single by saying, “This song is an opportunity for me to say thank you to someone truly special. Thank you for the love. Thank you for the friendship. Thank you for who I am today. And thank you for this very moment because now I get to say I have a new song with Aaliyah.”

A voice hauntingly reminiscent of the late songstress’ sings, “Can you sit down, take some time/ And listen to me, I feel that you owe it to me/ But before I begin, let me tell you that I love you, event still/ With all of me, so let me explain why it’s over for you and me.”

Someone happily commented on Tank’s Instagram post promoting the musical offering with, “Yes, keep it up, Tank. [You] might as well get another vault album with all your unreleased stuff, what didn't make it on the album. Keep R&B alive, man.” Stunned by the announcement, one fan asked, “Did you just casually drop a new, never-before-heard Aaliyah record?” A third follower said they were “almost in tears." On Twitter, a listener shared, “The vocals are not it. They're overprocessed. They lack depth. Some parts don't sound like Aaliyah at all. I was hoping you'd fix it after the previous leak.” Snippets of “Gone” circulated online a year prior in spring 2024.

Aaliyah’s legacy has lived on through in memoriam releases

The Queen of the D**ned actress tragically passed away in the Bahamas in August 2001. She and her team had been on location for what would be her final music video to her single “Rock The Boat.” She was 22. I Care 4 U, a compilation of released and unreleased tracks, rolled out in 2022. A second posthumous collection, Ultimate Aaliyah, came out in 2005 and was comprised of her greatest hits and a documentary about the five-time Grammy nominee. Unstoppable, an album teased for release in 2022, remains shelved after plans to unleash it in 2024 came to a halt. It remains unclear exactly when fans can expect to hear the project.