Missy Elliot Reveals What Really Happened In The Studio With Aaliyah

By Ariel King

September 29, 2021

Photo: Getty Images

It's been more than 20 years since Aaliyah released the song "4 Page Letter," but fans are still theorizing why the late singer kept asking to "turn my music up" during the track's intro. Creating TikTok POVs where they pretend to be an annoyed Aaliyah asking for the music to be turned up louder, fans asked Missy Elliot to set the record straight.

Commenting on a skit that saw a fan impersonating Aaliyah and asking for the music to continue being turned up, and the producer arguing with "Aaliyah" while turning up the track, Missy Elliot joked "this skit is so d*** near what happened tho." Missy Elliot also provided the backstory behind the track, which was produced by herself and Timbaland.

"Fun fact, when I was in the booth singing this my engineer had the music to low so I was telling him to turn it up but Aaliyah thought I meant to do it so she sung it like I did on the demo but it was a mistake," Missy Elliot said. "But she loved it so we kept it like that."

Missy Elliot then revealed that she had told the engineer to actually raise the instrumentals on the track so that it would make sense for listeners. "And since Babygirl loved the mistake I told Jimmy the engineer to keep raising the music on the track everytime she said turn it up so it would make sense to the listeners so y'all wouldn't think we was crazy."

Aaliyah's music recently hit streaming services, after 20 years, with her complete catalog expected to arrive on October 8. You can stream Aaliyah's albums through iHeartRadio here.

Aaliyah & Missy ElliottMissy ElliottAaliyah
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